Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü / mefā‘īlü / mefā‘īlü / fe‘ūlün

Billāh beni mest itdi o mestāne nigāhıñ
Vallāh beni öldürdi o bī-gāne nigāhıñ
Vāy vāy o ne ḥāletdir eyā ḳaşı kemānım
Gözüñ ucı ile o ẓarīfāne nigāhıñ
‘Āşıḳları dīvāne idüp ṭaġa düşürdi
Ey dīdesi āhū o ġazālāne nigāhıñ
Āh āh be ne işler geçer ey ġamzesi cellād
Bu Vāżıḥ-ı āḥvāl-i perīşāna nigāhıñ

In English

1. By God, that drunken glance of yours has made me drunk; by God, that indifferent glance of yours has killed me.

2. Alas, alas, O you whose eyebrow is a bow, what a state that is: that graceful glance of yours from the corner of your eye.

3. O gazelle-eyed one, that gazelle-like glance of yours has driven the lovers mad and sent them off to the mountains.

4. Ah, ah, O you whose wink is an executioner, what passes in your glance at this Vâzıh whose state is ruined.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is the third piece in the Mukatta‘ât section of the Dîvânçe, and Babaarslan describes it as an incomplete (nâ-tamâm) ghazal. It has four couplets and is written in the hezec pattern "mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün". The redif (refrain word) is "nigāhıñ" (your glance), and the rhyme is the "-āne" of "mestāne, bī-gāne, ẓarīfāne, ġazālāne, perīşāna". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Every couplet of the poem describes the beloved's glance, and each couplet turns back to the beloved through the redif "your glance". What stands out is the frequency of exclamations and oaths close to everyday speech: "Billāh, Vallāh, Vāy vāy, Āh āh" open the couplets with a repetition of sound. Özçakmak notes that Vâzıh used the repetition of words to create rhythm and heighten the effect of expression; this piece is a clear example of that habit. In the first couplet the "mestāne" (drunken) and the "bī-gāne" (indifferent, stranger's) glance are set against each other; one makes the lover drunk, the other kills him.

In the second couplet the eyebrow is compared to a bow, and the glance cast from the corner of the eye is imagined as an arrow shot from it. The third couplet names the gazelle's eye and the gazelle's glance. The lovers going mad and taking to the mountains recall Majnun, who wandered the desert and the mountains with the gazelles; this link between the gazelle and Majnun is much used in divan poetry. In the last couplet the poet calls himself "āḥvāl-i perīşān" (one whose state is ruined). Since the pen name "Vāżıḥ" means "clear, evident", the phrase can also be read as "one whose ruined state is plain to see"; this reading is our own.

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. 1962; Mustafa Vâzıh, Dîvânçe, Ankara University, Department of Manuscripts, Mustafa Con A 495/III, fol. 68b). 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