Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Gözlerüñle ṣūretüñ naḳşın ki ṣūret-ger yazar
Resm idüp ṣan merġzār içinde āhūlar yazar
İştiyāḳından devāt aġzın açup ḥayrān ḳalur
Çün ḳalem reyḥān ḫaṭṭuñ vaṣfın ey dilber yazar
Zülf ü ḫaddüñ resm idüp çeşmümde naḳḳāş-ı ḫayāl
Ṣan Ḫaṭāyī Rūmī yapraḳlarla bir saġar yazar
Ġonca cüzdānındaki rengīn varaḳlardan bahār
Gül yüzüñ vaṣfında her yıl tāze bir defter yazar
Kūh-ı ġamdur dil lebüñ resm itsem anda vechi var
Ṭaġda Şīrīn naḳşını Ferhād-ı ṣūret-ger yazar
Zülfi ucında ḫat u ḫālin müneccimler görüp
Şām serḥaddinde çoḳ āşūb u şūr u şer yazar
Ḫaṭṭ-ı ḫaddüñ yādına her beyti kim bünyād ider
Gül varaḳlar üzre anı müşk ile Ca‘fer yazar

In English

1. When the painter draws your face together with your eyes, it is as if he were drawing gazelles in the middle of a meadow.

2. O beauty, when the pen writes in praise of your basil-like down, the inkwell is left open-mouthed with wonder.

3. When the painter of fancy pictures your tresses and cheek in my eye, it is as if he drew a cup with hatayî and rûmî motifs.

4. From the coloured leaves in the wallet of the bud, spring writes a fresh register every year to describe your rose-like face.

5. The heart is a mountain of grief; it is fitting if I paint your lips there; for on the mountain the painter Ferhad draws the likeness of Shirin.

6. Astrologers, seeing the down and the mole at the tip of your tresses, write that there will be much turmoil, strife and evil on the border of Şam (of evening).

7. Every couplet Ca'fer builds in memory of the down on your cheek he writes in musk on rose petals.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Hatayî and Rûmî

"Yazar", the refrain, means in old usage both to write and to draw a picture. All the couplets of the ghazal seem to come from the hand of a painter, an illuminator or a scribe. The third couplet names the two basic motifs of Ottoman decorative art: "hatayî", made of flowers and leaves, and "rûmî", in the shape of curling wings and leaves. When the painter of fancy pictures the beloved's tresses and cheek in the eye, a cup decorated in these two styles appears. The word "Ḫaṭāyī" points both to Cathay, that is, China, and to "ḫaṭ", the down on the cheek; "Rūmī" calls up Rum, the land of the white face. These motifs, found in the art of Câfer Çelebi's age from book covers to tiles, stand in the couplet for the dark and light colours of the beloved's face.

The first couplet likens the eyes to gazelles: when the painter draws the face with the eyes, it is as if he had painted gazelles in a green meadow. In the second the inkwell (devāt) is pictured as an open-mouthed admirer; when the pen begins to describe the beloved's down, the inkwell is left open-mouthed with wonder.

Ahmed Paşa's Register

Erünsal compares the fourth couplet with a couplet from Ahmed Paşa's ghazal 66: "Rūmı evrāḳ-ı gül-i ḫandān ṭutar ḫoş būy ile / Gül yüzüñ vaṣfında Aḥmed nice kim defter yazar". Câfer Çelebi takes the second line, saying only "her yıl tāze bir" (every year a fresh) instead of "Aḥmed nice kim" (as Ahmed does), and builds the first line in his own words: spring draws a fresh register every year from the coloured leaves in the bud's wallet. This example given by Erünsal is typical of Câfer Çelebi's habit of placing Ahmed Paşa's lines in a new setting by changing a word or two.

The fifth couplet rests on the story of Ferhad carving Shirin's likeness on Mount Bisutun; since the heart is a mountain of grief, the lover may paint the beloved's lips there. In the sixth "Şām" means both evening and the city of Damascus: the tip of the tresses is the border of evening, where darkness begins, and the astrologers read turmoil from the signs of down and mole there. The copies part company at several points. According to Erünsal's thesis, the Hâlet Efendi and Ayasofya copies read "vaṣfını" for "naḳşını" in the fifth couplet, three copies read "ṣan‘at-ger" for "ṣūret-ger", and the Paris copy writes "ḫaṭṭuñ" for "ḫaddüñ" in the third. The poem is absent from 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. 356-357, ghazal no. 50. 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. 47 (comparison with Ahmed Paşa). 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. 50 (variants). https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/17182

Online sources