Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ṣaçuñda küşte diller çoḳ bilinmez kim durur ḳātil
Dehānuñ ġaybet itmişdür gümānum anda el-ḥāsıl
Ne odı söyünür bir dem ne bir yirde ḳarārı var
Ne beñzer kirm-i şeb-tāba şeb-i firḳatde cānā dil
Ṣu yanından güẕer ḳılma der-āġūş itmesün kimse
Mis̱ālüñden rıżāmuz yoḳ k’ola kimse aña mā’il
Ola kim baġlana yollar varup gelmez ola aġyār
Ḳılayın kūyuñ etrāfın gözüm yaşıyle baḥr-ı gil
‘Aceb mi bilmese Ca‘fer özi var mı yaḫud yoḳ mı
Alupdur fikr-i yārānı olupdur kendüden ġāfil

In English

1. Many are the hearts slain in your hair, and who the killer is, is not known; in short, my suspicion is that your mouth has absconded.

2. O soul, how like the glow-worm is the heart in the night of separation: its fire never dies down for a moment, and it never rests in one place.

3. Do not pass by the water, let no one embrace your reflection; we do not consent that anyone should incline even to your likeness.

4. So that the roads may be closed and the rivals cannot come and go, let me make the surroundings of your street a sea of mud with the tears of my eye.

5. Is it any wonder if Ca'fer does not know whether he exists or not? Thought of the beloved has taken him, and he has become unaware of himself.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Murder with an Unknown Culprit

The opening couplet is built in the language of a murder inquiry. Many hearts have been slain in the beloved's hair, but who the killer is, is not known. The lover's suspicion turns to the mouth: the mouth "ġaybet itmiş", has disappeared. In legal language disappearance means the flight of a suspect. That the beloved's mouth is so small as to be almost invisible is a known motif of divan poetry; Câfer Çelebi turns this invisibility into a fugitive's covering of his tracks. "El-ḥāsıl", "in short", is the formula of a summing-up. This language is not foreign to the pen of a poet who also served as military judge.

The rhyme words, all ending in "-il", are these: ḳātil, ḥāsıl, dil, mā'il, gil, ġāfil. Most of the words are Arabic and Persian; the "gil" of the fourth couplet means mud, clay in Persian, and sets a sea of mud around the street.

A Glow-Worm and a Sea of Mud

The second couplet likens the heart in the night of separation to the "kirm-i şeb-tāb", the glow-worm that gives off light at night. The glow-worm flies about in the dark without settling anywhere, and its light does not go out; the heart too, in the night of separation, gives up neither burning nor wandering. The fourth couplet is a practical measure of jealousy. The lover wants to turn the surroundings of the beloved's street into a sea of mud with his tears, so that the roads may be closed and the rivals cannot go there and come back. The Ayasofya copy reads "diller" (hearts) for "yollar" (roads) in this couplet.

Jealousy reaches even a reflection in the third couplet: the beloved must not pass by the water, for no one must embrace the reflection that appears in it. The lover will not consent that anyone should incline even to a likeness of the beloved. The pen-name couplet shows the lover beside himself: thought of the beloved has so taken him that he does not know whether he exists. Nazmî's anthology does not record the ghazal. The "Mefā‘īlün" of the metre line is misprinted "Mefā‘īün" in the edition.

Bibliography

Online sources