Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Yüzüñ ḫayāli kim gözüm üzre vaṭan ṭutar
Āb içre deste deste gül ü yāsemen ṭutar
Aġzuñ dişüñ nümūnesidür ġonca jāleden
Yāḳūt ḥoḳḳa içre ki dürr-i ‘Aden ṭutar
Dil naḳdini diler k’ide hindū-yı zülfi cerr
Elde tekellüf itmege sīb-i ẕeḳān ṭutar
Ṭūṭī lebüñi bāġ-ı cemālüñde göreli
Gülzār içinde bülbül-i gūyā vaṭan ṭutar
Sen meh-likāya ḫidmet içün her seḥer şehā
Ḫurşīd āfitābe vü gerdūn legen ṭutar
Gird-i lebüñde ḫaṭṭuñı gördi vü reşk idüp
Pīrūze içre ġonca‘aḳīḳ-i Yemen ṭutar
Zindāna ṣaldı cānı zeneḫdānı Ca‘ferā
Zülfi çıḳarup aṣmaġa anı resen ṭutar

In English

1. The image of your face that has made its home upon my eye is like water holding bunch upon bunch of roses and jasmine.

2. The bud and the dewdrop are the pattern of your mouth and teeth; a ruby casket holds a pearl of Aden.

3. The Indian slave of your tresses wants to collect the cash of hearts; to show courtesy, he holds in his hand the apple of your chin.

4. Since the parrot saw your lips in the garden of your beauty, it makes its home in the rose garden like a speaking nightingale.

5. O king, to serve you, moon-faced one, every dawn the sun holds the ewer and the heavens hold the basin.

6. The bud, seeing the down around your lips and growing jealous, holds Yemeni carnelian within turquoise. (The red bud within green leaves is meant.)

7. O Ca'fer, the dimple of her chin has thrown the soul into prison; her tresses hold a rope to draw it out and hang it.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Pearl in a Ruby Casket

The second couplet appears among Erünsal's examples of leff ü neşr. The first line names, in order, mouth and teeth, bud and dewdrop; in the second line their counterparts come in the same order: the ruby casket is the mouth and the bud, the pearl of Aden the teeth and the dew. The white teeth between the beloved's red lips are pearls kept in a ruby jewel casket. Aden, on the shore of the Red Sea, is named in divan poetry as the home of fine pearls.

The refrain "ṭutar" (holds) makes a different hand hold a different thing in each couplet: the water holds bunches of roses and jasmine, the ruby casket a pearl, the slave of the tresses an apple, the sun a ewer, the heavens a basin, the bud a carnelian, the tresses a rope. The rhyme carries the sound "-en": vaṭan, yāsemen, ‘Aden, ẕeḳan, legen, Yemen, resen; the word "vaṭan" (home) is repeated in the first and fourth couplets. The ghazal builds the beloved's face out of the objects of palace service, jewellery and the garden.

Sun as Ewer, Heavens as Basin

The fifth couplet is a morning scene. When great men washed at dawn, servants held the ewer and the basin. Here the heavenly bodies perform this service: the sun becomes the ewer (āfitābe), the dome of heaven the basin. The likeness of sound between "āfitābe" (ewer) and "āfitāb" (sun) supports the image. The third couplet pictures the tresses as a dark-skinned Indian slave; this slave, wanting to collect the cash of hearts, holds the apple of the beloved's chin in his hand as if offering a courtesy in return.

The pen-name couplet calls up the well and the prison of Joseph. The dimple of the chin (zeneḫdān) is in divan poetry a well or prison into which lovers fall; the long tresses are the rope let down to climb out. Câfer Çelebi lets down this rope not for rescue but for hanging: the tresses will draw the soul out of the prison, but to the gallows. The variants are matters of spelling: Erünsal's thesis gives "zülf" for "zülfi" in the third couplet in the Hâlet Efendi and Ayasofya copies, and the Paris copy spells the word in the sixth "fīrūze". There is no trace of the ghazal in Nazmî's anthology.

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. 349-350, ghazal no. 42. 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. 60 (leff ü neşr). 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. 42 (variants). https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/17182

Online sources