Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: müstef‘ilün müstef‘ilün müstef‘ilün müstef‘ilün

Rūḥ-ı mücessemdür tenüñ sen cāna ṣıḥḥat yaraşur
Dermānıdur dil derdinüñ dermāna ṣıḥḥat yaraşur
Sulṭānısın dil mülkinüñ yıḳdı ḫarāb itdi ġamuñ
Vīrānı ma‘mūr itmege sulṭāna ṣıḥḥat yaraşur
Ey cān melekler üstine insānı tafżīl itmegüñ
Ḫoş vech ile burhānısın burhāna ṣıḥḥat yaraşur
Bīmār-ı derd-i ‘ışḳıña la‘lüñ devālar virmege
Dārü’ş-şifā-yı ġaybden sen cāna ṣıḥḥat yaraşur
Kūyuñ çü cennet bāġıdur sende seḳāmet ḫoş degül
Cennetde ey nūr-ı dü-çeşm insāna ṣıḥḥat yaraşur
Ẓulm ile yaḳdı cānumı cevr ü cefā-yı rūzgār
‘Adl itmeg-içün ol şeh-i ḫūbāna ṣıḥḥat yaraşur
Burc-ı sa‘ādetde olup zaḥmet küsūfından berī
Ol āfitāb-ı ṭal‘at-ı raḫşāna ṣıḥḥat yaraşur
Ey dōst eşküm kātibi her dem der ü dīvāruña
Ḫūn-ı dil ile yazdı kim cānāna ṣıḥḥat yaraşur
Ey zülf-i kāfir-kīşi dil iḳlīmini tārāc iden
‘Işḳ ehlinüñ īmānısın īmāna ṣıḥḥat yaraşur
Telḫ olmamaġa ṣoḥbet-i şīrīni ehl-i dillerüñ
Ey ḥüsn ilinüñ ḫusrevi sen cāna ṣıḥḥat yaraşur
Āvāz-ı Dāvūdī ile şi‘r-i zebūrın Ca‘ferüñ
Oḳımaġa ‘Īsī-nefes Saḥbāna ṣıḥḥat yaraşur

In English

1. Your body is spirit made flesh; you are the soul, and health becomes the soul. You are the cure for the heart's pain; health becomes the cure.

2. You are the sultan of the realm of the heart; grief for you has torn it down and laid it waste. To rebuild the ruin, health becomes the sultan.

3. O soul, you are a fine proof that man is ranked above the angels; soundness becomes a proof. ("Ṣıḥḥat" means both health and correctness.)

4. So that your lips may give remedies to the sick of love's pain, health from the hospital of the unseen world becomes you, the soul.

5. Since your street is the garden of Paradise, illness does not suit you; O light of my two eyes, health becomes a person in Paradise.

6. The cruelty and torment of fortune have burned my soul with tyranny; so that he may do justice, health becomes that king of the fair.

7. To that sun of shining face, standing in the sign of felicity, free of the eclipse of illness, health is becoming.

8. O friend, the scribe of my tears has written with the blood of my heart on your door and wall at every moment: "health becomes the beloved".

9. O tresses of infidel nature that plunder the realm of the heart, you are the faith of the people of love; soundness becomes faith.

10. So that the sweet company of the people of heart may not turn bitter, O Khusraw of the land of beauty, health becomes you, the soul.

11. To recite Ca'fer's poetry, which is like the Psalms, with the voice of David, health becomes Sahbân of the breath of Jesus.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Get-Well Ghazal

The ghazal is a wish for the health of a beloved, or of a great personage, who has fallen ill. Its length of eleven couplets comes close to the upper limit of the range of five to twelve couplets that Erünsal gives for Câfer Çelebi's ghazals. The metre is four "müstef‘ilün" of the recez metre, a pattern rarely used in the divan. The refrain is "ṣıḥḥat yaraşur", "health becomes", and each couplet gives the beloved an attribute and says that health becomes that attribute: the soul, the cure, the sultan, the proof, the king, the sun, faith. The rhyme words all end in "-āna": cāna, dermāna, sulṭāna, burhāna, insāna, ḫūbāna, raḫşāna, cānāna, īmāna, Saḥbāna.

The wit of the ghazal lies in the two senses of the word "ṣıḥḥat". It means both the health of the body and the correctness of a statement or a proof. The third couplet makes the beloved the proof that man was created superior to the angels, and the "soundness", the validity, of a proof matters. In the ninth the same game takes a bolder form: the tresses of infidel nature are the faith of the people of love, and soundness, authenticity, becomes faith too. Illness in the seventh couplet is likened to an eclipse of the sun (küsūf); the beloved, as the sun in the sign of felicity, should be free of this eclipse.

The Travels of a Couplet

The sixth couplet has been the subject of a curious confusion. In his introduction to the Adlî Dîvânı, the divan of Bayezid II, Yavuz Bayram cites the couplet "Zulm ile yakdı cânumı cevr ü cefâ-yı rûzgâr / ‘Adl itmegiçün ol şeh-i hûbâna sıhhat yaraşur" among the examples showing the importance the sultan gave to justice, with the reference "G.41-6". Ghazal 41 of Adlî's divan, however, is a different poem; the couplet is the sixth couplet of Câfer Çelebi's ghazal 41 in Erünsal's edition. That both the ghazal number and the position of the couplet match this ghazal suggests that the quotation was carried over by mistake from Câfer Çelebi's divan to Adlî; this identification is ours. Though the words "king", "sultan" and "justice" in the couplet may suggest that the ghazal was written for a ruler, these words are often used for the beloved in divan poetry, and the sources do not say to whom the ghazal was written.

With his pen name the poet likens his own poetry to the Psalms, the book of David, and the one who will recite it to a Sahbân with the voice of David and the breath of Jesus. Sahbân is an orator who stands for eloquence in Arabic literature; it is well known that Latîfî ranked Câfer Çelebi with Sahbân in prose. Erünsal's thesis notes two readings of the Paris copy: "itmege" for "itmegüñ" in the third couplet and "nūr-ı çeşm" for "nūr-ı dü-çeşm" in the fifth. Nazmî, for his part, left the ghazal out of his anthology.

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

Online sources