Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün

Od üzre ḥalḳa ḥalḳa olanları ṣanma dūd
Gördi ḳapuñda berḳi yılanlar ḳuşandı od
Yılduz degül düşen giceler göz yaşıdur ol
Kim ḳaṭre ḳaṭre çeşm-i felekden aḳıtdı dūd
Bir laḥẓa dūd düşdügiçün oddan cüdā
Berd-i şitādan oldı közüñ çehresi kebūd
Āteş kenārın avla vü gūş eyle nūş ḳıl
Cām-ı şarāb u naġme-i çeng ü nevā-yı ūd
Ca‘fer hevā-yı bāġı çıḳar dilden anda çün
Bülbül yirine çünki zaġanlar ider sürūd

In English

1. Do not take for smoke what rises ring upon ring above the fire; the fire saw the lightning (of your face) at your door and girded itself with snakes for envy.

2. What falls at night is not stars; it is the tears that the smoke has drawn drop by drop from the eye of heaven.

3. Because the smoke was parted from the fire for a moment, the face of the ember turned blue with the cold of winter.

4. Take the edge of the fire, listen and drink: the cup of wine, the melody of the harp, the voice of the lute.

5. Ca'fer, put the longing for the garden out of your heart; for there now the crows sing in place of the nightingale.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Winter Ghazal

The ghazals of divan poetry mostly take place in the season of roses, in the garden and by the water; this ghazal, however, is spoken in winter, by the hearth. All its images turn around fire, smoke and embers. The first couplet likens the smoke rising ring upon ring above the fire to snakes the fire has girded on; the fire has seen the brightness at the beloved's door and writhes with envy. Next the smoke climbs to the sky and gets into heaven's eye; the stars that fall at night are the teardrops heaven sheds because of this smoke. The third ties the dying and darkening of the ember, as the smoke leaves the fire, to separation: because the smoke was parted from the fire for a moment, the ember turns blue in the cold of winter.

The rhyme takes in the words "dūd" (smoke), "od" (fire), "kebūd" (blue, livid), "ūd" (lute) and "sürūd" (song). The closeness of sound between "dūd" and "od" in the opening couplet works like a game binding the two lines together; the same words return again and again within the ghazal.

A Gathering by the Hearth

The fourth couplet is an invitation: sit by the fire, drink wine, listen to the harp and the lute. All the elements of a winter gathering are listed in one couplet; that "ūd" means both the musical instrument and the aloewood burned in the fire suits the setting of the couplet as well. The last couplet closes the garden in plain words: in winter there is no nightingale in the garden, and the crows (zaġan) call in its place; the longing for the garden must be put out of the heart. This close, setting the crow where the nightingale should be, reverses the familiar pattern of spring ghazals.

The Paris copy, as the thesis records, differs in a few small words: it reads "kenārı" for "kenārın" and "da" for "vü" in the fourth couplet, and "şimdi" for "çünki" in the last.

Bibliography

Online sources