Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ḳaḳıyup gitdi dil-ārāmum n’olur ḥālüm benüm
Yüz çevürdi baḫt benden döndi iḳbālüm benüm
Geh ‘itāb u geh girişme geh cefā geh nāz işi
Bilmezem āḫir n’ola anuñla aḥvālüm benüm
Bilini ḳocmaġa çoḳ yalvardum olmadı müfīd
Degmedi yanında gör bir ḳıla biñ ḳālüm benüm
Ḳopmadı ḳopmaz da ra‘nālıḳda bir mislüñ senüñ
Gelmedi gelmez de şeydālıḳda ems̱ālüm benüm
Gitdi bir kez görmek ile ‘aḳl u ṣabr u dīn ü dil
Bir daḫi Ca‘fer görürsem n’olısar ḥālüm benüm

In English

1. My heart's ease has gone off in a temper; what will become of me? Fortune has turned its face from me, my luck has turned.

2. Now reproach, now scolding, now cruelty, now coquetry; I do not know what my state with her will come to in the end.

3. I pleaded much to embrace her waist, and it was of no use; see, beside her a thousand words of mine were not worth a single hair.

4. In loveliness your like has not arisen and will not arise; in madness my like has not come and will not come.

5. O Ca'fer, by seeing her once, reason, patience, faith and heart are gone; if I see her once more, what will become of me?

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Beloved Gone Off in a Temper

The opening couplet begins with a scene from daily life: the beloved "ḳaḳıyup gitdi", took offence, grew angry and walked off. "Ḳaḳımak" means in old Turkish to scold, to grow angry. The lover's reaction is also in spoken language: "n'olur ḥālüm benüm", what will become of me? The second couplet lists the beloved's changing moods one after another: now reproach, now scolding, now cruelty, now coquetry. The fourfold repetition of the word "geh" (now) puts into sound the rapid succession of these moods. The refrain is "-um benüm" (my ...), and the rhyme words carry "-āl": ḥālüm, iḳbālüm, aḥvālüm, ḳālüm, emsālüm, ḥālüm.

The third couplet sets up a play of sound between "ḳıl" (hair) and "ḳāl" (word). The lover has pleaded to embrace the beloved's waist and spoken a thousand words (ḳāl); but beside her these thousand words were not worth even a hair (ḳıl). The hair is, in divan poetry, the likeness of the beloved's slender waist; a thousand words could at most equal that hair-thin waist, and not even that.

Has Not Arisen, Will Not Arise

The fourth couplet builds its two lines to correspond exactly to each other. "Ḳopmadı ḳopmaz da" stands against "Gelmedi gelmez de", "ra‘nālıḳda" (in loveliness) against "şeydālıḳda" (in madness), "bir mislüñ senüñ" (your like) against "emsālüm benüm" (my likes). The beloved has no equal in beauty, the lover none in madness; the two kinds of matchlessness are weighed in the same mould. Such parallel construction makes couplets easy to remember.

The pen-name couplet closes in a humorous tone. The lover has seen the beloved only once and lost his reason, patience, faith and heart; he asks what will happen if he sees her again. The question of what is left to lose answers itself. The Ayasofya and Hâlet Efendi copies read "n'olur" for "n'ola" in the second couplet. The ghazal is not among Nazmî's selections.

Bibliography

Online sources