Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Nergis gözüñü göreli bīmārunām senüñ
Düşdüm ‘aṣāya zār u giriftārunām senüñ
Ṣu gibi sürinü sürinü yüzüm üstine
Geldüm ḳapuña ‘āşıḳ-ı dīdārunām senüñ
Yoḳdur güşād ümīdi belā naḳşıdur gelen
Ġam şeşderine tā ki giriftārunām senüñ
Cismüm ḳuru süñükdür anı nice dāġ ile
Yaḳdum ḳarara kim bileler zārunām senüñ
Geldüm yüzüm alup ele ma‘ẕūr ṭut beni
Vech-i muḥaḳḳar ile ḫarīdārunām senüñ
Ṣu gibi pāk olduġuñ içün ḥabābvār
Tā ‘ömrüm olduġınca hevādārunām senüñ
Kūyuñda derdile n’ola nālişler eylesem
Ca‘fer gibi çü bülbül-i gülzārunām senüñ

In English

1. Since I saw your narcissus eye I have been your patient; I have come to lean on a staff, I am your moaning captive.

2. Like water, crawling on my face, I have come to your door; I am a lover longing to see your face.

3. As long as I am held captive in the six-gate block of grief there is no hope of release; every throw that comes is calamity.

4. My body is dry bone; I have burned it black with many a brand, so that they may know I am your moaning lover.

5. I have come with my face in my hand, hold me excused; with a worthless face I am your purchaser.

6. Because you are pure as water, like a bubble I shall be your ardent devotee as long as I live.

7. Is it any wonder if I moan with pain in your street? Like Ca'fer, I am the nightingale of your rose garden.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Six-Gate Block of Grief

The third couplet is built on the terms of nard, the game of backgammon. "Şeşder" is the name of a six-gate formation that shuts in the opponent's pieces; a piece caught in this formation cannot move. "Güşād" is opening, release; and "naḳş" the pips on the die, the throw that comes. The lover has fallen into the şeşder of grief; there is no hope of release, for at every throw the die comes up calamity. A scene from a game becomes the picture of a hopeless love. In the KTB printing the line reads "şeşderine"; Erünsal's thesis has "şeşderinde", and the sense runs more naturally with this reading.

Nazmî sets the ghazal among the responses to Ahmed Paşa's ghazal with the opening "Efkâr-ı ‘ışkuñ ile dil-figâruñam senüñ". Sultan Cem wrote two responses on this ground; Subhî, Tâcîzâde, Sabâyî, Sun'î, Muhibbî, Gubârî and Nazmî follow him. The refrain follows the pattern "-um senüñ" ("I am your ..."), with a rhyme in "-ār": bīmārunām, giriftārunām, dīdārunām, zārunām, ḫarīdārunām, hevādārunām, gülzārunām.

Face and Coin

The fifth couplet combines two uses of the word "face". "Yüzünü ele almak", to take one's face in one's hand, is to come ashamed, abashed; in this state the lover comes and asks pardon. The word "vech" in the second line means face in Arabic; in the language of Ottoman accounts it was also used for the sum of a payment, an amount of money. The lover wishes to be the beloved's buyer with "vech-i muḥaḳḳar", his worthless face, but also with a worthless sum. The lover who in ghazal 96 sets out to buy the beloved with his yellow face is in the same market here.

The sixth couplet rests on the image of a bubble. The beloved is pure as water; the lover is like a bubble (ḥabāb) on the water. The inside of the bubble is air; and "hevādār" means both full of air and an ardent lover. In the second couplet too the lover comes to the door crawling on his face like water. Most of the variants are in the Paris copy, which reads "sürine sürine" for "sürinü sürinü" in the second couplet, "olduġı" for "olduġuñ" in the sixth and "itsem" for "eylesem" in the last; the Hâlet Efendi and Ayasofya copies read "zār u dil-efgārunām" for "zār u giriftārunām" in the opening couplet.

Bibliography

Primary sources

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. 103 (the reading "şeşderinde" in couplet 3, and variants). https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/17182

Official sources

Online sources