Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün

Bir nice ḫarābātī vü ḳallāşlaruz biz
Ṣun bāde-i gül-rengi ki ‘ayyāşlaruz biz
Baş terkin urup diş bilerüz la‘lüñe ey dōst
Cānına ḳıyar bir bölük evbāşlaruz biz
Resm eylemişüz gözde ḫayāl-i ḫaṭ u ḫālüñ
Āb üstine naḳş idici naḳḳāşlaruz biz
Cārūb-ı müj ile ḳıluruz yollaruñı pāk
Şehrüñde şehā bir nice ferrāşlaruz biz
Ḫūb eylemişüz gün yüzi māhīyetin idrāk
Zāhid gibi sen ṣanma ki ḫuffāşlaruz biz
Olmadı bize devlet-i pā-būs müyesser
Ca‘fer ne ‘aceb devleti yoḳ başlaruz biz

In English

1. We are a few frequenters of the tavern, carefree vagabonds; pour the rose-coloured wine, for we are lovers of pleasure.

2. O friend, giving up our heads, we whet our teeth for your ruby lips; we are a band of ruffians who throw away their lives.

3. We have painted the image of your down and mole in our eyes; we are painters who paint upon water.

4. With the broom of our lashes we sweep your roads clean; O king, in your city we are a few sweepers.

5. We have fully grasped the nature of your sun-like face; do not take us, like the ascetic, for bats.

6. The fortune of kissing your feet has not been granted us; Ca'fer, no wonder; we are heads without fortune.

Literary and Historical Commentary

We the Vagabonds

A band of libertines speaks as "we" and ends every couplet by naming what they are; the refrain is the structure "-lar-uz biz", "we are …". This company presents itself as frequenters of the tavern (ḫarābātī), carefree vagabonds (ḳallāş), lovers of pleasure (‘ayyāş), ruffians (evbāş), painters, sweepers and "heads without fortune". The rhyme rests on "-āş": ḳallāş, ‘ayyāş, evbāş, naḳḳāş, ferrāş, ḫuffāş, baş. Most of these words describe figures on the margins of society, and in the libertine (rind) tradition of divan poetry they are the names of a way of life boasted of against asceticism.

In Nazmî's anthology the model of this ghazal is the ghazal of Kâsım Paşa, who wrote as Sâfî, beginning "Şehrüñde şehâ bir nice evbâşlaruz biz". The second line of Câfer Çelebi's fourth couplet repeats this opening almost word for word: "Şehrüñde şehā bir nice ferrāşlaruz biz". Only the last word changes, and the Paris copy, as the thesis shows, reads "evbāşlaruz" here too and coincides exactly with the model. Necâtî, Revânî, Sultan Bayezid (Bayezid II), Hadîdî, Refîkî, Lâmi'î, Visâlî, Sabâyî, Kâtibî, Cemâlî, Ferîdî, Mu'îdî, Fakîrî and Nazmî also wrote responses on the same ground; it is one of the crowded groups of the anthology.

Painting on Water, the Bat-Like Ascetic

The third couplet makes the lovers "painters who paint upon water": they have painted the beloved's down and mole in their tear-filled eyes. Painting on water also recalls the saying "to write on water", meaning to labour in vain; the couplet carries both senses together. In the fourth the lashes are brooms sweeping the roads the beloved passes along; the lovers are the sweepers of the king's city. The fifth likens the ascetic to a bat (ḫuffāş): the bat cannot see the sun, and the ascetic cannot grasp what the sun-faced beloved is. The pen-name couplet calls the heads that cannot attain "devlet-i pā-būs", the fortune of kissing the feet, "heads without fortune" and brings the word "baş" (head) into the rhyme.

The other variants shown in the thesis are these: the Ayasofya, Paris and Hâlet Efendi copies read "gül-reng" for "gül-rengi" in the first couplet and "naḳş urucı" for "naḳş idici" in the third; the Paris copy writes "devlet pā-būsı" for "devlet-i pā-būs" in the last.

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

Official sources

Online sources