Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Tā ki ṭutdı ḫaṭṭ-ı leb la‘l-i der-efşānı dürüst
Ḳıldı yaġmā leşker-i ġam milket-i cānı dürüst
Çün ṣabā pīrāhenüñ būyın iletdi gülşene
Ḳalmadı bir ġoncanuñ hergiz girībānı dürüst
Dūd-ı āh-ı āteşīnümden ‘aceb mi ol şehüñ
Lāciverdī-endūd olursa ṭāḳ-ı eyvānı dürüst
Oynamaḳdan ṭop idüp başın şikeste dillerüñ
Ḳalmamışdur ḳılca yārüñ zülfi çevgānı dürüst
Ḳāmetiñe benzedügiçün elif ey nūr-ı ‘ayn
Tende cānı cān içinde ṣaḳlaram anı dürüst
Çün gülistān içre olmaḳ yaraşur serv-i sehī
Dilberüñ olsa ḳabası ger gülistānı dürüst
Ruḫlaruñ şevḳi-yle rengīn sözlerin gör Ca‘ferüñ
Kim deger her beyti bir gül gibi dīvānı dürüst

In English

1. When the down around the lips surrounded the pearl-scattering ruby lips entirely, the army of grief plundered the realm of the soul from end to end.

2. When the morning breeze carried the scent of your shirt to the rose garden, not one bud's collar was left whole. (At that scent the buds tore open their collars and bloomed.)

3. Is it any wonder if the vault of that king's hall is dyed deep blue from end to end by the smoke of my fiery sighs?

4. From playing ball with the heads of broken hearts, not a hair of the polo stick of the beloved's tresses is left whole. (The curled tip of the tresses is likened to the crooked stick, the çevgân, used in the ball game.)

5. O light of my eye, because the letter elif resembles your stature, I keep the soul safe in the body and the elif safe within the word "cān" (soul). (When "cān" is written in Arabic letters, an elif stands in its middle.)

6. Since it becomes the straight cypress to stand in the rose garden, it is fitting if the beloved's robe is a rose garden.

7. Look at Ca'fer's colourful words, spoken in longing for your cheeks; each couplet, like a rose, is worth a whole divan.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Ahmed Paşa's "Dürüst" Ground

The responses written on this ground make up one of the most crowded groups in Nazmî's anthology. The model is Ahmed Paşa's ghazal beginning "‘Âşıkuñ göñli sınukdur ‘ahd ü peymânı dürüst". It is followed by responses from Sultan Bayezid, that is, Bayezid II, who wrote poetry under the pen name Adlî, from Nizâmî and from Kemalpaşazâde; Câfer Çelebi's poem stands fifth. After him come Necâtî, Çâkerî, Sultan Süleyman, Kâsım, Halîlî, Hasan-ı Kâdî, Sürûrî-i Müderris, Kâtibî, Münîr, Lâmi'î, Mu'îdî, Şevkî, Celîlî, Fakîrî and three poems by Nazmî. We learn from this that Câfer Çelebi wrote on the same ground as the sultan he served as chancellor; there is no record, however, that these responses were composed at the same gathering.

When Erünsal discusses the relation between Câfer Çelebi and Necâtî, he chooses two couplets from this ghazal. The fourth is very close to Necâtî's couplet "Ḥüsn meydānında top olalı zülf-i müşg-bār / Ḳalmadı bir şehriyāruñ elde çevgānı dürüst"; Erünsal finds the likeness of the second lines striking. The second couplet he compares with Necâtî's couplet on the morning breeze clinging like Zuleikha to Joseph's hem, and here he notes that, because the image is so common in divan poetry, no influence can be claimed. Nazmî's anthology shows that both poets wrote responses to the same ghazal of Ahmed Paşa; the shared ground explains part of the likeness.

Elif and Soul

The fifth couplet is among Erünsal's examples of wordplay. The beloved's stature is likened to the upright letter elif. The lover hides this elif inside the word "cān", because when "cān" (جان) is written in Arabic letters the elif stands between the cim and the nun. In this way the beloved's stature is kept both inside the word and inside the lover's soul. The couplet asks the reader to picture the script and is a typical example of the letter games of divan poetry.

In the ghazal the heads of broken hearts become balls, the tresses a polo stick and the beloved's robe a rose garden; in the last couplet the poet adds his own words to this garden and counts each of his couplets a rose worth a divan in itself. The variants are small matters of sound and construction: in the thesis the Hâlet Efendi copy reads "ṭāḳ u eyvānı" for "ṭāḳ-ı eyvānı" in the third couplet, the Paris and Ayasofya copies "zülf-i" for "zülfi" in the fourth, and the Hâlet Efendi and Ayasofya copies "cāna" for "cānı" in the fifth.

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. 324-325, ghazal no. 13. 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), pp. 51-52 (comparison with Necâtî), 61 (wordplay). 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. 13 (variants). https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/17182

Official sources

Online sources