Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Kātib-i eşküm düzüp kirpüklerümden hāmeler
Safha-i ruḫsārum üzre yazdı firkat-nāmeler
Nev‘arūs-ı ḥüsnüñe reşk eyleyüp gülşende gül
Ruḫların gülgūne düzdi geydi rengīn cāmeler
Leblerüñ sırrını ‘Allāmü’l-ġuyūb olan bilür
Kim anı keşf itmede dil-tengdür ‘allāmeler
Tañlama zülfüñ görüp diller perīşān olduġın
‘Ādet oldur şeb irişse ṭaġılur hengāmeler
Ca‘ferā ol ḫıżr-ḫaṭṭuñ yazmaġa vaṣf-ı lebin
Āb-ı ḥayvāndan midād it ney-şekerden ḫāmeler

In English

1. The scribe of my tears, cutting pens from my lashes, has written letters of separation on the page of my face.

2. In the rose garden the rose, jealous of the young bride of your beauty, rouged its cheeks and put on colourful garments.

3. God, who knows the unseen, knows the secret of your lips; for the learned are helpless to solve it and their tongues are tied.

4. Do not wonder that hearts are scattered when they see your tresses; such is the custom: when night comes, gatherings break up.

5. O Ca'fer, to describe the lips of that beauty with the down of Khidr, make ink from the water of life and pens from sugar cane.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Another Model Poem

This is another of Câfer Çelebi's poems that served others as a ground: Nazmî's anthology gives it under the heading "Ez-ân-ı Tâcî-zâde" and follows it with eleven response poems. Sâlikî, Kemalpaşazâde, Pelâsî, Âhî, Zâtî, Civânî-i Kâdî, Süleyman the Magnificent under the pen name Muhibbî, Yemînî, Latîfî of Kastamonu, Emrî and Nazmî wrote responses to this ground. That the group includes, beside Kemalpaşazâde and Süleyman, Latîfî, who in his biographical anthology ranked Câfer Çelebi with Hassân in verse and Sahbân in prose, is a small sign of how the ghazal was received in his circle. With "-ler" as refrain, the rhyme falls on "-āme": ḫāmeler (pens), firḳat-nāmeler (letters of separation), cāmeler (garments), ‘allāmeler (the learned), hengāmeler (gatherings) and ḫāmeler again.

The first and last couplets of the ghazal are framed by writing. In the opening the tear is a scribe; it cuts pens from the lashes and writes letters of separation on the page of the face. The lines of tears running down the cheek are the lines of the writing. Signing his name, the poet asks for the same writing set to describe the beloved's lips: the ink must be the water of life, the pen sugar cane. Since pens were cut from reed, "ney-şeker", sugar cane, is a material both sweet and fit for a pen. The phrase "Ḫıżr-ḫaṭ" ties the beloved's green down to Khidr in his green garment; the water of life that Khidr drank is the beloved's lips.

The Learned and the All-Knowing

The third couplet is built with words from the same root. "‘Allāmü'l-ġuyūb", the one who best knows the unseen, is an attribute of God; "‘allāmeler" are very learned scholars. Only God knows the secret of the beloved's lips; the learned are helpless to solve it. The phrase "dil-teng" means both sad at heart and narrow of tongue, and it suits the secret of the small, invisible mouth. The tresses of the fourth couplet resemble night; when night comes gatherings break up, and the hearts that see the tresses scatter and are distraught.

Most of the variants lie in the Hâlet Efendi and Ayasofya copies. According to Erünsal's thesis, both read "eyledi" for "eyleyüp" in the second couplet and "Lebleri" for "Leblerüñ" in the third; the Hâlet Efendi copy begins the fourth couplet "Ṭañ degül", and the Ayasofya copy has "dilber" for "diller".

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

Official sources

Online sources