Original Text (Mixed Languages)

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

Ber leb-i āb ez ṣafā-yı ṣoḥbet-i gül her zamān
Ḫayme-hā-yı ‘ayş mī-bāyed zeden hemçün ḥabāb
Çekdi ebrūsına zülfin ḳaldı ebr içre hilāl
Çünki baġladı kemer cevzāya geldi āfitāb
Dehr ez şām u şafaḳ āverd müşk ü za‘ferān
Tā nüvīsed çeşm-i bīmār-ı tū-rā ta‘vīẕ-i ḫvāb
Rūy-ı dildāra nice teşbīh idem yā Rab güli
Görmedüm zīrā çemende bir gül-i sünbül-niḳāb
Ger ne-gerded bende-i mihr-i ruḫ-et çarḫ-ı felek
Gerden-i çarḫ-ı felek-rā ḥabl mī-bended şihāb
Baġlanupdur Ca‘ferā şimdi der-i meyḫāneler
Yoḳ durur diller güşāde olmaġa bir fetḥ-i bāb

In English

1. (Persian) At the water's edge, in the delight of the rose's company, one must always pitch tents of pleasure like bubbles.

2. (Turkish) The beloved drew her tresses over her brow, and the crescent was left inside a cloud; when she fastened her belt, the sun entered Gemini.

3. (Persian) Time brought musk and saffron from evening and dawn, to write a charm for sleep for your ailing eye. (The black of evening is musk, the yellow of dawn saffron; amulets were written with such inks.)

4. (Turkish) O Lord, how can I liken the rose to the beloved's face? For I have never seen in the meadow a rose veiled with hyacinth.

5. (Persian) If the wheel of heaven does not become a slave to the sun of your face, the shooting star will bind a rope round the neck of the wheel of heaven.

6. (Turkish) O Ca'fer, the doors of the taverns are now shut; there is no conquest of the gate to open hearts.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Ghazal in Two Languages

This poem, given in the edition under the number 10a, is a mülemma (a poem mixing languages): the odd couplets are Persian, the even ones Turkish. The two languages take turns couplet by couplet, and the rhyme runs through both on the sound "-āb": ḥabāb, āfitāb, ḫvāb, niḳāb, şihāb, bāb. Erünsal says the divan contains two Persian ghazals; this poem, placed among the Turkish ghazals, is a separate example that uses both languages together. Âşık Çelebi ranks Câfer Çelebi's Persian prose above his Turkish, but adds that Müeyyedzâde did not care for this Persian and called it "Engürî Persian", Ankara Persian. This ghazal is an exercise in skill that runs the two languages side by side within the same rhyme and metre.

All three Persian couplets are built on images of water, sky and night. In the first the bubble (ḥabāb) on the surface of the water is likened to a pleasure tent, and there is a call to make merry by the water in the season of roses. In the third, time gathers the darkness of evening as musk and the yellow of dawn as saffron and writes a sleeping charm for the beloved's "ailing" eye. In divan poetry the beloved's languid, drowsy eye is called "çeşm-i bīmār", the sick eye; writing an amulet for sleep is added to this languor like a jest. The fifth couplet pictures the sky as a slave: the shooting star will bind a rope round the neck of the heaven that does not bow to the sun of the beloved's face.

The Turkish Couplets

The Turkish couplets bring the same sky down to earth. In the second, when the tresses fall over the brow the crescent is left inside a cloud; when the beloved fastens her belt, the sun seems to have entered Gemini, the constellation pictured as a belted figure. In the fourth the rose cannot be compared with the beloved's face, since there is no rose in the garden wearing a veil of hyacinth; the tresses that veil her face set it apart from every rose. The last couplet recalls a time when the taverns were shut and ties their opening to a "fetḥ-i bāb", a conquest of the gate; the word "fetih" suggests both opening and the easing of the heart. The sources do not say whether this closing had anything to do with a particular historical ban.

The Ayasofya copy departs from the text twice: according to Erünsal's thesis it writes "baġlandı" for "baġladı" in the second couplet and "Her dem" for "Dehr" in the third.

Bibliography

Online sources