Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Sebz ḫaṭ kim sāye ṣalmış zülf-i müşk-efşān aña
Ḫıżrdur k’olmış müyesser ‘ömr-i bī-pāyān aña
Gözlerüm naḳḳāşı taṣvīr itmege ruḫsāruñı
Surḫa banmış ḳıl ḳalemdür tār-ı her müjgān aña
Lāle yār adına ḳonmış dāġıdur bāġuñ ki bād
Bendin açarken ḳanatmışdur bulaşmış ḳan aña
Tīr-i dil-dūzuñ hevāsından olupdur āhenīn
Göñli her bir nāzenīnüñ kim ola peykān aña
Virdi bir ḥālet ġubār-ı ḫaṭṭ-ı sebzüñ baña kim
Geçmişemdür cān u dildin olmışam ḥayrān aña
Tāze tāze dāġ ile yir yir ḳızarmış gülleri
Bir gülistāndur göñül seyrāna gel ey cān aña
Ḥasret-i la‘lüñle gördi Ca‘ferüñ cān virdügin
Ḳaralar geymişdür aġlar çeşme-i ḥayvān aña

In English

1. That green down on which the musk-scattering tresses cast their shadow is Khidr; endless life has been granted to it. (The greenish down on the cheek is likened to Khidr, who is dressed in green and became immortal by drinking the water of life.)

2. The painter of my eyes, to paint your cheek, has turned every lash into a hair brush dipped in red. (The lashes wet with bloody tears are brushes dipped in crimson paint.)

3. The tulip is a brand the garden has burned in the beloved's name; as the wind loosened its bandage it made the wound bleed, and blood has smeared the tulip.

4. The heart of every graceful beauty has turned to iron in the longing to become an arrowhead for your heart-piercing arrow.

5. The dust of your green down put me in such a state that I gave up soul and heart and fell into rapture over it.

6. The heart is a rose garden whose roses are reddened here and there with fresh wounds; O soul, come and look at it.

7. The fountain of the water of life saw Ca'fer give up his soul in longing for your lips; it has put on black and weeps for him.

Literary and Historical Commentary

In the Footsteps of Ahmed Paşa

When Erünsal describes how Câfer Çelebi drew on Ahmed Paşa, he sets the opening couplet of this ghazal beside the opening of Ahmed Paşa's fourth ghazal: "Ne ḳamerdür bu ki olmış zülf müşk-efşān aŋa / Nice reyḥāndur ḫaṭı kim ḳalmışam ḥayrān aŋa". In both couplets musk-scattering tresses cast a shadow over the beloved's face, and the down on the cheek is likened to a plant or a person. In Erünsal's view Câfer Çelebi is not as strong as Ahmed Paşa in imagination, but he expresses the ideas he takes from him in his own words and in a different arrangement. In Ahmed Paşa the down is sweet basil (reyhan); in Câfer Çelebi it is the immortal Khidr. By bringing together the colour green, Khidr's green garment and the water of life, the couplet says that the down on the beloved's face is a beauty that will never pass.

Nazmî's anthology counts this ghazal among a large group of responses on the same ground. At the head of the group stand Ahmed Paşa's ghazal beginning "Yakdı çeşmüm" and the "Ne ḳamerdür" ghazal cited by Erünsal; they are followed by Necâtî, Sevdâyî, Câfer Çelebi, Hasbî, Kemalpaşazâde, Abdülkerimzâde, İshak Çelebi of Skopje, Emrî, Selmân and Revânî. The anthology, too, gives the opening line as "sāye ṣalmış"; the reading "sāye olmış" quoted in Erünsal's introduction does not agree with the printed text.

Painting, Wound and Rose Garden

The ghazal moves like a painting from the face towards the heart. The weeping eyes of the second couplet are the painter and the lashes dipped in bloody tears are the brushes; the subject is the beloved's cheek. The third makes the tulip a scar (dāġ) burned into the garden. The dark spot at the base of the tulip is compared to such a brand in divan poetry; when the wind opens the bandage of the bud the wound bleeds, and the red of the tulip is that blood. The sixth couplet carries the same wounds into the lover's heart, and the heart becomes a garden of roses reddened with fresh wounds. The fourth couplet explains the hard-heartedness of beauties from the other side: their hearts have turned to iron out of longing to become the tip of the beloved's arrow.

The last couplet returns to the image of Khidr. The water of life is found in the Land of Darkness (ẓulümāt); the fountain's "putting on black" turns that darkness into mourning dress. Even the water of immortality mourns the lover who died longing for the beloved's lips. Two small variants are recorded in the thesis: the Paris and Ayasofya copies have "batmış" (sunk) for "banmış" (dipped) in the second couplet, and the Manchester and Cairo copies "dāġlar" (brands) for "dāġ ile" (with brands) in the sixth.

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

Official sources

Online sources