Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün

Bahār irişdi bir ḳaç gün çemenden yaña gel ey gül
Belādan şehr emīn olsun fiġāna başlasun bülbül
Yüzüñ görmişken ölmekdür murādum düşmedin hecre
Ḳıya baḳsun güzel gözler kemendin ṣalsun ol kākül
Niçe miskīni ḫāk itmiş hevā-yı zülf-i müşkīnüñ
Ṣaçın çözmüş ḳara geymiş ṭutar mātemlerin sünbül
Lebüñden ḳızmayup bezme ne yüz ile gelürlerdi
Delüḳanlu degülmişse ḳadeḥ ḫām olmasaydı mül
Pür olsa lāle-ruḫlardan cihān başdan başa Ca‘fer
Anuñ ġayrına baḳmazam yiter çün ‘ārife bir gül

In English

1. Spring has come; for a few days come towards the meadow, O rose. Let the city be safe from calamity, let the nightingale begin its lament.

2. My wish is to die having seen your face, before falling into separation; let the lovely eyes glance sidelong, let that forelock cast its lasso.

3. Passion for your musky tresses has turned many a poor wretch to dust; the hyacinth has loosened its hair, put on black, and mourns for them.

4. If the wine were not a hot-blooded youth and the cup not raw, with what face would they come to the gathering without blushing before your lip?

5. O Ca'fer, though the world were full from end to end of tulip-cheeked ones, I would look at none but her; for to the knowing one a single rose is enough.

Literary and Historical Commentary

To the Knowing One a Single Rose Is Enough

The pen-name couplet uses a known saying, altering it. "To the knowing one a sign is enough" is a proverb saying that one who understands needs no long explanation. Câfer Çelebi puts the rose in place of the sign: "yiter çün ‘ārife bir gül". Even if the world were full from end to end of tulip-cheeked beauties, the lover would look at no other, for to one who understands a single rose, that is, a single beloved, is enough. The choice between tulip and rose becomes a choice between many and one.

The language of the ghazal is very close to spoken Turkish. In the phrase "ḳıya baḳsun güzel gözler" in the second couplet, "ḳıya baḳmak" means to look sidelong, glancing from the corner of the eye. The word "delüḳanlu" in the fourth couplet is today's "delikanlı", a young man: Câfer Çelebi applies the word to wine. The rhyme rests on "-ül": gül, bülbül, kākül, sünbül, mül, gül.

Hot-Blooded Wine and a Mourning Hyacinth

The fourth couplet imagines wine and cup as two young men. The wine is "delüḳanlu", both a youth whose blood runs hot ("deli kanlı", mad-blooded) and a red drink; the cup is "ḫām", both green, ill-mannered, and unworked like unfired clay. Were these two not raw and reckless, they would blush with shame before the beloved's lip and could not find the face to come to the gathering. The red of the wine is read here as the colour not of shamelessness but of shame.

The third couplet is a picture from mourning custom. Loosening the hair and wearing black after a death are among the old customs of mourning; the hyacinth too, with its curling dark petals, looks like a mourner who has loosened her hair and put on black. Passion for the beloved's tresses has turned many a lover to dust, and the hyacinth mourns for them. In the KTB printing the word "cihān" in the first line of the last couplet is set as "cihşn"; in the text it has been corrected with the reading of Erünsal's thesis. As for the variants, the Paris copy reads "firḳat" for "hecre" in the second couplet and "‘āşıḳa" for "‘ārife" in the last; the Hâlet Efendi and Ayasofya copies have "baḳmazuz" for "baḳmazam". This spring ghazal is not in Nazmî's anthology.

Bibliography

Online sources