Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Söylemek ḳaṣd itdügümce yāra derd ü ḥasretüm
Aġlamak ṭutar beni güftāra ḳalmaz ḳudretüm
Görmedüm ol māhı çoḳ baḳdum aşaġa yuḳaru
Yirde gökde yılduzum yoḳdur gidüpdür devletüm
Ben nice sen şem‘-i tābāna revān cān virmeyem
Yoḳ mıdur ‘ālemde bir pervāne deñlü ġayretüm
Ḳapuña iltüp götürdi ben ġubārı ḫākdan
Var durur yirden göge bād-ı ṣabāya minnetüm
Rişte-i cāna ṭolaşup ḳaldı ‘ışḳuñ sīnede
Ṣayd-ı ‘anḳā itdi dām-ı peşşe ile himmetüm
Ḳomazam ey cān elümden tā ölünce dāmenüñ
Cevrüñi çeksem gerekdür ṭaḳ olunca ṭāḳatüm
Rūz-ı maḥşerde diyem Mecnūna Ca‘fer ḥālümi
Kim dilümi ol bilür ancaḳ ol añlar ḥāletüm

In English

1. Whenever I mean to tell the beloved of my pain and longing, weeping seizes me and I have no strength left for speech.

2. I looked high and low, much, and did not see that moon; I have no star on earth or in the sky, my fortune is gone.

3. How should I not at once give my soul to you, the bright candle? Have I not in the world as much zeal as a moth?

4. The morning breeze lifted me, a speck of dust, from the earth and carried me to your door; my gratitude to it reaches from earth to sky.

5. Love for you has stayed tangled on the thread of the soul in my breast; my aspiration has hunted the Anka with a gnat's net.

6. O soul, I will not let go of your skirt until I die; I must endure your cruelty until my strength is spent.

7. O Ca'fer, on the Day of Judgement let me tell my state to Mecnun; for he alone knows my language, he alone understands my condition.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Gratitude from Earth to Sky

The fourth couplet works an idiom word for word. "To be grateful from earth to sky" means to owe someone boundless thanks. The lover is a speck of dust on the ground; the morning breeze has lifted him from the earth and carried him to the beloved's door. The dust has really risen from earth to sky; and so the lover's gratitude to the wind reaches "from earth to sky". The second couplet also has an idiom: the lover has "no star on earth or in the sky", that is, no fortune anywhere. He has looked high and low to see the beloved, but could find neither moon nor star on earth or in the sky.

The rhyme lies in "-et/-at", the refrain in the possessive suffix "-um" (my): ḥasretüm, ḳudretüm, devletüm, ġayretüm, minnetüm, himmetüm, ṭāḳatüm, ḥāletüm. The opening couplet is a plain picture of a lover who means to tell his pain but cannot speak for weeping.

Hunting the Anka with a Gnat's Net

The fifth couplet describes an impossible hunt. The Anka is a legendary bird never seen; "peşşe" is a gnat. To hunt the Anka with a net fine enough to catch gnats is to set about a task beyond one's power. The lover's aspiration, his lofty desire, has attempted this impossible task: love has stayed tangled on the thread of the soul in his breast. The Hâlet Efendi copy reads this line as a question: "ide mi dām-ı peşe-yle", can the Anka be hunted with a gnat's net?

"Ṭaḳ" (exhausted) and "ṭāḳat" (strength) come side by side in the sixth couplet: the lover will endure the beloved's cruelty until his strength is spent. In Nazmî's anthology the ghazal is in the circle that opens with a ghazal by Atâyî; the opening of Ahmed Paşa, who comes just before Câfer Çelebi, uses the same play on words: "Tâk-ı ebrûsını tak oldı görelden tâkatüm". After Câfer Çelebi come Muhibbî (with two ghazals), Kâdirî, İshak Çelebi, İbrâhîm Paşa, Zâtî, Basîrî and Gedâyî. The pen-name couplet has the lover wishing to tell his state to Mecnun on the Day of Judgement, since only Mecnun understands his language. Among the variants, the Paris copy reads "ṭāḳatüm" for "ḳudretüm" in the opening couplet, the Paris and Ayasofya copies "niçün" for "nice" in the third, and the Hâlet Efendi copy "düşüpdür" for "gidüpdür" in the second.

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. 136 (variants). https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/17182

Official sources

Online sources