Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün

Dilüm ġamkīn gözüm nemkīn yaşum ḳana boyanıḳdur
‘Aceb olmaz budur ḥāli anuñ her kim ki ‘āşıḳdur
Saña boynın eger gerçi benefşe-vār yüzbiñ var
Hezār aḥsente gül gibi yüzüñ aġ alnuñ açıḳdur
Delürdüm derd-i ‘ışḳuñdan ṣaçuñ zencīri ḥaḳḳumdur
Ḥabībüm kimsenüñ ḥaḳḳın ḳoma boynuñda yazıḳdur
Ya ẓāhirde ya bāṭında seni görmek ümīdiyle
Uyur dün gün ḳara baḫtum gözüm dā’im uyanuḳdur
Ṭurursa serv-i bālādur otursa verd-i ra‘nādur
Güzel oldur ki ṭurdugı oṭurdugı yaraşıḳdur
Senüñ gibinüñ ey bülbül uçurmışdur hezārın ol
Gül-i ra‘nāya aldanma ikiyüzlü münāfıḳdur
Seḥerden gün gibi dilber n’ola ‘arż-ı cemāl itse
Çü Ca‘fer ṣubḥveş anuñ reh-i ‘ışḳında ṣādıḳdur

In English

1. My heart is grieving, my eye is wet, my tears are dyed with blood; it is no wonder, this is the state of everyone who is a lover.

2. True, there are hundreds of thousands who bow their necks to you like the violet; but a thousand bravos, your rose-like face is white and your brow is clear.

3. I have gone mad from the pain of loving you; the chain of your hair is my due. My beloved, do not leave anyone's due on your neck; it would be a pity.

4. In the hope of seeing you either awake or in dreams, my black fortune sleeps night and day, while my eye stays always awake.

5. When she stands she is a tall cypress, when she sits a lovely rose; the beauty is she whose standing and sitting both become her.

6. O nightingale, that rose has let a thousand like you fly away; do not be deceived by the two-coloured rose, it is a two-faced hypocrite.

7. What wonder if the beloved shows her beauty from dawn like the sun? For Ca'fer, like the true dawn, is faithful on the road of her love.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Standing and Sitting

The fifth couplet carries a verdict like a proverb: "Güzel oldur ki ṭurdugı oṭurdugı yaraşıḳdur", the beauty is she whose standing and sitting both become her. Erünsal cites this couplet as an example of Câfer Çelebi's use of internal rhyme in metres that allow a caesura. The metre of the ghazal consists of four "mefā‘īlün" and each line can be divided in the middle; in the first line "bālādur" and "ra‘nādur" rhyme with each other before and after this central pause. The same sound pattern is seen in the words "ġamkīn" and "nemkīn" of the first couplet. The beloved, a cypress when she stands and a rose when she sits, is praised both for her tall stature and for the beauty of her face.

Rhyme falls on "-ıḳ", and the suffix "-dur" serves as refrain: boyanıḳ, ‘āşıḳ, açıḳ, yazıḳ, uyanuḳ, yaraşıḳ, münāfıḳ, ṣādıḳ. Turkish and Arabic words meeting in the same rhyme give the ghazal a sound close to spoken language. The phrase "kimsenüñ ḥaḳḳın ḳoma boynuñda, yazıḳdur" in the third couplet also rests on a well-known saying that counsels not to leave another's due on one's neck: madmen are put in chains, and the lover, since he has gone mad, counts the chain of the beloved's hair as his due.

A Two-Faced Rose

The phrase "gül-i ra‘nā" in the sixth couplet has two meanings. Ra‘nā means lovely, but "gül-i ra‘nā" is also the name of a two-coloured rose, yellow outside and red inside. Calling the rose a "two-faced hypocrite" rests on these two colours. The word "hezār" means both "thousand" and nightingale: the rose has let a thousand like the nightingale fly away. Erünsal shows that Zâtî repeated this couplet in a couplet ending "Bu dehr-i dūna aldanmañ iki yüzlü münāfıḳdur"; Zâtî turned the same pattern to the faithlessness of the world. In the closing couplet, "ṣādıḳ" (faithful) recalls "ṣubḥ-ı ṣādıḳ", the true dawn: Ca'fer is faithful like the true dawn, and the beloved may rise like the sun.

Nazmî's anthology makes the ghazal the first response in a crowded group written to the poem of Kâsım Paşa, who wrote as Sâfî, beginning "Bahâr-ı ‘âlem-i cândur yüzüñ kim sun‘-ı Hâlık'dur". It is followed by Hıfzî, Nihâlî, Atâ, Zâtî, Süleyman the Magnificent, Hayretî, Hicrî, Sühâyî, Remzî, Bihiştî, Sehî, Ferîdî, Vechî, Şemsî, Ârifî, Gülâbî, Yakînî, Kıyâsî and Nazmî. As the thesis shows, the Paris copy has "serv-i ra‘nādur" for "serv-i bālādur" in the fifth couplet, and its last couplet turns "gün gibi" (like the sun) into "gül gibi" (like a rose).

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. 342-343, ghazal no. 34. 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), pp. 55 (Zâtî), 65 (internal 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. 34 (variants). https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/17182

Official sources

Online sources