Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fe‘ūlün / fe‘ūlün / fe‘ūlün / fe‘ūl

Efendim neler geçdi ġamzeñ baña
Geçenden geçilsün meżā mā-meżā
Ḥikāyāt-ı seyl-i sirişkim su’āl
İderseñ diyem gel cerā mā-cerā
Zi-dīdem terā mī-rübūdem künūn
Elā ey perī-rū kocāyī kocā
Begim sırr-ı cān adlu şerḥ-i Füṣūṣ
Görem dirseñ ol la‘l-i mūy intihā
O fesden çıḳan ṭurreler Vāżıḥā
Belādır belādır belādır belā

In English

1. My lord, what your glance has done to me; let bygones be bygones, what is past is past.

2. If you ask about the stories of the flood of my tears, let me say: "Come, I will tell you all that has happened."

3. Just now I was losing you from my sight; ho, fairy-faced one, where are you, where? (A Persian couplet; the reading and meaning of the first line are uncertain, and the rendering is ours.)

4. My lord, if you wish to see the commentary on the Fuṣūṣ called "the secret of the soul", it is that ruby lip which thins to a hair at its end. (The meaning of the couplet is not fully clear; the rendering is tentative.)

5. O Vâzıh, the locks that slip out from under that fez are calamity, calamity, calamity, calamity.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This five-couplet ghazal is written in the mütekarib pattern "fe‘ūlün fe‘ūlün fe‘ūlün fe‘ūl". Babaarslan notes that this pattern is known as the Shahnameh metre and that it is used in the Dîvânçe only in this ghazal. It is a quick-moving pattern with short lines. There is no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is the "ā" of "baña, meżā, cerā, kocā, intihā, belā". The third couplet is entirely in Persian, and the second lines of the first two couplets each contain a set Arabic phrase. The edition does not give a separate folio for this ghazal. To whom it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first two couplets place in the rhyme the Arabic phrases "meżā mā meżā" (what is past is past) and "cerā mā cerā" (what happened, happened). The Turkish word "macera" (adventure) comes from the second of these. Since the verb "cerā" also means "it flowed", a congruence of images (tenasüp) arises between the flood of tears and "mā-cerā": the poet will tell the story of his flowing tears by recounting "what has flowed away". The Persian address in the third couplet ("fairy-faced one, where are you, where") lends the ghazal the air of a song.

The fourth couplet is dense and obscure. "Füṣūṣ" most probably points to Ibn al-ʿArabī's Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam and its commentaries. Since the Arabic "fass" means a ring stone, there is also a congruence between "Füṣūṣ" and "la'l" (ruby); the beloved's lip is imagined as a commentary that explains the secret of the soul. Because the phrase "mūy intihā" cannot be understood with certainty, the rendering is tentative. The last couplet ends with the line "Belādır belādır belādır belā", which Özçakmak also cites as an example of word repetition. The lock spilling from under the fez is one of the details from the daily life of the period that Babaarslan sees in Vâzıh's ghazals.

Bibliography

Academic studies

  • Giyasi Babaarslan, "Amasyalı Vâzıh ve Dîvânçesi", Akademik Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi, 5(4), 2021, pp. 1922-1984 (text of the poem: pp. 1934-1935; Mustafa Vâzıh, Dîvânçe, Ankara University, Department of Manuscripts, Mustafa Con A 495/III). 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. 271.

Online sources