Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Ġonca açılmış degüldür nālişinden bülbülüñ
Vehm idüben çāk olupdur zehresi şāḫ-ı gülüñ
Ṣanma kim mül üzre berg-i gül dökilmiş dōstum
Mest olup şevḳüñle beñzi gül gül olmışdur mülüñ
Zīver ü zerden aña barmaḳ ḥesābın virdiler
Ey gül-i ter ol sebebdendür perīşān sünbülüñ
Fitne ide ḳorḳaram çoḳ başlu bir fettāndur ol
Yine ne söyler ḳulaġuña egilmiş kākülüñ
Ṭarf-ı gülşen pür-benefşe oldı ṣanma Ca‘ferā
Dāmen-i gülzārı ṭutmış dūd-ı āhı bülbülüñ

In English

1. The bud has not opened; the rose branch, terrified by the nightingale's wailing, has burst its gall.

2. My friend, do not think rose petals have been strewn on the wine; the wine, drunk with longing for you, has turned rosy in the face.

3. They gave her a finger-reckoning of ornament and gold; O fresh rose, that is why your hyacinth is dishevelled. (The sense of the first line is not fully clear.)

4. I fear it will stir up mischief; it is a many-headed troublemaker. What is your forelock, bent to your ear, saying again?

5. O Ca'fer, do not think the edge of the rose garden has filled with violets; the smoke of the nightingale's sigh has caught hold of the skirt of the rose bed.

Literary and Historical Commentary

"Do Not Think"

Three couplets of the ghazal are built on the same pattern: "ṣanma", "do not think so; the real cause is this". A visible event is denied and a poetic cause is put in its place; in divan poetry this is called ḥüsn-i ta‘līl, poetic aetiology. The bud of the opening couplet has not opened; the rose branch's gall has burst from fear of the nightingale's wailing. "Zehre" is the gall bladder, and "ödü patlamak", to have one's gall burst, is still used in Turkish today for great fright. The splitting of the bud is likened to a gall bursting with fear. Nor, in the second couplet, are the rose petals strewn on the wine rose petals; the wine has become drunk with longing for the beloved and its face has flushed rose-red.

The pen-name couplet closes with the same pattern. The dark violets at the edge of the rose garden are not violets; the smoke rising from the nightingale's sigh has clung to the skirt of the garden. The deep purple of the violet is likened to the colour of smoke. The rhyme words end in "-ül", each carrying the suffix "-üñ" (of): bülbülüñ, gülüñ, mülüñ, sünbülüñ, kākülüñ.

A Forelock Bent to the Ear

The fourth couplet is a small scene of gossip. The forelock falling from the beloved's brow towards her ear is like a whisperer bent to her ear. Because the forelock consists of many curls it is "many-headed"; and a many-headed troublemaker can stir up mischief from many quarters. The lover fears that this whispering will turn the beloved against him. "Kulağına eğilmek", to bend to someone's ear, is still used in Turkish for saying something secretly, for giving counsel. Here the Paris copy has "fettān durur" for "fettāndur ol".

The first line of the third couplet is obscure. "Barmaḳ ḥesābı" is a reckoning counted on the fingers; but what kind of finger-reckoning of ornament and gold was given to the beloved, and how it is linked to the disorder of her hyacinth hair, cannot be made out with certainty. Perhaps the curls of the hair are likened to fingers, and the ornaments counted to a reckoning held by those fingers; but this is only an attempt at a reading. Nazmî made no room for the ghazal in his anthology.

Bibliography

Online sources