Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün

Seyl-i eşkümden binâ-yi bünyeye irdi ḫalel
Bir kez ey mi‘mâr-i rengîn-dil naẓar ḳıl el-‘acel
Bend-i ġamdan bülbül-i dil-ḫasteñi âzâd ḳıl
Ey melâḥât gülşeninüñ serv-i gül-ruḫsârı gel
Vaḳtidür merdümligüñ ey gözlerüm nûrı yitiş
Göz ḳarasın merdüm-i dîdem gibi idinme hal
Bunca müddetler ki yatdum ḫaste künc-i hecrde
Gelmege kimse ‘ıyâdet itmedi illâ ecel
Âfitâbum dîde burcından ṭulû‘ it Sa‘dî’ye
Ẓulmet-i hecre nehâr-i vuṣlatı eyle bedel

In English

1. The flood of my tears has cracked the building of my body; O architect with an ornamented heart, look just once, and quickly. (The lover's body is likened to a flooded building, and the beloved to the architect who could repair it.)

2. Set free your heartsick nightingale from the bonds of grief; O rose-cheeked cypress of the garden of beauty, come.

3. O light of my eyes, it is time to show humanity; come to my aid; and do not take the black of the eye as a mole, like the pupil of my eye. ("Merdümlük" means humanity, "merdüm-i dîde" the pupil of the eye; there is a double entendre between the two. The meaning of the second line is not wholly clear: if the word "hal" in the edition is read as "ḫâl", a mole, the sense given above results; other readings are also possible.)

4. For so long I lay sick in the corner of separation; no one came to visit me but death.

5. O my sun, rise upon Sa'dî from the constellation of the eye; exchange the darkness of separation for the daylight of union.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

To whom this ghazal belongs is not certain. The heading in the anthology is simply "Sa‘dî Çelebi Efendi". Kamil Ali Gıynaş, who prepared the edition, records it in his index of poets under "Tâcî-zâde Sa'dî Çelebi", together with poem no. 6393 of the same anthology. In the heading of no. 6393, however, the poet is expressly identified as "Birâder-i Ca‘fer Çelebi", Câfer Çelebi's brother; this ghazal has no such marker. The biographical anthologies (tezkire) of the period, moreover, mostly use the name "Sa‘dî Çelebi Efendi" for another poet, the Kastamonu-born mufti Sa'dî Çelebi (Sa'dullah Efendi, d. 945/1539): Latîfî calls him "Sa‘dî Çelebi Efendi Müftî", Âşık Çelebi "Sa‘dî Çelebi el-Müftî". Both poets used the pen name (mahlas) Sa'dî. The presence of Kemalpaşazâde and of a sultan in the group of response poems is compatible with the lifetime of either poet. The ghazal is therefore given here among the poems of Tâcîzâde Sa'dî Çelebi, following the edition's index, while the possibility that it belongs to the mufti Sa'dî Çelebi is left open.

The ghazal has five couplets and appears in the Pervâne Bey Mecmuası as no. 4743, under the heading "Nazîre-i Sa‘dî Çelebi Efendi". The metre is the remel pattern of aruz (quantitative metre) "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The rhyme falls on "-el": ḫalel, ‘acel, gel, hal, ecel, bedel; there is no separate refrain word (redif). In the last couplet the poet names his pen name "Sa‘dî". The ghazal is a nazire (response poem) to Necâtî Beg's ghazal beginning "Muṭribâ ḳavle muḫâlif gelme olma bî‘amel / Başla gün yüzlülerüñ vaṣfında bir rengin ġazel" (O minstrel, do not sing out of tune, do not be idle; begin a colourful ghazal in praise of the sun-faced). In the anthology Necâtî's poem is followed by the responses of Zihnî and Kemâl Paşa-zâde; this ghazal stands fourth, and after it comes a response by a sultan under the heading "Pâdişâh-i ‘Âlem-penâh" (the Sovereign, Refuge of the World).

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is the call of a lover fallen sick with separation to the beloved for help, and in each couplet the call is repeated with a different image. In the opening couplet the lover's body is likened to a building: the flood of tears has damaged its foundations and cracks have appeared in the structure. The beloved is addressed as "mi‘mâr", the master who could repair this crumbling building, and is asked for a glance "el-‘acel", at once. A congruence of images (tenasüp) is built among the words building, foundation, flood and architect. In the second couplet the image passes to the garden: the lover's heart is a sick nightingale bound in the fetters of grief, and the beloved is the rose-cheeked cypress of the garden of beauty.

In the third couplet the word "merdüm" is used twice and in two different senses: "merdümlik" is humanity, generosity; "merdüm-i dîde" is the pupil of the eye. While asking the beloved, the light of his eyes, to show humanity, the lover also likens her to the pupil of his eye. This is a double entendre (tevriye) much loved in divan poetry. The meaning of the second line, however, is not wholly clear; if the word "hal" in the edition is read as "ḫâl", the black mole on the cheek, the couplet draws a link between the beloved's black eye and a mole.

The fourth couplet is the strongest in the ghazal. The lover has lain sick for a long time in the corner of separation, but no one has come to visit him except death. Visiting the sick (‘ıyâdet) is a religious and social duty; that only death fulfils this duty conveys, with bitter irony, both the lover's loneliness and his nearness to death. In the final couplet the beloved is likened to a sun and asked to rise from the constellation of the eye. The words constellation (burç), rising (ṭulû‘), darkness (ẓulmet) and daylight (nehâr) form a congruence of images drawn from astronomy; separation is night, union is day.

Historical Context

Necâtî, author of the model poem, is the most famous poet of the reign of Bayezid II, and Kemalpaşazâde, in the same group of response poems, is one of the great scholars of the same period. The date of the group and the occasion on which this ghazal was composed are unknown. The Pervâne Bey Mecmuası is a large anthology of response poems compiled in 968 (1560-61) by Pervâne b. Abdullah, one of the palace servants; which of the two poets the compiler meant by "Sa‘dî Çelebi Efendi" should therefore be judged by the usage current in his own time.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Latîfî, Tezkiretü'ş-Şuarâ ve Tabsıratü'n-Nuzamâ, ed. Rıdvan Canım, Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2018 (e-book), pp. 272-273, entries on Sa‘dî Çelebi and Sa‘dî Çelebi Efendi Müftî.
  • Âşık Çelebi, Meşâ'irü'ş-şu'arâ, ed. Filiz Kılıç, Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2018 (e-book), pp. 424-426, entries on Sa‘dî Çelebi and Sa‘dî Çelebi el-Müftî.

Official sources

  • Pervâne b. Abdullah, Pervâne Bey Mecmuası, ed. Kamil Ali Gıynaş, Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2017 (e-book), p. 1732, poem no. 4743 (folio 376b); Necâtî's model ghazal no. 4740; index of poets, "Tâcî-zâde Sa'dî Çelebi".

Books

  • İsmail E. Erünsal, "Tâcîzâde Sâdî Çelebi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 39, Istanbul 2010, p. 356. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr

Online sources