Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ḳırmızı dībālar olaldan libāsı çeşmümüñ
Cevheridür ṭūtiyālardan ḳabāsı çeşmümüñ
Yazılur gūyā ġubār ile tozutsam tūtiyā
Levḥ-i rengīn üzre cānā mācerāsı çeşmümüñ
Gerd-i rāhuñ kim sirişkümden olupdur sürḫ reng
Ol ẕerūr-ı aḥmer olmışdur devāsı çeşmümüñ
Lāle-gūndur ‘aks-i ruḫsār ile sen gül yüzlünüñ
Ḥüsnüñe āyīnedür beñzer liḳāsı çeşmümüñ
Gel ayaġuñ ṭopraġından beni maḥrūm itme kim
Ḫāk-i pāyuñ cevheridür rūşenāsı çeşmümüñ
Sen ṭururken sehv ile ġayra naẓar ḳılduġına
Key ḳızarmışdur olup ġālib ḥayāsı çeşmümüñ
Mīl-i çūb u tūtiyā ḫāşāk u ḫāk-ı rāhını
Ḳılmayınca Ca‘ferā olmaz şifāsı çeşmümüñ

In English

1. Ever since red brocades became the garment of my eye, the robe of my eye has been of the substance of tutty.

2. O soul, if I sprinkle tutty, the story of my eye is written as it were in dust, in ghubar script, upon a coloured tablet.

3. The dust of your road, turned red by my tears, has become that red eye-powder, the remedy of my eye.

4. O rose-faced one, the face of my eye is tulip-coloured from the reflection of your cheek; it has become a mirror to your beauty.

5. Come, do not deprive me of the dust of your feet; for the dust of your feet is the substance that brightens my eye.

6. Because, while you stood there, it looked by mistake at another, my eye has been overcome by shame and has turned quite red.

7. O Ca'fer, until the straw and the dust of your road are made into the kohl-stick and the tutty, there is no healing for my eye.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Language of Eye Medicine

All the couplets describe the lover's eye, reddened from weeping blood, in the terms of old eye medicine; the refrain itself is "çeşmümüñ", "of my eye". "Tūtiyā" (tutty) is a mineral powder applied to the eye and believed to be good for eye diseases. "Ẕerūr-ı aḥmer" is a red eye-powder, "rūşenā" a remedy that brightens the eye, and "mīl" the thin stick used to apply these powders to the eye. In divan poetry it is a known motif that the dust of the beloved's road is kohl and tutty for the lover's eye; Câfer Çelebi turns this motif into a prescription.

The third couplet is the centre of this prescription. The dust of the beloved's road, wetted with the lover's bloody tears, has been dyed red; so it has become of itself a "ẕerūr-ı aḥmer", a red eye-powder, and the remedy of the eye. The pen-name couplet completes the treatment: until a kohl-stick is made from the straw of the road and tutty from its dust, the eye will not heal. The Paris copy reads "dür-i aḥmerdür" for "ẕerūr-ı aḥmer" in the third couplet.

Dust and Ghubar Script

The word "ġubār" in the second couplet has two senses: dust and ghubar script. Ghubar is a kind of calligraphy written in very small letters, as fine as specks of dust. If the lover sprinkles tutty on his eye, the eye's story looks as if it were written on a coloured tablet with that dust, in ghubar script. In the first couplet the reddened eye has wrapped itself in red brocades, and tutty has become the substance of its robe.

The sixth couplet finds a new cause for the redness of the eye: while the beloved was there, the eye looked by mistake at someone else and has therefore blushed with shame. The bloodshot eye is read as an abashed face. The eye of the fourth couplet is a mirror reflecting the beloved's face and takes on the colour of the tulip from its reflection. Elsewhere, too, the copies differ: the Hâlet Efendi copy reads "cilāsı" for "ḳabāsı" in the opening couplet, the Ayasofya copy "libāsı", and the Paris copy "ḳurısam" for "tozutsam" in the second couplet and "var iken" for "ṭururken" in the sixth. The ghazal is not among the response poems Nazmî collected.

Bibliography

Online sources