Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Çarḫ ile hem-reng olup çün cāme geydi nīl-reng
Çarḫ idüp andan tefāḫur çarḫa girdi bī-direng
Gözlerinde görinen sürme degül dilberlerüñ
Sürme renginde libāsuñ ‘aksidür ey şūḫ-ı şeng
Ḳanda gitse her ṭarafdan ḳaplar anı dūd-ı āh
İl ġalaṭ idüp ṣanur kim cāme geymiş nīl-reng
Çevre yanın çigzinür ser-geştesi olmış sipihr
Gösterür ‘aks-i sipihri ol ḳamer āyīne-yeng
Ḳan yaşa ġarḳ olmışam gelse ḫayālüñ sīneme
Gezlenür bir āl yaya lāciverdī bir ḫadeng
Gūyiyā zeyn oldı sūsenlerle bir nevreste bāġ
Sūsenī ḫil‘at nigārı çün der-āġūş ṭutdı teng
Gördi baṣmış baġrına ol māhı jengārī ḳabā
Ca‘ferüñ āyīne-i cānın ḥasedden ṭutdı jeng

In English

1. When she put on an indigo garment, becoming one in colour with the sky, the sky, priding itself on this, began at once to whirl.

2. O merry coquette, what is seen in the eyes of the beauties is not kohl; it is the reflection of your kohl-coloured garment.

3. Wherever she goes, the smoke of sighs envelops her from every side; people mistakenly think she has put on an indigo garment.

4. Circling around her, the sky has become her bewildered lover; that moon, like a mirror, shows the reflection of the sky.

5. I am drowned in bloody tears; when your image comes to my breast, a dark-blue arrow hides in a red bow.

6. It is as if a young garden had been adorned with irises; for the beloved has held the iris-coloured robe in a tight embrace.

7. Seeing that a verdigris-green robe had pressed that moon to its breast, the mirror of Ca'fer's soul rusted with envy.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Ghazal of a Coloured Garment

The ghazal is a poem of colour built on a dark-blue dress worn by the beloved. The garment that in ghazal 73 looked rose-coloured from the reflection of the rose garden has here become indigo, "nīl-reng". The beloved's garment in the opening couplet is the colour of the sky; the sky prides itself on this likeness and "çarḫa girer", begins to whirl. "Çarḫ" means both the vault of heaven and a turning wheel; the turning of the sky becomes a dance of joy. The kohl in the beauties' eyes, in the second couplet, is the reflection of the beloved's kohl-coloured dress. In the third the colour comes this time from the lover: the smoke of sighs envelops the beloved on every side, and people think she is dressed in indigo.

The rhyme in "-eng" leaves little room: nīl-reng, bī-direng, şeng, nīl-reng, āyīne-yeng, ḫadeng, teng, jeng. This narrowness forces the poet to choose rarely used words from Persian. The reading of the word "āyīne-yeng" in the fourth couplet is not certain; the Hâlet Efendi copy gives it as "āyīne-reng".

A Dark-Blue Arrow, a Verdigris Robe

The fifth couplet turns the colours into the picture of a weapon. The lover is drowned in bloody tears; his bent body is a red bow. When the image of the beloved in her dark-blue garment comes to his breast, a dark-blue arrow has as it were been fitted to this red bow. In the sixth couplet the iris-coloured robe in which the beloved is tightly wrapped is as if a garden had been adorned with irises.

The pen-name couplet is a scene of jealousy and closes on a play of words. This time the beloved wears a "jengārī" robe, the green of copper rust, verdigris; the robe has pressed her to its breast. Seeing this, the mirror of the lover's soul has caught "jeng", rust, out of envy. Old mirrors were made of metal and so rusted; the robe's colour and the mirror's rust come from the same word. The thesis records several variants: the "hem-reng" of the opening becomes "hem-dem" in the Ayasofya and Hâlet Efendi copies; the Paris copy reads "hilāl" for "sipihr" in the fourth; and the "māhı" of the last is "māh" in the Cairo and Manchester copies and "şāhı" in the Ayasofya and Hâlet Efendi copies. Nazmî's anthology did not take up this ghazal of colour.

Bibliography

Online sources