Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Görür ki mihr ü vefā eylemez bu māh baña
Bir āh ider dem-i serd ile ṣubḥgāh baña
Derīçeler açıla meşhedüme cennetden
İderse ḫāküme uġrayıcak nigāh baña
Bahār-ı ḥüsnin añup seyr-i sebze-zār itsem
Virür maḥabbeti ‘ıṭrını her giyāh baña
Benüm ki firḳatüñüñ bir günine yoḳ ṣabrum
Eger bu ay u yıl ile olursa āh baña
Günāhı yoḳ dimegil Ca‘feri gel öldür kim
Degül durur seni çoḳ sevmek az günāh baña
Bu gün ki yoḳ daḫi ‘öẕrüm günāhdan ġayrı
Meger ki luṭfuñ ola yine ‘öẕr-ḫvāh baña

In English

1. The dawn, seeing that this moon (the beloved) shows me no love and faithfulness, heaves a sigh for me with its cold breath. ("Mihr" means both love and the sun: the moon does not show the sun, and the morning sighs in the lover's place with its cold wind.)

2. If (the beloved) passes by the earth of my grave and casts me a glance, windows will open from Paradise onto the place where I lie.

3. If I walk through the meadows remembering the spring of her beauty, every blade of grass gives me the scent of her love.

4. I, who cannot bear a single day of your absence: if this separation lasts for months and years, woe is me.

5. Do not say "what is his sin?"; come, kill Ca'fer; for loving you so much is no small sin for me.

6. Since today I have no excuse left but my sin, only your kindness can once more plead for me.

Literary and Historical Commentary

On Şeyhî's Ground

Câfer Çelebi wrote this ghazal as one link in a long chain of response poems. In the Mecma'u'n-nezâ'ir compiled by Edirneli Nazmî in 1523, the model poem (zemin) is Şeyhî's ghazal beginning "Kapuñdan özge bulınmadı çün penâh baña"; it is followed by Ahmed Paşa's poem, then by Câfer Çelebi's under the heading "Nazîre-i Tâcî-zâde", then by poems of Kâsım, Sürûrî-i Müderris, Sabâyî and Sun'î and two by the compiler himself. All are written in the same metre, with the rhyme "-āh" and the refrain "baña".

Read side by side in the anthology, the texts show that Câfer Çelebi stands closer to Ahmed Paşa's response than to Şeyhî. Ahmed Paşa's couplet "Diyâr-ı yârı koyup seyr-i sebzezâr itsem / Çemende dil uzadur her biten giyâh baña" becomes in Câfer Çelebi "Bahār-ı ḥüsnin añup seyr-i sebze-zār itsem / Virür maḥabbeti ‘ıṭrını her giyāh baña": the same rhyme word, the same stroll through the meadows, only the behaviour of the grass has changed. In Ahmed Paşa the grass mocks the lover; in Câfer Çelebi it brings the beloved's scent. Ahmed Paşa's line "Ne suçı var diyü rahm itme öldür Ahmed'i gel" finds its answer in Câfer Çelebi's pen-name couplet as "Günāhı yoḳ dimegil Ca‘feri gel öldür kim", and the rhyme "‘özr-hâh baña" of Ahmed Paşa's last line stands in the same place in Câfer Çelebi's last couplet. Şeyhî's line "Velî ne çâre ki ‘özrüm durur günâh baña" echoes in the sixth couplet's "yoḳ daḫi ‘öẕrüm günāhdan ġayrı". This comparison rests on the texts in the anthology (quotations from it follow Köksal's transcription); Erünsal also notes that most of the response poems in Câfer Çelebi's divan were written to Ahmed Paşa.

Pen Name and Metre

Câfer Çelebi usually names himself in the last couplet of his ghazals; Erünsal lists four ghazals that are exceptions, and this is the first of them. The pen name is in the fifth couplet, while the sixth closes the ghazal like an afterword. In Nazmî's anthology the poem has five couplets and this last one is missing. Erünsal also cites the same pen-name couplet for its metre: the accusative suffix in "Ca‘feri" is read long for the sake of the metre, a lengthening the poet makes on purpose. The spelling "Ca‘ferī" in the anthology confirms this reading.

The word "mihr" in the first couplet is a double entendre (tevriye): love and the sun. "Bu māh", the moon that is the beloved, shows the lover no sun; the morning, pitying him, sighs for him with its cold breath, the dawn wind. The phrase "bu ay u yıl" in the fourth couplet uses the same word "ay" in another sense, as a measure of time, the month.

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. 3 (manuscript locations and variants). https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/17182

Official sources

Online sources