Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ey ḫaṭ-ı ruḫsār yār od eyledi yirüñ senüñ
Böyle günden āşikār olduġı tezvīrüñ senüñ
Sīneme zaḫm urduġınca çāk olur zehrem benüm
Gide diyü tāb-ı dilden āb-ı şimşīrüñ senüñ
‘Āşıḳa her tār-ı mūyuñ bir reh-i sevdā imiş
Baġlamışdur yolların zülf-i girihgīrüñ senüñ
Kāşkī göñlüñ gibi pūlād olaydı göñlümüz
Egleneydi anda şāyed geçmeyüp tīrüñ senüñ
Baña ol vuṣlat yiterdi Leyli vü Mecnūn gibi
Yazsalar bir yirde taṣvīrümle taṣvīrüñ senüñ
Derd-i yār ile başında od yanar ṣıġmaz iken
Yire göge ey göñül āh-ı cihāngīrüñ senüñ
Fikrüñ ol Ca‘fer ki rāh-ı yārda ḫāk olasın
Ḥaḳ muvāfıḳ eylesün taḳdīre tedbīrüñ senüñ

In English

1. O down on the beloved's cheek, the beloved has set your place on fire; your forgery has become plain as such a day.

2. Each time your sword strikes a wound in my breast, my gall bursts, so that the temper of your sword may go from the heat of the heart.

3. For the lover every strand of your hair turns out to be a road of passion; your knotted tresses have blocked those roads.

4. Would that our heart were steel like your heart; then perhaps your arrow would be caught there and not pass through.

5. That union would be enough for me, if, like Leylâ and Mecnun, they drew my picture and your picture in one place.

6. O heart, while fire burns in your head from pain for the beloved, your world-conquering sigh cannot be contained by earth and sky.

7. O Ca'fer, your thought is to become dust on the beloved's path; may God make your design agree with destiny.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Ground to which Responses Were Written

In Nazmî's anthology this ghazal appears as a ground poem under the heading "Ez-ân-ı Tâcî-zâde", and two responses were written to it: the ghazals of Kemalpaşazâde, with the opening "Bend urupdur boynuma zülf-i girih-gîrüñ senüñ", and of Necâtî, with the opening "Şâh-ı güldür sînem üzre zahm-ı şemşîrüñ senüñ". The openings of the responses carry words from Câfer Çelebi's ghazal: Kemalpaşazâde has taken the phrase "zülf-i girihgīrüñ" of the third couplet into his own opening, and Necâtî has used the sword and arrow images of the second and fourth couplets together with the rhymes "şimşīrüñ" and "tīrüñ". That a leading ghazal poet of the age such as Necâtî and a scholar-poet such as Kemalpaşazâde wrote responses to it shows that the ghazal was counted among his contemporaries as a text that could be taken as a model.

With "senüñ" (yours) as its refrain, the ghazal, unlike the other two written on it (94 and 96), uses the rhyme "-īr": yirüñ, tezvīrüñ, şimşīrüñ, girihgīrüñ, tīrüñ, taṣvīrüñ, cihāngīrüñ, tedbīrüñ.

A Forged Script

The opening couplet addresses the down on the cheek and accuses it as a forger. The word "ḫaṭ" means both down and script; "tezvīr" is the drawing up of a false document, the imitation of handwriting. The down appearing on the beloved's face is like a false script added afterwards to the patent of beauty; its forgery shows plainly "as such a day", that is, upon a face bright as day. And the beloved has set the place of this false script on fire. In the language of a poet trained in the chancery, terms of documents and forgery therefore hold a familiar place.

The fifth couplet brings in a scene from book painting. In illustrated copies of the story of Leylâ and Mecnun the two lovers were painted side by side on the same page. The lover does not ask for a real union with the beloved; it is enough for him that their pictures should be made together on one page. The pen-name couplet turns the saying "design does not agree with destiny" into a prayer: Ca'fer's design is to become dust on the beloved's path; may God make this design agree with destiny. The thesis shows variants in two places: the Ayasofya copy reads "bu" for "bir" in the third couplet, and the Hâlet Efendi and Ayasofya copies "İtseler" for "Yazsalar" in the fifth.

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. 111 (variants). https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/17182

Official sources

Online sources