Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün / fā‘ilātün / fā‘ilātün / fā‘ilün

Gün yüzünde ol mehiñ ġāyet firāvāndır beñi
Rūmı baṣmış gūyiyā ḫayl-i Ḥicāzāndır beñi
Yüzine baḳanıñ alur ‘aḳlını ṣankim hemān
Ḥācīyı ġārāt eyler ceyş-i ‘urbāndır beñi
Ḳaş arasında devām-ı devlet-i ḥüsni içün
Yüzini miḥrāba ṭutmış bir du‘ā-ḫᵛāndır beñi
Rişte-i perçemle diller māhīsin ṣayd itmege
Ġamzesidir igne ḫolṭa ḫāl-i fettāndır beñi
Vāżıḥā aldar ḳara ḥablar ile dil-ḫasteyi
Ṣan ṭabīblikde ‘Arab Ḥācī Süleymāndır beñi

In English

1. On the sun-bright face of that moon-faced one the beauty spots are many; it is as if the horsemen of the Hijaz had raided the land of Rum.

2. It takes away the reason of whoever looks at that face at once; the beauty spot is like an army of Bedouins plundering the pilgrim.

3. Set between the eyebrows, the beauty spot is one who turns his face to the prayer niche (mihrab) and prays for the lasting rule of that beauty.

4. To catch the fish of hearts with the line of the forelock, the glance (gamze) is the hook and the seductive beauty spot is the bait.

5. O Vâzıh, the beauty spot deceives the lovesick with black pills; in the art of healing it is as if it were Arab Hacı Süleyman.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal has five couplets and is written in the remel pattern "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "-dır beñi"; the rhyme rests on the "-ān" of "firāvān, Ḥicāzān, ‘urbān, du‘ā-ḫᵛān, fettān, Süleymān". Every couplet describes the beauty spots on the beloved's face, so the poem is a ghazal built on a single subject, a "beauty-spot ghazal". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In divan poetry the white face of the beloved is often compared to the land of Rum, and the black beauty spot to a foreign soldier who has entered that land. Vâzıh widens this familiar image with words taken from the Arab world: "Ḥicāzān, ‘urbān, Ḥācī, miḥrāb, du‘ā, ‘Arab" (Hijazis, Bedouins, pilgrim, prayer niche, prayer, Arab) form a congruence of images (tenasüp) throughout the ghazal. In the first couplet the spots are likened to the horsemen of the Hijaz raiding Rum. In the second the same spots are a Bedouin army plundering the pilgrim; the couplet recalls the Bedouin raids on caravans along the pilgrimage road and ties the "plundering" of the onlooker's reason to that scene. In the third couplet the arch of the eyebrows resembles a prayer niche, and the spot between them one who has turned towards it in prayer.

The fourth couplet moves to the image of fishing: the forelock is the line, the glance the hook and the beauty spot the bait. The word "ḥab" in the last couplet means pill; the small, dark spot resembles a pill. The poet says that the spot deceives lovesick hearts with these pills and compares it to a physician called "Arab Hacı Süleyman". We have not been able to identify this person; naming him in this way may point to a physician or folk healer known in the poet's circle. Babaarslan notes that Vâzıh carried the daily life of his time into his poetry, and this couplet can be counted as an example of that tendency. Some sources write that in his youth Vâzıh went on the pilgrimage with his father. A link could be drawn between that journey and the images of the Hijaz and the Bedouins in this ghazal, but no record shows it. For the poet's life see Kara Müftîzâde Mustafa Vâzıh.

Bibliography

Academic studies

  • Giyasi Babaarslan, "Amasyalı Vâzıh ve Dîvânçesi", Akademik Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi, 5(4), 2021, pp. 1922-1984 (text of the poem: p. 1957; Mustafa Vâzıh, Dîvânçe, Ankara University, Department of Manuscripts, Mustafa Con A 495/III, fol. 67a). https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/akaded/article/993264
  • Giyasi Babaarslan, "Amasyalı Vâzıh ve Dîvânçesi", Akademik Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi, 5(4), 2021, pp. 1924-1930 (life and description of the Dîvânçe). https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/akaded/article/993264
  • Fatma Özçakmak, "Mustafa Vâzıh Efendi ve Dîvânçe'si", Kesit Akademi Dergisi, 7(26), 2021, pp. 255-278, p. 259.

Online sources