Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Jālelerden ṣanemā aġzın idüp ṭopṭolu diş
Ġonça la‘līn lebüñi dişlemege diş bilemiş
Vaṣl u hicrān baña olursa ‘aceb mi yeksān
Bir olur ‘āşıḳ-ı şeydā olana yad u biliş
Rişte-i cānda olan ġam girihin açmaġ içün
Oldı peykānları yaralarum aġzına diş
Çarḫ ṣanduḳasına atmaġa āh oḳlarını
Ḳaddümüñ ṭaḳdı kemānına yaşum al kiriş
Ḳarşu düşdi aña ḳaṣrundaġı ṣūret-i serv
Didi kim ḳo Ḫıżır Abdal beni dīvāra yapış
Çün lebüñden şeker uġruladı şīrīnlik anuñ
Zecr içün dehr eli parmaġına yürütdi ḳamış
Dil-i Ca‘fer ġam u şādīde ruḫuñ şevḳiyle
Bir çemendür ki biter tāze güli yaz ile ḳış

In English

1. O idol, the bud, filling its mouth chock-full of teeth from dewdrops, has whetted its teeth to bite your ruby lips.

2. Is it any wonder if union and separation are the same to me? To the frenzied lover stranger and acquaintance are one.

3. To untie the knot of grief in the thread of the soul, the tips of your arrows have become teeth in the mouths of my wounds.

4. To shoot the arrows of sighs into heaven's chest, my tears have strung a red string on the bow of my stature.

5. The cypress picture in her pavilion fell opposite her and said, "Leave off, Hızır Abdal, stick me to the wall." (The couplet is obscure.)

6. Because sugar stole sweetness from your lips, the hand of time, to punish it, has driven a reed into its finger.

7. Ca'fer's heart, in grief and in joy alike, through longing for your cheek, is a meadow where fresh roses grow summer and winter.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Turkish Rhymes

The rhymes of the ghazal consist almost entirely of Turkish words: diş, bilemiş, biliş, diş, kiriş, yapış, ḳamış, ḳış. In the divan ghazal the rhyme is commonly built with Arabic and Persian words; in this ghazal, however, everyday Turkish expressions such as "diş bilemek" (to whet one's teeth), "yad ile biliş" (stranger and acquaintance) and "yaz ile kış" (summer and winter) settle into the rhyme. There is no refrain, and the word "diş" (tooth) is used in the rhyme in both the first and the third couplet. Erünsal states that in the poet's choice of words the familiar meanings of everyday speech were decisive; the rhyme series of this ghazal is a plain example of that observation.

The first couplet also works the idiom "diş bilemek" in its literal sense. The bud has set teeth in its mouth from the morning dew; the dewdrops are the bud's white teeth. With these teeth it prepares to bite the beloved's ruby lips, that is, it has "whetted its teeth" for them; the idiom's sense of bearing a grudge, of coveting, suits the jealous bud as well. Teeth return in the third couplet: to untie the knot of grief in the thread of the soul, the arrowheads become teeth in the mouths of the wounds, just as a knot is untied with the teeth.

The Punishment of the Reed

The sixth couplet is a conceit built on an image of punishment. Sugar has stolen sweetness from the beloved's lips; and the hand of time, to punish this thief, has driven a reed into its finger. Driving reeds under the fingernails of thieves is a known form of torture; that sugar is found inside the reed is turned into this punishment. Sugar cane becomes a punished sugar thief. The fourth couplet bends the lover's stature into a bow; his bloody tears are the red string fitted to that bow, and he shoots the arrows of his sighs at heaven.

The fifth couplet is obscure. A cypress picture in the beloved's pavilion falls opposite her and, addressing "Hızır Abdal", asks to be stuck to the wall; to whom this name refers and the full meaning of the couplet are not clear. The thesis indicates that the manuscripts read this couplet differently, but in its scanned text the line cannot be made out. Its other variants lie in the second and third couplets: the Cairo and Manchester copies have "Vaṣl hicrān bigi" for "Vaṣl u hicrān baña" in the second, and "ġamdan" for "cānda" and "cān" for "ġam" in the third. Nazmî leaves the ghazal out of his 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. 380-381, ghazal no. 77. 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. 67 (everyday speech). 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. 77 (variants). https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/17182

Online sources