Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Dōstum sendeki şol perçem-i pür-tāb u şikenc
Ejdehādur kim olupdur yiri anuñ ser-i genc
Naẓar it baña ki ḳaṣruñdaġı ṭop āyineler
Oldı ‘aks-i ruḫ-ı zerdümle ser-ā-ser nārenc
İre mi vaṣla düşen firḳate didüm didi kim
Genc ü ni‘met bula her kim ki çeke miḥnet ü renc
Baydaḳ-ı encümi meh dizdügi naṭ‘-ı felege
Sen şeh-i ferruḫ ile oynamaḳ ister şaṭranc
Seni gördükçe oḳur tāze ġazeller Ca‘fer
Bülbül olur gül-i ter ḳarşusına ḳāfiye-senc

In English

1. My friend, that curling, twisting forelock of yours is a dragon whose place is at the head of the treasure. (Dragons were believed to guard treasures; the forelock likewise lies at the head of the face, the treasure of beauty.)

2. Look at me: the ball-shaped mirrors in your pavilion have turned into bitter oranges from end to end with the reflection of my yellowed face.

3. I said, "Does one who has fallen into separation ever reach union?" She said, "Whoever bears toil and pain finds treasure and bounty."

4. The moon has set out the pawns of the stars on the chess cloth of heaven; it wants to play chess with a fortunate king like you.

5. Whenever Ca'fer sees you he recites fresh ghazals; the nightingale, too, weighs out rhymes before the fresh rose.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Difficult Rhyme

Very few words in Turkish can carry the sound "-enc", and this ghazal rhymes on it: şikenc (curl), genc (treasure), nārenc (bitter orange), renc (pain), şaṭranc (chess) and ḳāfiye-senc (weigher of rhymes, a maker of verse). These words, all from Persian, give rise to quite separate images in a short ghazal of five couplets: the treasure guarded by a dragon, mirrors turning into oranges, a chessboard and a nightingale making verse. To write a ghazal without a refrain on so narrow a rhyme is a difficulty the poet sets himself, and the pen-name couplet seems to hint at it: even the nightingale can only "weigh out rhymes" before the rose.

The first couplet rests on a familiar belief of divan poetry: dragons guard the treasures buried in ruined places. The beloved's face is a treasure of beauty and her curling forelock the dragon coiled at its head. The ornamental mirrors of the pavilion in the second couplet reflect the lover's yellowed face, and the ball-shaped mirrors turn into yellow oranges; the lover's suffering is carried into the beloved's palace as a colour.

Question and Answer

Erünsal cites the third couplet as an example of Câfer Çelebi's statements in question-and-answer form. The lover asks, and the beloved, or a voice within the couplet, answers: no treasure is reached without toil. The rhyming pair "genc" and "renc" packs into a single line the common idea that treasure is won through pain. The fourth couplet turns the night sky into a chessboard: the moon has set out the stars like pawns on the leather chess cloth (naṭ‘) of heaven and wants to play with the beloved, the "fortunate king". This likeness between the king of chess and the king of beauties shows the beloved as a superior opponent even in the game of the heavens.

The five manuscripts recorded in Erünsal's thesis show no significant divergence in this short ghazal. Nazmî did not take it into his anthology.

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. 326-327, ghazal no. 15. 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), p. 60 (statements in question-and-answer form). 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. 15. https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/17182

Online sources