Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü / fā‘ilātü / mefā‘īlü / fā‘ilün

Olmaya mı bu dīde-i giryān ḳızıl ḳızıl
Andan dem-ā-dem aḳmadadır ḳan ḳızıl ḳızıl
Kimlerle bāde içdiñ a kāfir ‘aceb bu şeb
Olmuş bugün o dīde-i mestān ḳızıl ḳızıl
Bezm-i mey içre dil-beri seyr eyle dāl ḳaş
Ruḫ al al nergis-i fettān ḳızıl ḳızıl
Bir ḫancer urdı Vāżıḥa o şūḫ-ı ser-şiken
Ser-tā-ser oldı ḳan heme dāmān ḳızıl ḳızıl

In English

1. Should this weeping eye not be red, red; blood flows from it red, red, moment after moment.

2. You infidel, with whom did you drink wine last night, I wonder; today that drunken eye of yours has turned red, red.

3. In the wine gathering, watch the heart-stealer: his eyebrow curved like the letter dāl, his cheek crimson, his seductive narcissus eye red, red.

4. That head-breaking coquette struck Vâzıh with a dagger; from end to end his skirt became red, red with blood.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is the eighth piece in the Mukatta‘ât section of the Dîvânçe, and Babaarslan counts it as an incomplete (nâ-tamâm) ghazal. It has four couplets and is written in the muzari pattern "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "ḳızıl ḳızıl" (red, red), and the rhyme is the "-ān" of "giryān, ḳan, mestān, fettān, dāmān". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The whole effect of the poem comes from the redif "ḳızıl ḳızıl". This doubled word is taken from spoken Turkish, and by ending every line with the same colour it gives the piece the air of a song. Özçakmak notes that Vâzıh used the repetition of words to create rhythm in poetry and gives the opening couplet of this piece as an example. In each couplet the red colour is tied to something else: in the first to the blood flowing from the weeping eye, in the second to the drunken eye of the beloved who has been drinking all night, in the third to the cheek and eye of the beauty in the gathering, and in the last to the blood-soaked skirt of the lover wounded by a dagger.

In the second couplet the beloved is addressed as "infidel" and asked with whom he has been drinking; jealousy is voiced with light mockery. In the third couplet the eyebrow, because of its curve, is compared to the Arabic letter "dāl" (د), and the eye to the narcissus. The doubled "al al" (crimson) joins the redif "ḳızıl ḳızıl" in the same field of colour. In the last couplet the epithet "ser-şiken" (head-breaking) describes the beloved's cruelty and creates a closeness of sound with "ser-tā-ser" (from end to end).

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. 1963-1964; Mustafa Vâzıh, Dîvânçe, Ankara University, Department of Manuscripts, Mustafa Con A 495/III, fol. 69a). 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. 272.

Online sources