Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘ilün fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün

Lebüñde ḫaṭṭuñı ṭuġrā-yı cān imiş bildük
Berāt-ı ḥüsnüñe şāhum nişān imiş bildük
Bu ḫaṭṭ-ı sebzüñi zülf-i siyāhuñ altında
Göreli ṭūṭī-yi Hindūstān imiş bildük
Cemāli mihrümi günden güne ziyāde kılur
Egerçi bir meh-i nā-mihribān imiş bildük
Görenler ol güneşüñ dir lebiyle dendānın
Ki ẕerre içre S̱üreyyā nihān imiş bildük
Ḫaṭuñ çü Ca‘ferüñ ey meh günin siyāh itdi
Didüm ki fitne-i āḫir zamān imiş bildük

In English

1. We have learned that the down on your lip is the tughra of the soul; my king, it turns out to be the seal on the patent of your beauty.

2. Since seeing this green down of yours beneath your black tresses, we have learned that it is the parrot of India.

3. We have learned that she is an unkind moon, it is true; yet her beauty increases my love from day to day.

4. Those who see that sun's lip and teeth say: "We have learned that the Pleiades are hidden within an atom."

5. O moon, when your down turned Ca'fer's day black, I said: "We have learned that this is the tribulation of the end of time."

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Tughra on the Patent of Beauty

The opening couplet is built in the language of Ottoman bureaucracy. A berat is the patent showing that the sultan has granted someone a right or an office; the nişan or tughra is the sultan's monogram drawn at its head, which makes the document valid. The down appearing above the beloved's lip is this tughra: the patent of beauty has been confirmed by it. Since the word "ḫaṭ" means both script and down, the likeness between down and tughra is easily drawn. Câfer Çelebi was a statesman trained in the chancery who later served as nişancı; the nişancı was the official responsible for drawing the tughra on patents and decrees. The images of the opening couplet are therefore the terms of his daily work.

The refrain is "imiş bildük": "so it is, we have learned". Each couplet reports an understanding reached afterwards. The rhyme is on "-ān": cān, nişān, Hindūstān, nā-mihribān, nihān, zamān. In Nazmî's anthology the ghazal sits in a small circle attached to Dâ'î's ghazal with the opening "Şu bî-vefâ sanemi biz ne cân imiş bildük"; the circle contains Atâyî, Câfer Çelebi, Sabâyî and Nazmî. In Köksal's index Câfer Çelebi's name is also counted among the responses written to Dâ'î.

The Parrot of India and the Pleiades

The green down of the second couplet lies beneath the black tresses. The green colour brings in the parrot, and the black of the tresses the association with blackness that the word "Hindū" carries in divan poetry: the green down beneath the black tresses is a parrot come from India. The beloved's mouth, in the fourth couplet, is as small as an atom; the teeth within it are the Pleiades (S̱üreyyā), a small cluster of stars. The hiding of a constellation inside an atom describes the small mouth and the bright teeth together.

In the third couplet the words "mihr" (love, sun), "meh" (moon) and "nā-mihribān" (unkind) are used side by side: the beloved is cold and unkind like the moon, yet her beauty increases the lover's sun, that is, his love, from day to day. By the pen-name couplet the down has darkened the lover's day; this darkness is likened to the "tribulation of the end of time" believed to come in the days near the Last Judgement. The "mihrümi" of the third couplet becomes "hem-demi" in the Ayasofya and Hâlet Efendi copies, and in the last the Cairo and Manchester copies have "cān" for "meh"; the Ayasofya copy omits the word "günin" in the same couplet.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • İsmail E. Erünsal (ed.), Tâcî-zâde Ca‘fer Çelebi Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), pp. 400-401, ghazal no. 100. https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/TR-211662/taci-zade-cafer-celebi-divani.html
  • İsmail E. Erünsal, "Hayatı ve Eserleri", introduction to Tâcî-zâde Ca‘fer Çelebi Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), p. 7 (records from his years as nişancı). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • İsmail E. Erünsal, The Life and Works of Tâcî-zâde Ca‘fer Çelebi, with a Critical Edition of His Dîvân, PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1977, vol. 2, ghazal no. 100 (variants). https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/17182

Official sources

Online sources