Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Heading: TAḪMĪS-İ VĀŻIḤ Lİ-ĠAZEL-İ BĀḲĪ

Metre: fe‘ilātün / fe‘ilātün / fe‘ilātün / fe‘ilün

Bāġ-ı ruḫṣārda ḫandān gül-i ḫod-rū da güzel
Zülf-i sünbül de laṭīf kākül-i şeb-bū da güzel
Cān āġūşına layıḳ o miyān-mū da güzel
Ālet-i ḥüsni mükemmel ḳad-i dil-cū da güzel
O siyeh gözler ile Ḥaḳ bu ki ebrū da güzel
Ġālibā_ol muġ-beçe-i mest varup sūy-ı ḫuma
Pür-neşāṭ olup idüp ref‘-i ḥicāb u ḥuruma
Gülerek geldi hemān külbe-i pür-ferruḫuma
Ḫaṭ-ı nev-ḫīzim ile didi ne dirsin ruḫuma
Didim ol rū da güzel ḫaṭṭ-ı semen-bū da güzel
Ḫalḳ medḥ eyler idi gerçi o şīrīn-deheni
Dūzaḫ-ı ‘aşḳına yaḳmış idi çoḳ cān u teni
Ḥaḳ bu ki itdi idi ‘āşıḳ-ı şūrīde beni
Ṣaḥn-ı ḥammāmda dün gördüm o nāzük-bedeni
Sīnede mūdan es̱er yoḳ daḫi pehlū da güzel
Dün gece bezmde sāḳīmiz idi o dil-ber
Āstīn ber-dūş u ser-pençe dil ü cān-āver
Pīrehen çāk-i telef nā-mübeyyendir ber
Eyledüm diḳḳat ile mūy-miyānına naẓar
Cümleten bī-bedel ol sā‘id ü bāzū da güzel
Meded it Vāżıḥa yā Ḥażret-i Ḥayyu’l-bāḳī
Yine żabṭ idemedim ṭab‘-ı dil-i müştāḳı
Yoḫsa taḫmīse ne mümkin ki_ola istiḥḳāḳı
Söylese nuṭḳ-ı dürer-bārına söz yoḳ Bāḳī
Dürc-i la‘lindeki ol lü’lü’-i lālā da güzel

In English

1. In the garden of the cheek the laughing, self-grown rose is beautiful, the hyacinth of the lock is delicate, and the night-scented curl is beautiful too; that hair-thin waist worthy of the soul's embrace is beautiful too. The instruments of beauty are complete and perfect, and the stature the heart desires is beautiful too. Truly, with those black eyes, the eyebrow is beautiful too.

2. Probably that drunken tavern boy went to the wine jars, filled with high spirits and lifted veil and prohibition; laughing, he came straight to my joyful hut. With my newly sprouting down, what do you say of my cheek, he asked. The face is beautiful, I said, and the jasmine-scented down is beautiful too.

3. People did praise that sweet-mouthed one; he had burned many souls and bodies in the hell of his love. Truly, he had made me too a frenzied lover. Yesterday I saw that delicate-bodied one in the courtyard of the bath: there is no trace of hair on his chest, and his side is beautiful too.

4. Last night at the gathering our cupbearer was that beauty, sleeves rolled to the shoulder, hand bent at the wrist, stealer of heart and soul. (We give this line, whose metre is faulty, as the edition reads it: his shirt was torn, his breast unseen.) I looked carefully at his hair-thin waist: all without equal, the forearm is beautiful and the upper arm too.

5. O God, Ever-Living and Eternal, help Vâzıh; once again I could not restrain the nature of my longing heart. Otherwise what right had I to make a tahmis of this ghazal. When Bâkî speaks there is no word against his pearl-raining speech: those shining pearls in the jewel case of his ruby mouth are beautiful too.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Its heading in the manuscript is "Taḫmīs-i Vāżıḥ li-Ġazel-i Bāḳī": Vâzıh's tahmis of a ghazal by Bâkî. A tahmis builds five-line stanzas by placing three lines in the same metre and rhyme before each couplet of another poet's ghazal. The first three lines of each stanza are therefore Vâzıh's and the last two are Bâkî's. The poem has five stanzas in the remel pattern "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) of Bâkî's ghazal is "da güzel" (is beautiful too). All five lines of the first stanza end with this redif, because in a tahmis the rhyme of the opening couplet is carried into every line of the first stanza; in the later stanzas Vâzıh's lines rhyme among themselves on a different sound (-uma, -eni, -er, -āḳı).

Babaarslan points to two details. The metre of the third line of the fourth stanza is faulty. The phrase "lü’lü’-i lālā" in the last line breaks the rhyme; in the edition of Bâkî's Dîvân the passage reads "dāne-i lü’lū". Vâzıh, in other words, took Bâkî's ghazal either from a different copy or from memory; which of the two is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Bâkî's ghazal lists the beloved's beauty part by part: rose cheek, hyacinth lock, curl, slender waist, stature, black eyes and eyebrow. The lines Vâzıh adds turn this list into scenes. In the second stanza a drunken tavern boy (muġ-beçe) rises from the wine jars, comes to the poet's hut and asks about his cheek with its newly sprouting down. In the third the beloved is seen in the courtyard of a bath, in the fourth he serves as cupbearer at a gathering. This way of bringing everyday places and scenes into the poem fits the playful manner in the style of Nedîm that Babaarslan finds in Vâzıh, and the localising trend that mirrors the social life of the period. In the last stanza Vâzıh shows modesty, saying that Bâkî's speech rains pearls and that he has no right to speak against it. The phrase "Ḥayyu'l-bāḳī" (God, the Ever-Living and Eternal) in the first line of the stanza shares its word with the name of the poet Bâkî in the fourth line; this play on sound is our observation.

Bibliography

Online sources