Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Öykündügi içün lebüñe ey nigār la‘l
Her laḥẓa sürḫ-rūdur olup şermsār la‘l
Müjgānum üzre dāne-i eşküm gören didi
Ḥikmet degül mi gül yirine virdi ḫar la‘l
Yāruñ lebiyle gör nefes-i cān-fezāsını
Rengīn laṭīfedür ki olur müşkbār la‘l
Mihrüñden olsa sürḫ gözüm yaşı ṭañ degül
Dirler ki rengi günden alur ey nigār la‘l
Ṭa‘nı raḳībinüñ ṣıdı göñlini Ca‘ferüñ
Lā-büd ṭoḳınsa seng bulur inkisār la‘l

In English

1. O beauty, because the ruby imitated your lip, it is red in the face with shame at every moment.

2. Whoever saw the drops of my tears upon my lashes said: "Is it not wisdom, that the thorn has borne rubies instead of roses?"

3. See the soul-refreshing breath of the beloved together with her lip; it is a colourful jest that the ruby should be musk-scented.

4. O beauty, it is no wonder if the tears of my eye are red from love of you; they say the ruby takes its colour from the sun.

5. The rival's reproach has broken Ca'fer's heart; when the ruby strikes against stone it must surely break.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Mesîhî's Similar Opening

Erünsal sets the opening couplet of this ghazal beside the opening of ghazal 143 in Mesîhî's divan. Câfer Çelebi's lines run "Öykündügi içün lebüñe ey nigār la‘l / Her laḥẓa sürḫ-rūdur olup şermsār la‘l", Mesîhî's "Öykündi gerçi leblerüñe ey nigār la‘l / Ṣoñra yüzi ḳızardı olup şerm-sār la‘l": refrain, rhyme, address and idea are the same. According to Erünsal, Mesîhî wrote kasides praising Câfer Çelebi and asked for his help in becoming a clerk of the imperial council; but it is hard to say whether Mesîhî, who had a style of his own, came under Câfer Çelebi's influence. The closeness of the two openings is plain; which was written first is not known.

The refrain is "la‘l", ruby, and each couplet ties a property of this stone to the beloved. The metre is not stated in the edition, but the lines scan as Mef‘ūlü Fā‘ilātü Mefā‘īlü Fā‘ilün. The rhyme is formed by "-ār": nigār, şermsār, ḫār, müşkbār, nigār, inkisār.

The Ruby's Colour and Its Breaking

The fourth couplet rests on an old belief about minerals: precious stones, and the ruby above all, were believed to take their colour from the light of the sun. The word "mihr" means both sun and love. The lover's tears have turned red from the beloved's "mihr", from both her love and her sunlike face; just as the ruby takes its colour from the sun. In the second couplet, too, the lashes are a thorn; on the thorn have grown rubies instead of roses, that is, drops of bloody tears.

The pen-name couplet closes on the word "inkisār", which means both breaking and heartbreak. The rival's reproach is a stone; and Ca'fer's heart, like a ruby, has broken on striking against it. The beloved's lip in the third couplet, being both red like a ruby and fragrant like musk, is a "rengīn laṭīfe", something both colourful and witty. The Paris copy reads "gözüm yaşı sürḫ" for "sürḫ gözüm yaşı" in the fourth couplet, and in the last the Hâlet Efendi copy "irişe" and the Ayasofya copy "irişse" for "ṭoḳınsa". Nazmî did not put this ghazal in his collection.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • İsmail E. Erünsal (ed.), Tâcî-zâde Ca‘fer Çelebi Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), pp. 413-414, ghazal no. 117. https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/TR-211662/taci-zade-cafer-celebi-divani.html
  • İsmail E. Erünsal, "Ca‘fer Çelebi'nin Edebî Kişiliği", introduction to Tâcî-zâde Ca‘fer Çelebi Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), p. 54 (comparison with Mesîhî, ghazal 143). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

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

Online sources