Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Māh-peykersin velī māhuñ hilāl ebrūsı yoḳ
Serv-ḳadsin servüñ ammā nergis-i cādūsı yoḳ
Zülfüñi niçün giderdüñ bi’llah ey serv-i sehī
Vechi var mı bōstān-ı ḥüsnüñüñ ṭāvusı yoḳ
Ġonca aġzuñdan mis̱āl alurdı ammā ġoncanuñ
Ḥoḳḳa-i yāḳūt içre rişte-i lü’lüsi yoḳ
Baġladı ġamzen meger yaşlu gözümüñ ḫvābını
Kim giceler ṣubḥa dek yılduz ṣayar uyḫusı yoḳ
Leşker-i kāfir durur ḫaṭṭuñ helāk eyle anı
‘Arıżuñ ābında didüm didi bunda Mūsī yoḳ
Āfitābı beñzedürdüm saña līk ey māh-rū
Āfitābuñ müşk ḫāl ü ‘anberīn gīsūsı yoḳ
Ca‘ferüñ‘aybı egerçi zāhidā çoḳdur velīk
Ḥaḳḳa yüz biñ şükrler kim ḫırḳa-ı sālūsı yoḳ

In English

1. You are moon-faced, but the moon has no crescent brow; you are cypress-tall, but the cypress has no bewitching narcissus eye.

2. For God's sake, O slender cypress, why did you cut off your tresses? Is there any reason for it? The garden of your beauty has no peacock now.

3. The bud used to take your mouth as its model, but in the bud's ruby casket there is no string of pearls.

4. Your glance, it seems, has bound the sleep of my tearful eye; all night until dawn it counts the stars and has no sleep.

5. "Your down is an army of infidels, destroy it in the water of your cheek," I said; she said, "There is no Moses here."

6. I used to liken the sun to you, but, O moon-faced one, the sun has no musk moles and no ambergris-scented locks.

7. O ascetic, Ca'fer's faults are many, it is true; but a hundred thousand thanks to God that he has no cloak of hypocrisy.

Literary and Historical Commentary

There Is No Moses Here

The sharpest couplet of the ghazal is the fifth, and it is built as a short exchange. The lover likens the down appearing on the beloved's cheek to an army of infidels and asks her to drown this army in the bright water of her cheek. The couplet rests on the story of Pharaoh's army drowning in the sea that opened before Moses. The beloved's answer is short: "There is no Moses here." That is, unless there is a prophet to part and close the sea, the army will not drown; the down will stay on the cheek. The refrain word "yoḳ" (there is no) finds its most natural place in this answer; for the rhyme the name "Mūsā" is pronounced "Mūsī".

The rhyme is built on "-ūsı": ebrūsı, cādūsı, ṭāvusı, lü'lüsi, uyḫusı, Mūsī, gīsūsı, sālūsı. The opening couplet is a comparison of superiority whose second line is built parallel to the first: the beloved resembles the moon and the cypress, but the moon has no crescent brow and the cypress no narcissus eye. The third and sixth couplets continue this pattern. The bud resembles the mouth but has no pearl teeth in its casket; the sun resembles the face but has none of its moles and locks.

Cut Tresses and an Eye that Counts Stars

The beloved's cutting of her hair draws a reproach in the second couplet. The long, glossy tresses are the peacock of the garden of beauty; with the tresses gone, the garden is left without its peacock. The glance of the fourth couplet has bound the sleep of the lover's eye by a spell; the eye counts the stars until morning. "Counting the stars" is an expression for sleeplessness still used today. The pen-name couplet turns to the ascetic: Ca'fer's faults are many, but the cloak of hypocrisy the ascetic wears is not found on him.

As the thesis shows, the Ayasofya and Hâlet Efendi copies read "lü'lü-yi lālāsı" for "rişte-i lü'lüsi" in the third couplet, and "uyḫusın" for "ḫvābını" and "ıldız" for "yılduz" in the fourth. In the fifth couplet the Manchester copy has "eyler" for "eyle", and the Hâlet Efendi and Ayasofya copies "itdi", and "beni" for "anı". The Paris copy reads "çoḳ durur zāhid velī" for "zāhidā çoḳdur velīk" in the last couplet. Nazmî's collection does not have the ghazal.

Bibliography

Online sources