Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Cennet dir isem kūyuña cānā ‘aceb olmaz
Kim pertev-i ḥüsnüñle senüñ anda şeb olmaz
Zülfüñle n’ola ebr-i bahār olsa mu‘arıż
Ter-dāmen olanlarda ḥayā vu edeb olmaz
Öykündügiçün sāyene‘aksini eger serv
Başı aşaġa ṣuya atarsa ‘aceb olmaz
Tāb-ı teb-i hicrāndan es̱er ḳomadı hergiz
Ḫaṭṭuñ gibi bir nüsḫa-ı ta‘vīẕ-i teb olmaz
Dil kūyı ṣafāsın bula mı bāġ-ı İremde
Dünyāda çü cennetdeki ‘ay u ṭarāb olmaz
Ġamdan lebüme gelse de cismümdeki cānum
Binümle bu cān cānā ölüp leb-be-leb olmaz
Budur ölümüm istedügüm hecr eleminden
Ḳurtulmaġa anuñ gibi Ca‘fer sebeb olmaz

In English

1. O soul, it is no wonder if I call your street Paradise; for with the radiance of your beauty there is no night there.

2. What wonder if the spring cloud sets itself against your tresses? Those whose skirts are wet have no shame or manners.

3. It is no wonder if the cypress, because it imitated your shadow, throws its own reflection head down into the water.

4. It left no trace of the heat of the fever of separation; there is no amulet against fever like your down.

5. Will the heart find the delight of her street in the garden of Irem? The joy and gladness of Paradise are not found in the world.

6. Even if the soul in my body comes to my lips from grief, O soul, this soul will not be lip to lip with you unless I die. (The couplet can be understood in two ways.)

7. This is the death I desire from the pain of separation; Ca'fer, there is no other means like it to be free of that pain.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Street Without Night

The opening couplet is built as an argument: there is no night in Paradise; in the beloved's street, too, there is no night because of the light of her beauty; so it is fitting to call the street Paradise. With "olmaz" (there is not) as its refrain, the ghazal rhymes on "-eb": ‘aceb, şeb, edeb, ‘aceb, teb, ṭarab, leb-be-leb, sebeb. The repetition of "‘aceb" as a rhyme word in the first and third couplets is an example of the repeated rhyme often found in Câfer Çelebi's ghazals. The fifth couplet returns to the same idea of Paradise: the garden of Irem is, in legend, a garden built on earth in imitation of Paradise; but the heart cannot find there the delight of the beloved's street, for the joy of the true Paradise is not found in the world.

The idiom "ter-dāmen" in the second couplet again has two senses: the spring cloud is wet with rain, its skirt is wet; the idiom's sense of "sinful" is also laid on the cloud. The cloud that sets itself against the beloved's tresses is a sinner without shame or manners. The third couplet is an ingenious invented cause (hüsn-i ta'lil): the cypress's reflection in the water appears upside down; because it imitated the beloved's shadow, the cypress has punished itself by throwing its reflection head down into the water.

An Amulet Against Fever

The fourth couplet rests on a folk custom. Written amulets were carried against fever, and the "copy" of the amulet, its written text, was believed to drive away the illness. The beloved's down, a "script" (ḫaṭ) on the cheek, is the best amulet to quench the heat of the fever of separation. The meaning of the sixth couplet is not clear: "leb-be-leb" means both lip to lip and full to the brim; the soul has come to the lips, but to come lip to lip with the beloved seems possible only after death. The rendering rests on one reading. The pen-name couplet asks for death as the only way out of separation. Nazmî left the ghazal out of his anthology, and the thesis records no variant worth mentioning.

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. 376-377, ghazal no. 72. 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. 65 (repeated rhyme). 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. 72. https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/17182

Online sources