Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün

Ebr-veş eylemeyince beni giryān-şekil
Açılup gül gibi yār olmadı ḫandān-şekil
Ol büt-i ġonca-dehānuñ lebini dişlemege
Jāleler kendüzini eyledi dendān-şekil
Bāġ-ı ḥüsn içre ṭutar zülfi ‘aṣā ḳıldı meger
Yine ṭāvūsı Ḫüdā cennete derbān-şekil
Müşk-i terle yazuben ḥüsni berātını ḫaṭı
Düşmiş üstinde ḳaşı ṣūreti ‘ünvān-şekil
Şimdi yanmış degülem āteş-i derd ü ġam ile
Dāġdār-ı ezelem lāle-i nu‘mān-şekil
Kāse-i dīdede ṣaçları ḫayāli görinür
Ṣuya ḳonmış ṣanemā deste-i reyḥān-şekil
Zülfi altındaġı reyḥān ḫaṭı dil bāġıdur
Ki idüp Ca‘feri lāl eyledi ḥayrān-şekil

In English

1. Until she made me weep in the manner of a cloud, the beloved did not open like a rose in the manner of one who laughs.

2. To bite the lip of that bud-mouthed idol, the dewdrops have put themselves into the shape of teeth.

3. It seems God has again set the peacock that holds her tresses as a staff in the garden of beauty, in the shape of a doorkeeper to Paradise.

4. Her down has written the patent of beauty in fresh musk, and her brow has fallen above it in the shape of a heading.

5. I am not burned only now by the fire of pain and grief; I have borne the brand from pre-eternity, like the anemone.

6. O idol, in the bowl of the eye the image of her hair looks like a bunch of basil set in water.

7. The basil-like down beneath her tresses is the garden of the heart; it has struck Ca'fer dumb in the manner of one amazed.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Refrain "Şekil"

The refrain "şekil", "in the shape of, in the manner of", also names what the ghazal does. Each couplet puts one thing into the shape of another: the lover takes the shape of a weeping cloud, the beloved of a laughing rose, the dewdrop of a tooth, the peacock of a doorkeeper, the brow of a heading. "-ān" turns in the rhyme: giryān, ḫandān, dendān, derbān, ‘ünvān, nu‘mān, reyḥān, ḥayrān. The opening couplet uses the link between spring rain and the opening of the rose: until the cloud weeps the rose does not laugh; and the beloved has not opened and laughed until she made the lover weep.

The second couplet reuses the image of the opening of ghazal 77: the dewdrops have become the bud's teeth and wish to bite the beloved's lip. The fourth couplet returns to the chancery language of ghazal 100: the down has written the patent of beauty in fresh musk, and the brow has fallen above this patent in the shape of an "‘ünvān", a heading. The heading and tughra set at the top of decrees and patents fit the shape of the arched brow.

The Peacock as Doorkeeper

The third couplet seems to rest on a prophetic tale. In the tales the peacock is named among those expelled from Paradise together with Adam, because it helped Satan to enter Paradise. In the couplet God has "again", that is, once more, made the peacock doorkeeper of Paradise: in the beloved's garden of beauty the brightly coloured tresses stand like a doorkeeper holding a staff. The setting of the bird once driven from the door back at the door is the wit of the couplet.

The lover says in the fifth couplet that his wound is not new. "Lāle-i nu‘mān" is the red anemone with a black spot in its centre; that spot resembles a brand, and the anemone is born with this brand. The lover too did not receive his brand just now; he has been branded since pre-eternity. The lover's eye, filled with tears, is a bowl of water in the sixth couplet; the image of the beloved's hair resembles a bunch of basil set in water. Of the manuscripts, the Hâlet Efendi copy reads "Lāleler" for "Jāleler" in the second couplet and "zülfi" for "ḥüsni" in the fourth, and the Paris copy "Misk-i terden" for "Müşk-i terle". The ghazal has no counterpart in Nazmî's anthology.

Bibliography

Online sources