Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Şimdi kim ḥüsn iline server Meḥemmed şāhdur
Her nefes anuñ elinden işüm āh u vāhdur
Zülfini uzatmayup ḳaṭ‘ itse ruḫsārında dōst
Vechi var devr-i ḳamerde ‘ömr çün kütāhdur
‘Anberīn gīsū degül dūşındaki cānānenüñ
Āhumuz ardıncadur var ise dūd-ı āhdur
Eşk-i çeşmüm çün revān olup götürdi cismümi
Kim ki gördiyse didi ṣu üzre berg-i kāhdur
Ḥalḳasından zülfünüñ kim nūr-ı ḥüsnüñ berḳ urur
Ḳalb-i ‘aḳrebden tulū‘ itmiş ṣanasın māhdur
Manẓar-ı çeşmüm yiridür olsa yārüñ menzili
Kim ṣu üstine yapılmış ḫoş temāşāgāhdur
Ṭañ degül Ca‘fer şeb-i zülfüñde gümrāh olmasa
Şem‘-i ruḫsāruñ öñinde çün delīl-i rāhdur

In English

1. Now that the head of the land of beauty is King Mehmed, at every breath my lot at his hands is sighs and laments.

2. It would be fitting if my friend did not let his tresses grow over his cheek but cut them; for in the cycle of the moon life is short.

3. It is not amber-scented hair on the beloved's shoulder; our sighs follow behind him, and if there is anything there it is the smoke of a sigh.

4. When the tears of my eye flowed and carried off my body, whoever saw it said, "a wisp of straw on the water".

5. When the light of your beauty flashes like lightning from the ring of your tresses, you would think the moon had risen from the heart of Scorpio.

6. It would be fitting if the beloved's dwelling stood where my eye looks out; for it is a lovely pavilion built upon the water.

7. No wonder if Ca'fer does not lose his way in the night of your tresses; for the candle of your cheek goes before him as his guide.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Beloved Named

The opening couplet names the beloved: "ḥüsn iline server Meḥemmed şāhdur", the head of the land of beauty is King Mehmed. In divan poetry it is rare for the beloved's name to be stated openly, and sometimes it points to a real person. Who this Mehmed was is not mentioned in the sources; Erünsal's introduction, too, gives no information that the ghazal was written to a particular person. The divan also has ghazals that open with the name Ahmed, and the names stand, at least within the poem, as signs fixing the beloved's identity. The second line of the couplet defines this "king's" reign as an age of sighs and laments for the lover.

The second couplet rests on old ideas of astronomy and time. According to an old belief the world passes through ages, each governed by one of the seven planets, and the last age, in which we live, is the "devr-i ḳamer", the age of the moon; in this age human life has grown short. The beloved's face, too, is a moon, and his age is one in which life grows short for lovers. So the beloved would do well to shorten the tresses stretching over his face: long tresses do not suit an age of short lives. The couplet is not clear, and the rendering rests on this reading; on another reading "the cycle of the moon" may refer only to the moon's short revolution in the sky.

A Moon Rising from the Heart of Scorpio

Erünsal gives the fifth couplet among his examples of wordplay. The curling ring of the tresses resembles a scorpion; the face shining through the tresses is the moon rising from the scorpion's heart. "Ḳalb-i ‘aḳreb" is the name both of the brightest star of the constellation Scorpio and of the scorpion's heart. The moon's standing in Scorpio was considered unlucky in old astronomy; the beloved's face shines even as it rises out of this unlucky sign. The Hâlet Efendi copy reads "Burc-ı" (the sign of) for "Ḳalb-i" (the heart of) here and ties the image directly to the zodiac sign.

The fourth and sixth couplets turn the tears into a river. The body carried off by tears is as light as a wisp of straw on the water; the beloved's dwelling stands where the eye looks out, like a pavilion built upon the water. The last couplet likens the tresses to night and the cheek to a candle; the lover who does not lose his way in the night of the tresses has taken the candle of the cheek as his guide. The Hâlet Efendi copy differs in the fourth couplet as well, where the thesis records "görürse" for "gördiyse". Nazmî's anthology leaves the ghazal out.

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. 350-351, ghazal no. 43. 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. 61 (wordplay). 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. 43 (variants). https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/17182

Online sources