Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Mübtelāyım bir ḳayıḳçı-zāde şūḫa ẓāhirī
Yelkeni virdim ṣuya ben işte kārıñ āḫiri
Ḳaṭre-i eşkimden olur ise mercān tügmesi
Şeh-levendim yaḳışur saña libās-ı pirpiri
Zāhidi gördüm ki şeyḫ ardına düşmüş bī-‘aṣā
Ẓopasız ayuyı ṭutar ḫaste didiydi biri
Çoḳ aḳıtdı sümügin ancaḳ deñiz pāklar anı
Virelim aḳındı burnundan raḳīb-i kāfiri
Zevraḳ-ı ḳalbi yem-i bī-ḳa‘r-ı ‘aşḳa ṣaldım
Vāżıḥā Allāh selāmetler vire dönmem geri

In English

1. I am openly smitten with a boatman's son, a coquette; I have given my sail to the water, and that is the end of the matter.

2. If coral buttons are made from the drops of my tears, my brave lord, a garment of "pirpiri" will suit you.

3. I saw the ascetic running after the sheikh without a staff; a sick man had said, "he catches the bear without a stick".

4. The rival let much snot run, but the sea cleans it; let us give that infidel rival a running nose.

5. I launched the boat of my heart onto the bottomless sea of love; O Vâzıh, may God grant safety, I will not turn back.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal has five couplets in the remel pattern "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". It has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme rests on the "-ri" of "ẓāhirī, āḫiri, pirpiri, biri, kāfiri, geri". The pen name appears in the last couplet. In the edition the folio number of this ghazal is not given in a footnote; the neighbouring ghazals are on folio 67a.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem describes love for a boatman's son through images of the sea and of boats. The words "ḳayıḳçı-zāde (boatman's son), yelken (sail), ṣu (water), deñiz (sea), zevraḳ (boat), yem-i bī-ḳa‘r (bottomless sea)" form a congruence of images (tenasüp) from beginning to end. "Giving the sail to the water" in the first couplet is an expression of accepting helplessness, taken into the poem from spoken language. The same image is completed in the last couplet: the poet has launched the boat of his heart onto the bottomless sea of love and will not return. In this way the opening and closing couplets frame the poem.

The three middle couplets clearly show two features that Babaarslan notes in Vâzıh. One is his use of popular speech and of set phrases like proverbs: "he catches the bear without a stick" in the third couplet is given as a saying quoted from a sick man. The other is a mocking tone which, as with many poets of the age, at times sinks into vulgarity: the fourth couplet makes a coarse joke about the rival's running nose. Babaarslan links this tendency with the movement of localisation (mahallîleşme) that grew stronger from the eighteenth century onwards. We were unable to explain what cloth or garment the word "pirpiri" in the second couplet refers to, and have left it as the edition reads it. Not every detail of the third and fourth couplets is clear either; our rendering keeps to the plain meaning of the words.

Bibliography

Online sources