Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün

Derd ü hasretle cihāndan baña riḥlet yegdür
Ki vaṭandan ṣanemā ‘āşıḳa ġurbet yegdür
Cān çıḳup gitse ḳayurmaz dile tīġüñ gelicek
Ki yalıñ yüzlülerüñ ṣoḥbeti ḫalvet yegdür
Ḥüsn ile başı göge irmiş iken mihr ü mehüñ
Yine yüz biñ derece sendeki ḥālet yegdür
Nisbet idüp güle beñzer dimeñüz ruḫlarına
Gül-i terden meh-i ruḫsārı ne nisbet yegdür
Çekme minnet ruḫ-ı cānān var iken cennet içün
Nüs’eden ‘ārif iseñ naḳdine minnet yegdür
Şāyed anuñ seg-i kūy-ı ṣanalar yār idene
Sīnede olducaġı dāġ-ı maḥabbet yegdür
‘Işḳı elden ḳoyayın dime ṣaḳın ‘aḳla uyup
‘Aḳl u dānişden ise ādeme devlet yegdür
Yārı taḥrīk idüñüz ḳatlüme men‘ eylemeñüz
Dōstlar şerden ise ḫayra delālet yegdür
Ehl-i dildür seni dünyālara virmez Ca‘fer
Dü cihāndan aña bir ḫūb ile ṣoḥbet yegdür

In English

1. To depart from the world with pain and longing is better for me; for, O idol, exile is better for a lover than home.

2. When your sword comes to the heart, the heart does not care though the soul departs; for the company of the bare-faced is better in private.

3. Though the heads of sun and moon have reached the sky in beauty, the state that is in you is still a hundred thousand degrees better.

4. Do not compare her cheeks to the rose and say "it resembles"; what good is it to measure the moon-cheeked one against a fresh rose? (The second line can be understood in two ways.)

5. While there is the beloved's cheek, do not beg for Paradise; if you are a knower, know that cash in hand is better than credit.

6. Lest they take him for a dog of the beloved's street, it is better that a brand of love should be on the lover's breast.

7. Beware of following reason and saying "let me give up love"; for a man, fortune is better than reason and knowledge.

8. Stir the beloved up to kill me, do not stop her; friends, to point the way to good is better than to point to evil.

9. Ca'fer is a man of heart; he would not give you for worlds; for him the company of one beauty is better than the two worlds.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Things That Are Better

For nine couplets the ghazal keeps a list of comparisons, each tied to the refrain "yegdür", "is better": departure is better than home, exile than one's own land, the beloved's state than sun and moon, cash than credit, fortune than reason, good than evil, the beloved's company than the two worlds. The rhymes gather in "-et": riḥlet, ġurbet, ḫalvet, ḥālet, nisbet, minnet, maḥabbet, devlet, delālet, ṣoḥbet. Many of these comparisons rest on well-known sayings, proverbs and religious phrases; what Erünsal says of Câfer Çelebi's habit of placing proverbs and hadith between the lines can be seen several times in this ghazal.

The fifth couplet is the poem's form of the saying "cash is better than credit": "Nüs'eden … naḳdine minnet yegdür". Paradise is credit, a promise to be paid in the Hereafter; the beloved's cheek is cash, to be seen now. The knower settles for cash. The seventh couplet recalls proverbs of the kind "a dram of luck is better than a hundredweight of reason": love must not be given up by following reason, for fortune serves a man better than reason and knowledge. The phrase "ḫayra delālet" (pointing the way to good) in the eighth couplet calls up the hadith that one who leads to good is like one who does it; the lover asks his friends to stir up the beloved to kill him, since in his view this is pointing the way to good.

A Bare Face

The phrase "yalıñ yüzlü" in the second couplet has a double meaning: a bare sword drawn from its sheath and a beauty with her face uncovered. When the beloved's sword comes to the heart, the heart does not care though the soul departs, for it is better to be alone with the bare-faced, both the sword and the beauty. The sixth couplet is obscure; the brand of love on the lover's breast may have been imagined like the mark of a dog bearing its owner's brand. The second line of the fourth couplet is not clear either, and the rendering rests on one reading.

Of the variants, Erünsal's thesis gives the Paris copy's reading in the fourth couplet: "ruḫsār" in place of "ruḫsārı". The poem does not figure in 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. 369-370, ghazal no. 64. 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 (proverbs, Qur'anic verses and hadith). 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. 64 (variant). https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/17182

Online sources