Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātün mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātün

Ey serv-i sīm-ten cān bostānda gerçi bitmez
Bu ṭurfe bāġ-ı dilden ḫaddüñ ḫayāli gitmez
Biñ āh u girye itsem girmez ele viṣālüñ
Bir meyvedür bu degme āb u havāda bitmez
İtsem hezār zārī gūş eylemezsin ey yār
Beñzer ki gül ḳulaġı bülbül ünin işitmez
Vir nūr u fer ruḫuñdan bu çeşm-i eşk-bāra
Sen eylük it ṣuya ṣal eylük cihānda bitmez
Taḥt-ı yedinde olsa zülfeyninüñ dehānı
Ca‘fer ta‘accüb itme yoḳluḳ kişiye n’itmez

In English

1. O silver-bodied cypress, true, (your like) does not grow in the orchard of the soul; but the image of your cheek never leaves this wondrous garden of the heart.

2. If I sighed and wept a thousand times, union with you would not come to hand; it is a fruit that does not grow in every water and air.

3. Though I lament a thousand times you do not listen, my love; it seems the rose's ear does not hear the nightingale's voice.

4. Give light and radiance from your cheek to this tear-shedding eye; do good and cast it on the water; good deeds are never lost in the world.

5. If her mouth falls under the hand of her tresses, Ca'fer, do not wonder; what does want not make a man do?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Do Good and Cast It on the Water

The fourth couplet carries a form of the proverb still known today, "do good and throw it into the sea; if the fish does not know it, the Creator will": "Sen eylük it ṣuya ṣal eylük cihānda bitmez." The lover asks the beloved to give his weeping eye a share of the light of her cheek and cites this saying as his reason. The "casting on the water" part of the proverb gains a further meaning here, since the lover's eye is already full of tears, that is, of water; the beloved's kindness will have been cast into that water. Erünsal notes that Câfer Çelebi liked to set proverbs between his lines; this couplet is a clear example of that habit.

The metre of the ghazal is the pattern "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātün mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātün" of the muzari metre, and each line divides into two equal halves. Without a refrain, the ghazal rhymes on "-itmez": bitmez, gitmez, bitmez, işitmez, bitmez, n'itmez. That the word "bitmez" stands three times in the rhyme, each time with a different sense, is a sound game of the ghazal: in the first couplet a plant does not grow, in the second the fruit does not grow in every climate, in the fourth goodness never runs out.

Want and the Mouth

The second couplet likens union to a rare fruit; it does not grow in every air and water and is not won by sighs and tears. In the third the rose's ear does not hear the nightingale's voice; the likeness of a rose petal to an ear supports the image. An everyday saying rounds off the pen-name couplet: "yoḳluḳ kişiye n'itmez", what does want not make a man do. The beloved's mouth is so small that it is counted "non-existent"; no wonder if this "non-existence" falls under the hand of the tresses. The couplet joins the non-existence of the mouth with non-existence in the sense of poverty. The copies diverge here too: Erünsal's thesis has the Manchester copy reading "zülfeyni tek" for "zülfeyninüñ", while "ḫaddüñ" (your cheek) in the first couplet becomes "la‘lüñ" (your lip) in the Paris and Ayasofya copies. Nazmî's anthology leaves this ghazal of proverbs aside.

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. 374, ghazal no. 69. 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). 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. 69 (variants). https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/17182

Online sources