Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ḫūblıḳda māh iderken şems-i tābān ile baḥs̱
Cānı yoḳdur kim ide ḥüsn içre cānān ile baḥs̱
‘Aḳla eydüñ ḳılmasun göñlüme hergiz i‘tirāż
Pīr-i dānā itmek olmaz ṭıfl-ı nādān ile baḥs̱
Kim ola kim ‘ışḳdan ura benüm yanumda dem
Müşkil işdür eylemek ḥikmetde Loḳmān ile baḥs̱
‘Āşıḳa her sözde la‘lüñ cān baġışlar kimse hīç
İdemez iḥyāda ol la‘l-i suḫandān ile baḥs̱
Yol keserse ‘ışḳ serhengine ‘aḳl olmaz ‘aceb
Vaḳt olur kim mūrçe eyler Süleymān ile baḥs̱
Şāh-ı gül Ṭūbā boyuñla itmesün da‘vā-yı ‘ışḳ
Ḥaddini bilsün nigārā ḳılsun aḳrān ile baḥs̱
Mülzem olup ḫacletinden Ca‘ferā baş itdi pīç
Çün benefşe ḳıldı bu zülf-i perīşān ile baḥs̱

In English

1. While the moon disputes in beauty with the shining sun, it has not the heart to dispute in beauty with the beloved.

2. Tell reason never to object to my heart; a wise old man does not dispute with an ignorant child. (Here the heart is the sage and reason the raw youth.)

3. Who is he to boast of love in my presence? To dispute with Luqman in wisdom is a hard matter.

4. Your ruby lips give life to the lover with every word; no one can dispute in reviving the dead with that eloquent ruby.

5. It is no wonder if reason bars the way of love's commander; there are times when the ant disputes with Solomon.

6. Let the king of roses make no claim of love against your stature like the Tûbâ tree; O beauty, let it know its place and dispute with its peers.

7. O Ca'fer, when the violet entered into dispute with these dishevelled tresses, it lost and bent its head for shame.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Ground for Thirty Poets

"Baḥs̱", the Arabic word that serves as refrain, means in the madrasa to argue a question back and forth, to dispute. Each couplet tells of a dispute and of who in it ought to know his place: the moon may dispute with the sun but not with the beloved; reason cannot measure itself against the heart, the claimant of love against the lover, the rose against the beloved's stature, the violet against the tresses. The rhymes meet in "-ān": tābān, cānān, nādān, Loḳmān, suḫandān, Süleymān, aḳrān, perīşān.

In Nazmî's Mecma'u'n-nezâ'ir this refrain belongs to Ahmed Paşa's ghazal beginning "İtmesün hurşîd-ı rahşân rûy-ı cânân ile bahs", and it gathers one of the largest groups of response poems in the anthology. After Câmî comes Câfer Çelebi; then follow Vasfî, Sultan Süleyman, Amrî, Mahremî, three poems by Şem'î, Revânî, Şevkî, Lâmi'î, Usûlî, Mu'îdî, Me'âlî, Sabâyî, Hadîdî, Sâkî, Sehî, the response Prince Korkut wrote under the pen name Harîmî, Hilâlî-i Kazzâz, Latîfî of Kastamonu, Helâkî, Sürûrî-i Müderris, Hayretî, Gedâyî, Selmân, Sabûhî and Nazmî. By the count of the anthology's editor Köksal, about one fifth of all the response poems in Nazmî were written to poems of Ahmed Paşa; this ghazal is one of the most crowded links in that tradition, and Câfer Çelebi's poem stands at the head of the group, right after Câmî's.

The Ant and Solomon

The couplets rest on well-known stories and figures. In the third Luqman stands for wisdom; in the fourth the beloved's speaking lips stand for the breath that raises the dead, the lips giving life with every word being a familiar motif that recalls Jesus's miracle of reviving the dead. The fifth recalls the ant of the sura al-Naml that speaks before the army of Solomon: if reason tries to bar the way of love's commander, it is like an ant disputing with Solomon. The second couplet reverses the usual hierarchy; the wise old man is the heart, the ignorant child is reason.

An ingenious invented cause (hüsn-i ta'lil) ends the ghazal. The violet's habit of blooming with its head bowed is explained by its having disputed with the beloved's dishevelled tresses, lost, and bent its head for shame. The opening words shift from copy to copy: Erünsal's thesis has the Paris copy reading "ay iderken" and the Hâlet Efendi copy "ay iderse" for "māh iderken" in the first couplet; the Paris and Hâlet Efendi copies have "da‘vā-yı ḥüsn" (claim of beauty) for "da‘vā-yı ‘ışḳ" (claim of love) in the sixth. In Nazmî's text, too, the second line of the opening reads "Yok durur cânı kim ide hüsn-i cânân ile bahs".

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

Official sources

Online sources