Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü / mefā‘īlü / mefā‘īlün / fa‘

Ḳaşıñ elemi ile ḳadim nūn oldı
Günden güne derd ü elem efzūn oldı
Cān perçem-i Leylāsına Mecnūn oldı
Dil dīde-i fettānına meftūn oldı
Ṭāḥūne-i ‘aşḳında yoġ itdim kendim
Şimdi dir imiş benden için o n’oldı
‘Uşşāḳı kemānçe gibi zār eylerler
Dil-berler arasında bu ḳānūn oldı
Billāh ḳızılını çıḳardıñ artıḳ
Bu Vāżıḥıñ ey şūḫ cigeri ḫūn oldı

In English

1. Through grief for your eyebrow my stature has become bent like the letter nun; day by day pain and sorrow have increased.

2. My soul has become a Majnun for her Leyla-like forelock; my heart has become enchanted by her bewitching eye.

3. In the mill of her love I have ground myself away; now she is saying of me, so they say, "what became of him".

4. Beauties make the lovers wail like a kemançe; among heart-stealers this has become the rule (kanun).

5. By God, you have brought out the red at last; O coquette, the liver of this Vâzıh has turned to blood.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

In its metre this poem is among the most striking ghazals of the Dîvânçe. According to Babaarslan, ghazals 4 and 51 of the Dîvânçe are written in the quatrain (rubai) metre, the ahreb pattern "mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlün fa‘". The rubai metre is normally used in four-line rubais; Babaarslan interprets the writing of ghazals in this metre as the reflection in Vâzıh's poetry of a search by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century poets for a way out of a tradition that kept repeating itself, or of a wish to innovate. The redif (refrain word) is "oldı" (became); the rhyme is the "-ūn" of "nūn, efzūn, Mecnūn, meftūn, ḳānūn, ḫūn". Both lines of the second couplet end with rhyme and refrain. In the third couplet the words "o n’oldı" stand in rhyme position; here the "n" sound only approaches the rhyme. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first couplet of the ghazal contains a comparison with a letter: through grief for the eyebrow, the lover's stature has bent double and turned into the letter "nun" (ن). Since the eyebrow itself is often compared to the nun, the lover has come to carry the shape of the beloved's eyebrow in his own body. The second couplet alludes to the story of Leyla and Majnun; the soul has become a Majnun for the beloved's forelock, the heart enchanted by her bewitching eye. The words "Mecnūn" (mad with love) and "meftūn" (enchanted) are very close in sound. In the third couplet love is compared to a mill; the lover has ground himself away in this mill, and the beloved asks about him with indifference: "what became of him". This question is a relaxed expression taken from spoken language, and it conveys the beloved's indifference with a bitter joke.

The fourth couplet is a double entendre (tevriye) built on musical terms. The "kemānçe" is a bowed instrument, and lovers are made to wail like it; "ḳānūn" is both the name of an instrument and a word meaning "custom, rule". The line thus says that making lovers wail has become a rule among heart-stealers while bringing two instruments side by side. We could not determine with certainty the meaning of the expression "kızılını çıkarmak" (to bring out the red) in the last couplet; thought of together with the liver turning to blood, a sense such as "to push to the limit" comes to mind. This is our own reading. The link between the colour red and blood closes the couplet with the theme of pain and sorrow that has run through the ghazal from the start.

Bibliography

Online sources