Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ṣubḥ-dem yine nesīm-i cān-fezā-yı ṣaḥn-ı bāġ
Virdi ehl-i dillere cennet hevāsından ferāġ
Görmege bezm-i ṣabūḥ esbābın ehl-i ‘ayş u nūş
Yir yir uyardı gül-i sūrı çiçeklerden çerāġ
Sebze dil-keş bāde bī-ġış āh kim ol serv-i nāz
Eylemez ‘uşşāḳ ile bir laḥẓa seyr-i bāġ u rāġ
Baḳmañuz oġlanlıġına ġonca-ı ra‘nā gibi
Gördüġinleyin göñüldür ṭurdugınlayan dimāġ
Gölgeden güne iletmez kimseye zülfüñ meger
Üstüḫvānum ilede ‘izz-i ḥużūr-ı yāra zāġ
Aġlamaz devrüñde ġamdan Ca‘fer-i dil-sūḫte
Devletinde nevbahāruñ lāleye taġ üsti bāġ

In English

1. At dawn the soul-refreshing breeze of the garden court again made the people of heart forget the air of Paradise.

2. So that the people of pleasure and drink might see the preparations for the morning gathering, the rose lit lamps of flowers here and there.

3. The greenery is enchanting, the wine unmixed; alas that that cypress of coquetry does not stroll for a moment with the lovers in garden and meadow.

4. Do not look at its childishness, like the lovely bud: the moment it is seen it is a heart, the moment it stands it is a scent to turn the head. (The second line of the couplet is obscure.)

5. Your tresses lead no one out of the shade into the sun; perhaps the crow will carry my bones to the honour of the beloved's presence.

6. In your time the heart-burned Ca'fer does not weep for grief; under the fortune of spring, the tulip gets a garden on top of the mountain.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Garden on the Mountain

The pen-name couplet closes on the expression "ṭaġ üsti bāġ", a garden on top of a mountain. The tulip is a flower that grows on mountain slopes; under the fortune of spring the mountaintops turn into tulip gardens. The expression also conveys one blessing coming on top of another: spring bestows gardens in plenty on the tulip, and in the beloved's time the lover does not weep for grief. The same "-āġ" sounds through the rhyme: bāġ, ferāġ, çerāġ, rāġ, dimāġ, zāġ, bāġ. In Nazmî's anthology the same expression also occurs in the opening of Kemâl-i Zerd's response, "Ol hevâ ile aña olup durur tag üsti bâg"; this is one of the signs that the ghazal was written within a circle of responses.

Nazmî places the ghazal in the circle that opens with Ahmed Paşa's ghazal beginning "Hâlüñ ey gül yüzlü koymış lâlenüñ bagrında dâg". In the circle there come first Necâtî's response and a second ghazal of his given under the heading "Velehû"; these are followed by Kemâl-i Zerd, Lâmi‘î and Tâcîzâde. After Câfer Çelebi come Cem, İshak Çelebi, Revânî, Kâtibî, Riyâzî-i Kâdî, Hayâlî and Zâtî. The rhyme "dâġ" (the scar) in the tulip's breast used by Ahmed Paşa and Necâtî is turned in Câfer Çelebi's ghazal into the garden of a spring morning.

Lamps of Flowers and the Crow

The rose of the second couplet lights lamps of flowers so that the preparations for the morning-drink (ṣabūḥ) gathering may be seen; the opening flowers are the lights of the gathering. The fourth couplet uses the Old Anatolian Turkish suffix "-duġınlayın" twice: "gördüginleyin" means as soon as it is seen, "ṭurduġınlayın" as soon as it stands. It seems that the bud has the shape of a heart as soon as it is seen and is a head-turning scent as soon as it stands, but the full meaning of the line is not clear.

The beloved's long tresses in the fifth couplet are a shade and lead no one out into the sun, that is, the beloved's face. So the lover seeks another way: his bones may be carried by the crow and taken into the beloved's presence. The link of colour between the black tresses and the black crow binds the couplet together. In the second couplet the Cairo copy reads "aḥvālin" for "esbābın", while the Paris copy drops the word "çiçeklerden"; the same Paris copy writes "zülfi" for "zülfüñ" in the fifth, where the thesis text also has "kimseyi" for "kimseye".

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

Official sources

Online sources