Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün / mefā‘īlün / mefā‘īlün / mefā‘īlün

Müselmānlar nedir ol kāfiriñ cevr-i firāvānı
Şikāyet eylerem ‘Īsāya yoḳ mı artıḳ īmānı
Gice tā ṣubḥa dek göz yummayup bezmiñde ḳandīller
Mūm itdiñ kendiñe billāh sen şem‘-i fürūzānı
Eriyüp ḳubbe-i gerdūnuñ aḳar cümle ḳurşūnı
Benim bu sūz-ı āhımla semānıñ ṣanma bārānı
Olupdur gerden-i sīmīn sütūn-ı ḫāne-i ḫūbı
Esās-ı sengdir gūyā dil-i saḫtīn-i cānānī
Kelām-ı vaṣf-ı ebrūsın tamām it bunda ey Vāżıḥ
Keserler ḫāmeyi maḳṭa‘da budur resm-i ‘irfānī

In English

1. Muslims, what is this endless cruelty of that infidel; I shall complain of him to Jesus, has he no faith left at all?

2. In your gathering the lamps do not close their eyes all night until morning; by God, you have made even the shining candle into wax for yourself (that is, you have made it submit).

3. Do not take it for the rain of the sky; all the lead of the dome of heaven melts and flows from the burning of my sigh.

4. The silvery neck has become the pillar of the beauty's house; the hard heart of the beloved is, as it were, its stone foundation.

5. O Vâzıh, finish here the words describing the eyebrow; they cut the pen at the maqta, and this is the custom of the learned.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal has five couplets and is written in the hezec pattern "mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün". There is no redif (refrain word); the rhyme rests on the "-ānı" of "firāvānı, īmānı, fürūzānı, bārānı, cānānī, ‘irfānī". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem opens with a complaint about the cruelty of a beauty called an "infidel". In divan poetry the beloved is often called an infidel for his lack of mercy; Vâzıh also uses the word in its literal sense and says he will take his complaint to Jesus. This hints that the beauty is a young Christian, and the question "has he no faith left" takes on two meanings. The second couplet is a play on the word "mum" (candle, wax): the lamps of the gathering do not sleep until morning, while the beloved has made even the shining candle into "wax". In Turkish "to make someone like wax" means to make him submit; in the couplet the candle is both the object that gives light and part of this idiom.

The third couplet is an example of hyperbole (mübalağa). Large domes are covered with lead; the poet imagines the dome of heaven in the same way and explains the falling rain as the flowing of lead melted by the fire of his own sigh. Because a poetic cause replaces the real one, the couplet also contains hüsn-i ta‘lil (poetic aetiology). In the fourth couplet the silver neck is compared to a pillar and the beloved's hard heart to the stone foundation of a house; the words "sütūn, ḫāne, esās, seng" (pillar, house, foundation, stone) form a congruence of images (tenasüp) drawn from building.

The word "maḳṭa‘" in the last couplet is a double entendre (tevriye). The final couplet of a ghazal, which carries the pen name, is called the maqta; the same word is also the name of the small plate on which calligraphers cut the nib of the reed pen. When the poet says he must end his description of the eyebrow, which is thin like a pen stroke, he uses both meanings together: the pen is cut on the maqta, and the speech is cut in the maqta couplet.

Bibliography

Online sources