Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Yine segrür gözüm ol gözleri şehlā mı gelür
Şādlıḳlar görinür yār-ı dil-ārā mı gelür
Yine ḫoş būy ile pür oldı meşām-ı dil ü cān
‘Aceb ol ruḫları gül zülfi semensā mı gelür
Cūş ider dil ḫum-ı mey gibi ṣafādan neyki
Görüñ ol la‘l-i lebi cām-ı muṣaffā mı gelür
Ruḫ u zülfin görürem ḫūblaruñ düşde ‘aceb
Bu bahār içre ‘aceb başuma sevdā mı gelür
Ḳoma ġamzeñ beni oḳa diküp öldüri-yorur
Cānuma geçdi benüm saña temāşā mı gelür
Kulaġ urmaz nice kim ney gibi feryād iderem
Yāra yā Rab bu fiġānum ḳurı ġavġā mı gelür
Ḥüsnünüñ gülşenine medḥ ü s̱enā eylemege
Daḫi Ca‘fer gibi bir bülbül-i gūyā mı gelür

In English

1. My eye is twitching again; is the one with those dark-blue eyes coming? Joys appear; is the heart-adorning beloved coming?

2. The sense of smell of heart and soul is filled again with a sweet scent; can it be that the one whose cheeks are roses and whose tresses smell of jasmine is coming?

3. The heart is boiling with delight like a wine jar; look, is the one whose ruby lips are a cup of clear wine coming?

4. In my dreams I see the cheeks and tresses of beauties; can it be that in this spring a passion (sevda) is coming upon my head?

5. Do not let your glance go on; it sets me up as a target for arrows and kills me. My soul has had enough; does it seem a spectacle to you?

6. However much I cry out like the reed flute, she pays no heed; O Lord, does this lament of mine seem mere noise to the beloved?

7. Will another eloquent nightingale like Ca'fer come to praise and extol the rose garden of her beauty?

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Twitching Eye

The ghazal opens with a folk belief: a twitching eye is taken to mean that someone is coming or that news will arrive. When the lover's eye twitches he hopes the beloved will come, and the refrain "mı gelür" (is … coming?) turns this hope into a question in each couplet. The first three couplets list the signs of the coming: the eye twitches, joy appears, heart and soul fill with a sweet scent, the heart boils like a wine jar. In the later couplets the question turns to something else: is it passion that is coming upon the lover's head, does the lover's death seem a spectacle to the beloved, does his lament seem to her mere noise? The same verb slides from the excitement of an arrival to the sense of something "seeming" a certain way. The rhyme falls on "-ā": şehlā, dil-ārā, semensā, muṣaffā, sevdā, temāşā, ġavġā, gūyā.

The word "sevdā" in the fourth couplet has two meanings: love, and black bile, one of the four humours of old medicine. Spring was believed to stir up black bile and lovers to grow restless in that season; seeing beauties in his dreams, the lover suspects that this spring will bring a passion upon his head.

Ulvî's Ground

Nazmî's anthology gives this ghazal as the only response to Ulvî's ghazal beginning "Yine dil cûş ider ol yâr-ı dil-ârâ mı gelür". Read side by side, the two texts show that Câfer Çelebi stays very close to the model. Ulvî's couplet "Yine hoş kohu ile toldı meşâmm-ı dil ü cân / Ol yüzi nesteren ü zülfi semensâ mı gelür" is repeated in almost the same words in Câfer Çelebi's second couplet; Ulvî's phrases "câm-ı musaffâ" and "Görüñ ol la‘l-i leb" are joined in the third. In the last couplet, too, the two poets take the same road: Ulvî asks whether another sweet-tongued parrot like himself will come to describe the beloved's lips; Câfer Çelebi asks the same question about himself and a nightingale. By Köksal's count Ulvî is the fourth most answered poet in Nazmî.

In the anthology the ghazal has six couplets; the fourth is missing there, and the first line of the opening reads "ol nergis-i şehlâ mı gelür". Among the divan manuscripts, the Ayasofya copy, as Erünsal's thesis records, has "leb-i" for "lebi" in the third couplet and "temāşā mı" for "ġavġā mı" in the sixth.

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

Official sources

Online sources