Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Nev-bahār oldı şükūfeyle bezendi şāḫlar
Bāġ firdevs ü dıraḫt oldı gümüşden kāḫlar
Medḥüñi gūş itmege bülbül dilinden her seḥer
Penbe-i ezhārı gūşından çıḳardı şāḫlar
Ġonca-ı ra‘nā devāt oldı nihāl-i gül ḳalem
Yazmaġa ḳadd ü dehānuñ vaṣfını nessāḫlar
Her nefes kim uram eyler üstüḫvānum nāleler
Ney gibi tīrüñ açup yir yir aña sūrāḫlar
Boynına salınduġınca zülfine yüz virdi dōst
Bir zamāndur şimdi Ca‘fer yüz bulur küstāḫlar

In English

1. The new spring has come, the branches are adorned with blossom; the garden has become Paradise, the trees pavilions of silver.

2. To hear your praise from the nightingale's tongue every dawn, the branches have taken the cotton of the blossoms out of their ears.

3. To write of your stature and your mouth, the copyists have taken the lovely bud as inkwell and the rose sapling as pen.

4. At every breath my bones moan; for your arrow has opened holes in them here and there, as in a reed flute.

5. As they fell over his neck, my friend gave his tresses free rein; Ca'fer, for some time now the insolent have been getting their way.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Pavilions of Silver

The ghazal opens with spring: the branches are in blossom, the garden has become Paradise. The trees covered with white flowers resemble pavilions (kāḫ) of silver. The second couplet is an ingenious invented cause (hüsn-i ta'lil) that likens the opening of the buds to the removal of cotton stopping the ears: the branches have taken the cotton of the blossoms out of their ears to hear the praises the nightingale recites every morning, that is, the beloved's praise. The likeness between the opening white blossom and cotton carries the image. The plural "-lar" is the refrain and "-āḫ" the rhyme: şāḫlar, kāḫlar, nessāḫlar, sūrāḫlar, küstāḫlar; in the second couplet the word "şāḫlar" is used again as a rhyme.

The third couplet joins the materials of writing with the garden. The bud is the inkwell, the rose sapling the pen; the copyists (nessāḫ), the scribes who multiplied books, will write of the beloved's stature and mouth with these materials. The language of books and writing seen in other ghazals of the divan is here added to a description of spring.

Reed Flute and the Insolent

The fourth couplet turns the lover's bones into a reed flute (ney). The beloved's arrows have opened holes here and there in the bones; since the ney gives its voice through the holes cut in the reed, the lover's bones moan at every breath. The moan of the ney is known in the Mevlevi tradition as the voice of separation.

Erünsal cites the pen-name couplet as an example of Câfer Çelebi's use of common idioms of everyday speech. "Yüz vermek" and "yüz bulmak" (to give someone face, to get face) are still used today in the sense of spoiling someone and being spoiled. The beloved gave face to the tresses falling on his neck, that is, let them come close to his face; the tresses grew insolent and got their way. The word "yüz" (face) in the idiom also describes the tresses touching the beloved's face. A small variant in the Ayasofya copy, "Bu" for "Bir", is recorded in Erünsal's thesis. Nazmî did not take this short spring ghazal into his 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), p. 356, ghazal no. 49. 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. 59 (common expressions). 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. 49 (variant). https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/17182

Online sources