Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Dest-būse nice kim sa‘y idirem irmez elüm
Dōstum bari icāzet vir ayaġuñ öpelüm
Oldı ‘ālemde ḥarīfüm ġam u endūh u belā
Ḳafes ü bülbül ü zāġ oldı hemānā mes̱elüm
Ḫaṭ getürmiş beni öldürmege ḫaddüñ ṣanemā
Āh kim saña elüm irmedin irdi ecelüm
‘Işḳuñ ey ḥūr beni eyledi kūyuñda muḳīm
‘Āḳıbet cennete iletdi bu gökçek ‘amelüm
Zülfi ḳaṭ‘ olalı dil ḳaddi hevāsında yiler
İrdi ‘ömr āḫire eksilmedi ṭūl-ı emelüm
Mest olupdur niçe ḳan itse gerek ḫūnī gözüñ
Aña merdümlik idüp hey dimez iseñ güzelüm
Ca‘ferem şem‘ gibi sözlerümüñ sūzından
Dili odlara yanar her kim oḳursa ġazelüm

In English

1. However much I strive to kiss your hand, my hand does not reach it; my friend, at least give leave that I may kiss your foot.

2. In the world my companions have become grief, sorrow and calamity; it is as if cage, nightingale and crow had become my parable.

3. O idol, your cheek has brought a decree of down to kill me; alas, before my hand could reach you, my death reached me.

4. O houri, love for you has made me a dweller in your street; in the end this fair deed of mine has brought me to Paradise.

5. Since her tresses were cut, the heart runs in longing for her stature; life has reached its end, yet my long hope has not grown less.

6. Your bloodthirsty eye is drunk; it must shed much blood, my beauty, unless you show it some humanity and say "stop" to it.

7. I am Ca'fer; like a candle, from the burning of my words, whoever reads my ghazal has his tongue set on fire.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Kissing the Hand, Kissing the Foot

The opening couplet begins in the language of court ceremony. "Dest-būse", the kissing of the hand, is being admitted to a great person's presence and kissing his hand. The lover cannot attain this honour; though he stretches out his hand, he cannot reach the beloved's. So he asks a humbler leave: let him at least kiss the foot. Descending from kissing the hand to kissing the foot shows the lover's rank before the beloved. The address "my friend" and the familiar tone of the verb "öpelüm" (let us kiss), on the other hand, bring the ceremony close to everyday speech. The rhyme repeats "-el": elüm, öpelüm, meselüm, ecelüm, ‘amelüm, emelüm, güzelüm, ġazelüm.

"Ḫaṭ getürmek" in the third couplet has two senses: the growing of down on the cheek and the bringing of a written decree. The cheek seems to have brought a written order to kill the lover; before the lover's hand could reach the beloved, his death reached him. "The hand reaching" and "death reaching" are set against each other with the same verb.

Cage, Nightingale and Crow

The second couplet rests on a parable: the nightingale and the crow put into the same cage. The sweet-voiced nightingale forced to live in the same cage as a coarse crow is the example of a refined person condemned to unfitting company. The lover's companions in the world are grief, sorrow and calamity; he is a nightingale shut in a cage with a crow. The fifth couplet compares shortness and length: the beloved's tresses have been cut, but the lover's "ṭūl-ı emel", his long hope, has not grown shorter though his life is ending.

The word "merdümlik" in the sixth couplet is read both as humanity and in its connection with the pupil of the eye (merdüm); the beloved should show humanity to her bloodthirsty eye and say "stop" to it. The pen-name couplet praises the power of the poet's words: Ca'fer is like a candle, and his words burn so that the tongue of whoever reads his ghazal catches fire. In Nazmî's anthology the ghazal appears as the first response to Necâtî's ghazal with the opening "Fikr-i sevdâ-yı ser-i zülfüñ ucından güzelüm / Kıssa-i Leyli vü Mecnûn'a dönüpdür meselüm"; after it come Muhibbî, Atâ, Revânî, Zâtî, Hevesî, Sabûhî, Niyâzî, Sürûrî-i Müderris, Hilâlî-i Kazzâz and Nazmî. The rhyme "meselüm" of Necâtî's opening is also in Câfer Çelebi's second couplet. Nazmî and Erünsal's thesis read "iderem" for "idirem" in the opening couplet.

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. 128. https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/17182

Official sources

Online sources