Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Çü geldi ortaya muṭrib ki ide ṣoḥbet-i ḫāṣ
Ṭaraf ṭaraf n’ola olsa piyāleler raḳḳāṣ
‘Aceb mi sevmese ḳavvāl-i meclisi vā‘iẓ
Mes̱el durur bu ki al-ḳāṣṣu lā yuḥibbu’l-ḳāṣṣ
Beni ġam eyledi ḫāk u ġamı piyāle helāk
Zemāne sāḳi-yi gül-ruḫ eliyle ḳıldı ḳıṣāṣ
Sevād-ı ḫāli ki gösterdi ṣūret-i ḥālüm
Yazıldı bir ‘adese ṣanki sūre-i İḫlāṣ
‘Aceb degül seg-i kūyuñ ürerse ‘uşşāḳa
İgende sevmez olur birbirini çünki ḫavāṣ
Müjeñle baġrumı deldüñ çün aç ḳaşuñ girihin
Şikāruñ alduñ u atduñ oḳuñı yayuñı yaṣ
Ger āyine gibi rūşen-żamīr iseñ Ca‘fer
Görürseñ ol mehi bir ṣūret ile baġrıña baṣ

In English

1. When the minstrel came forward to hold a select gathering, is it any wonder if the cups everywhere were dancing?

2. Is it any wonder if the preacher does not love the singer of the gathering? There is a proverb: the storyteller does not love the storyteller.

3. Grief turned me to dust, and the cup destroyed grief; time took retaliation by the hand of the rose-cheeked cupbearer.

4. That black mole, which showed the picture of my state, is as if the Sura of Sincerity had been written on a lentil.

5. It is no wonder if the dog of your street barks at lovers; for the elect, when they fall into the same trade, cease to love one another.

6. You have pierced my breast with your lashes; now undo the knot of your brow. You have taken your prey and loosed your arrow; slacken your bow.

7. Ca'fer, if your heart is clear as a mirror, when you see that moon, press her to your breast as an image.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Storyteller Does Not Love the Storyteller

The second couplet sets an Arabic proverb into the line just as it is: "al-qāṣṣu lā yuḥibbu'l-qāṣṣ", the storyteller does not love the storyteller. The proverb describes the jealousy of those who ply the same trade. Câfer Çelebi applies it to the preacher and the singer of the gathering (qawwāl): one speaks from the pulpit, the other at the drinking party; both are tellers who gather listeners, and so they do not love each other. The preacher's hostility to the wine gathering is a light, mocking form of the criticism of the ascetic often met in divan poetry.

The fifth couplet turns the same thought in another direction. The dog in the beloved's street barks at lovers, because it too is one of those waiting at the door, and the guardians of the same door cannot bear one another. The exact meaning of the word "igende" in the line is uncertain; the general idea of the couplet, however, stands where the proverb of the second couplet stands. In the Cairo and Manchester copies the couplet reads "ser-i kūyuñ ararsa" for "seg-i kūyuñ ürerse" and takes on an entirely different sense.

A Sura on a Lentil

The fourth couplet rests on the fine craft of calligraphers. Writing a whole sura on a grain of rice or a lentil is known in the art of calligraphy as a display of mastery. The small black mole on the beloved's face is likewise a script that shows the lover's whole state; the choice of the Sura of Sincerity (İhlâs) recalls at once the shortness of the sura and the smallness of the mole, and through the word "ihlas" in its name the lover's devotion. The sixth couplet is a hunting scene: the lash is the arrow and the brow the bow; once the prey is taken, the bow is asked to be slackened and the knot of the brow undone.

Nazmî places the ghazal with the responses to Ahmed Paşa's ghazal with the opening "Hayâl-i yâr ile kıldum bu gice sohbet-i hâs". Sultan Cem, İshak Çelebi, Sultan Bayezid, Tâcîzâde, Şem'î, Atâ, Necâtî, Revânî, Sabâyî and Nazmî also wrote responses on this ground. In Ahmed Paşa's opening couplet the tears are made to dance to the sound of lament; in Câfer Çelebi's it is the cups that dance. In the Paris copy the "ġamı piyāle" of the third couplet is written "ġam-ı piyāle", and the "görürseñ" of the last "görürse".

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

Official sources

Online sources