Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Ḫaddüñe öykündügiçün ḥüsn ü behcetde riyāż
Sünbül oldı münkesir gösterdi ġonca inḳıbāż
Ḥüsnüñe maġrūr olup ‘uşşāḳı iñletme igen
Kim zamān-ı gül bulur az müddet içre inḳırāż
Aġzuña var dirler ise vardur anda söz yiri
Bilüñe yoḳ diseler olmaz maḥall-i i‘tirāż
Yazmaġa evṣāfuñı bülbül nihāl olmış ḳalem
Gonca-ı ra‘nā devāt evrāḳ-ı zanbaḳlar beyāż
Gül budaḳlarındaġı güller degül Ca‘fer gibi
Şevḳüñ ile ḳollarına tāze dāġ urmış riyāż

In English

1. Because the gardens strove to imitate your cheek in beauty and radiance, the hyacinth fell broken and the bud closed in upon itself.

2. Proud of your beauty, do not make the lovers moan too much; for the season of the rose comes to its end in a short time.

3. If they say of your mouth "it exists", there is room for words there; if they say of your waist "it does not exist", there is no ground for objection.

4. To write your qualities, the nightingale's sapling has become a pen; the lovely bud is the inkwell, and the petals of the lilies white paper.

5. What is on the rose branches is not roses; the gardens, like Ca'fer, have burned fresh brands on their arms out of longing for you.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Difficult Rhyme

The ghazal rhymes on a sound rarely used in Turkish: riyāż, inḳıbāż, inḳırāż, i‘tirāż, beyāż. All these words end in the Arabic letter "ḍād"; in Ottoman Turkish this letter is read "z", but since the rhyme is built in writing on the same letter as well, the poet must choose his words from this narrow list. "Riyāż", meaning gardens, is the rhyme both of the opening couplet and of the pen-name couplet; the ghazal begins in the garden and ends in the garden. The gardens of the opening couplet have tried to imitate the beloved's cheek and, failing, the hyacinth has broken and the bud has shrunk and closed in on itself. The word "inḳıbāż" expresses both the closedness of the flower and the heart's oppression.

Erünsal shows the second couplet among the examples of Câfer Çelebi's bringing truths accepted by everyone into his poetry. That the season of the rose is short is a known truth; the poet speaks it as a warning to the beloved: do not rely on your beauty and make your lovers moan, for beauty too passes as quickly as the rose. The Paris copy has "incitme" (do not hurt) for "iñletme" (do not make moan) in this couplet.

Existing and Not Existing

The third couplet compares two known motifs of divan poetry within one couplet. The beloved's mouth is so small that its existence is disputed; there is something to be said against the one who says "it exists". Her waist is so slender that no one can object to the one who says "it does not exist". The expression "söz yiri" means on the one hand a point of dispute and on the other the mouth as the place from which words come; the mouth, as the place words come from, also becomes a subject of words.

The fourth couplet sets out a writing set: the sapling on which the nightingale perches is the pen, the bud the inkwell, the lily petals the paper. The pen-name couplet reads the red of the roses as fresh brands that the gardens, like lovers, have burned on their arms. Lovers' branding of their arms with hot iron for the beloved's sake is a known image in divan poetry. In the thesis the Manchester copy reads "Ḳaddüñe" (your stature) for "Ḫaddüñe" (your cheek) in the opening couplet, and the Cairo copy "inḳırāż" for "inḳıbāż". Nazmî's anthology gives the ghazal no place.

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. 382-383, ghazal no. 79. 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 (statements accepted by all). 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. 79 (variants). https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/17182

Online sources