Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün

Gülşende ṣabānuñ yine müşkīn nefesi var
Yāruñ ser-i zülfine meger dest-resi var
Ḫāl-i ruḫuñ ol ġonca-lebüñ ḳılma ta‘accüb
Eyyām-ı bahāruñ çü bilürsin megesi var
Göñlinde perī-ruḫlaruñ ey dōst ḫayālüñ
Bir ṭūṭīye benzer ki demürden ḳafesi var
Dūr itme ḳapuñdan beni zīrā ki bilürsin
Her nirede kim gülşen ola ḫār u ḥası var
Bütḫāne dir isem yaraşur kūyına Ca‘fer
Her dem çü ḳapusında fiġānum ceresi var

In English

1. In the rose garden the morning breeze again has a musky breath; it must have laid its hand on the tip of the beloved's tresses.

2. Do not wonder at the mole on your cheek beside that bud-like mouth; you know that the days of spring have their fly.

3. O friend, your image in the hearts of the fairy-faced is like a parrot whose cage is made of iron.

4. Do not drive me from your door; for you know that wherever there is a rose garden there are thorns and litter too.

5. Ca'fer, it is fitting if I call her street an idol temple; for at her door the bell of my lament is ringing at every moment.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Prince Cem's Ground

The model of this ghazal, as Nazmî's anthology shows, is Prince Cem's ghazal beginning "Dil yâ kaşuña olmaga kurbân hevesi var"; Süleyman the Magnificent under the pen name Muhibbî, Câfer Çelebi, Zâtî, Mu'îdî and Fakîrî wrote responses on the same ground, and Nazmî added two poems of his own. Prince Cem has a place of his own in Câfer Çelebi's life: according to Hüsameddin and the records Erünsal cites, in his youth he was counted a partisan of Cem because of a letter he had written to him, and spent some time in prison. Since the date of this ghazal is unknown, no link can be drawn with that episode; but the anthology shows that Câfer Çelebi also took Cem's poetry as a model.

The refrain turns on the sound group "-esi var" (it has its …): nefesi var, megesi var, ḳafesi var, ḥası var, ceresi var. The words that carry the rhyme come from fields far apart: the breath of the breeze, a spring fly, a parrot's cage, the litter of the garden and a caravan bell. The pleasure of the ghazal lies in drawing these distant words together around the beloved.

A Parrot in an Iron Cage

The third couplet is the one Erünsal also dwells on. The hearts of beauties are known for their hardness; the beloved's image has entered these hearts, but there it is like a parrot shut in an iron cage. The parrot answers to sweet speech, the iron cage to a hard heart. Erünsal shows that Zâtî used this simile in the couplet "Şol kimse ki şīrīn söz ile göñlüñe girdi / Bir ṭūṭīye beñzer ki demürden ḳafesi var", taking over the second line unchanged. Zâtî also wrote a response on this ground in Nazmî.

The mole on the cheek in the second couplet is likened to the fly that settles on the roses in the days of spring; the beloved's face is a spring garden, and the fly is part of that garden too. The fourth couplet is the lover's defence of his right to stay at the door, likening himself to thorns and litter: there is no rose garden without thorns. The last couplet likens the beloved's street to an idol temple (bütḫāne) and the lover's lament to the bell rung there. Where the fourth couplet has "Her nirede" (wherever), the Paris copy, according to Erünsal's thesis, has "Bir yirde" (in one place).

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. 332-333, ghazal no. 22. https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/TR-211662/taci-zade-cafer-celebi-divani.html
  • İsmail E. Erünsal, "Ca‘fer Çelebi'nin Hayatı" and "Edebî Kişiliği", introduction to Tâcî-zâde Ca‘fer Çelebi Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), pp. 11 (the Cem affair), 55-56 (Zâtî). 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. 22 (variant). https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/17182

Official sources

Online sources