Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Manẓūrı dīdemüñ ḳaçan ol māhitāb olur
Burc-ı şerefde ẕerrelerüm āfitāb olur
Zülfüñ olursa ruḫlaruña perde ġam degül
Zīrā niḳābı mihr ile māhuñ seḥāb olur
‘Ārıż olalı ‘ārıż-ı dildāra ḫaṭ-ı sebz
Gūyā benefşeden gül-i surḫa niḳāb olur
Ġamzeñ muḳīm olursa göñülde ‘aceb degül
Uġrılaruñ maḳāmı ribāṭ-ı ḫarāb olur
Ca‘fer mürīd-i pīr-i ḫarābāt ise ne ṭañ
Çünkim bu ṭavr lāzım-ı ‘ahd-i şebāb olur

In English

1. When that moonlight (the beloved) becomes the object of my gaze, my motes become suns in the sign of exaltation.

2. If your tresses become a veil over your cheeks, it is no cause for grief; for the veil of sun and moon is the cloud.

3. Since the green down appeared on the beloved's cheek, it is as if a veil of violets had come over the red rose.

4. It is no wonder if your glance takes up lodging in the heart; the halting place of thieves is a ruined caravanserai.

5. Is it any wonder if Ca'fer is a disciple of the old man of the tavern? This manner is a requirement of the age of youth.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Moon, Sun and Cloud

The ghazal begins in the language of the sky. The beloved is moonlight (māhitāb); when the lover's eye looks at her, even his motes, his smallest particles, turn into suns in the "sign of exaltation", where the sun is brightest. In old astronomy each planet has a sign in which its power is greatest, and the sun's exaltation is in Aries; a mote that looks at moonlight and turns into a sun tells how the beloved's light lifts the lover up. Erünsal cites this opening as an example of extended rhyme (iltizam), in which the letters called revî, kayd, dahîl and te'sîs are the same: "māhitāb" and "āfitāb" agree in the syllables before their final sounds as well.

The second couplet carries the same sky further: the tresses covering the beloved's cheek are the cloud that covers sun and moon, and there is nothing in this to grieve over. The third uses the word "‘āriż" twice and in two different senses: the first means "appearing, arising", the second "cheek". Two meanings in the same spelling set side by side like this make a perfect pun (tam cinas). The greenish down appearing on the cheek is a veil of violets over the red rose.

A Ruined Caravanserai

The fourth couplet likens the heart to a ruined caravanserai (ribāṭ-ı ḫarāb). Ruined inns along the road are the haunts of thieves; the beloved's glance, too, has settled in the heart like a thief. Since the heart has been laid waste by love, this settling is nothing to wonder at. The pen-name couplet excuses the poet's attachment to the old man of the tavern as a passing manner of youth: if Ca'fer has become disciple to the old wine-seller who is the tavern's master, that is what the age of youth requires.

Ahmedî's ghazal "Cânâ ne leb durur bu ne yâkût-ı nâb olur" gathers a large group of responses in Nazmî's anthology, and this ghazal is one of them. After the poems of Şeyhî and Kâsım Paşa comes Câfer Çelebi; then follow Kâdirî, Abdülkerimzâde, Zâtî, Revânî, Mesîhî, Sürûrî-i Müderris, Sücûdî, Şevkî and two responses by Nazmî. In the second couplet "ġam" (grief) becomes "ṭañ" (a wonder) in the Paris and Ayasofya copies, a variant recorded in Erünsal's thesis.

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. 336-337, ghazal no. 27. 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. 65 (extended rhyme). 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. 27 (variant). https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/17182

Official sources

Online sources