Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ḳadd-i bālāmı belālarla kemān itdi firāḳ
Miḥnet oḳlarına ben ḫāki nişān itdi firāḳ
Lāle gibi cānumı yaḳdı ḳarara dāġ-ı ġam
Ġonca gibi baġrumı ṭopṭolu ḳan itdi firāḳ
Sensüz ölem diyü da‘vālar iderdüm dōstum
Gel ki ol da‘vālarumı hep yalan itdi firāk
Cānum anda gövdemi daḫi umaram bād-ı āh
Götürüp ilte çü böyle nātüvān itdi firāḳ
Ṣarılup mektūba bari yāra varsam āl ile
Cismümi ġamdan çü ṣarı rīsmān itdi firāḳ
Ṣararup beñzüm ayaḳlar altına düşsem n’ola
Beni sen gülden ıraḳ berk-i ḫazān itdi firāḳ
Ca‘fere Ferhād u Mecnūn çekdügi miḥnetleri
Hep lisān-ı ḥāl ile bir bir beyān itdi firāḳ

In English

1. Separation has bent my tall stature into a bow with afflictions; separation has made me, a thing of dust, the target of the arrows of suffering.

2. The brand of grief has burned my soul black like a tulip; separation has filled my breast to the brim with blood like a bud.

3. My friend, I used to make claims, saying "I shall die without you"; but come, separation has made all those claims of mine lies.

4. My soul is there; I hope the wind of sighs will carry my body there too, since separation has made me so feeble.

5. If only, wrapping myself round a letter, I could reach the beloved by a trick; for separation has made my body a yellow thread from grief.

6. Is it any wonder if, my face turned yellow, I fall beneath people's feet? Separation has made me, far from you, the rose, an autumn leaf.

7. The sufferings that Ferhad and Mecnun endured, separation has told Ca'fer one by one in the tongue of circumstance.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Vow Proved False

The lover once made claims to the beloved, saying "I shall die without you"; separation has come, but he has not died, and the third couplet tells of this vow proved false. So separation has proved all his claims false. The couplet turns upon itself the saying "I cannot live apart from you", frequent in divan poetry, and speaks of survival as a kind of shame. The expression "gel ki" (but come) carries the tone of spoken language; the lover speaks to the beloved as if confiding a secret.

The refrain is "itdi firāḳ", separation has made: in every couplet separation appears as a subject doing something to the lover. It turns him into a bow, makes him a target, fills his breast with blood, weakens him, turns him into a thread, makes him an autumn leaf, and at last tells him the story of Ferhad and Mecnun. The rhymes meet in "-ān": kemān, nişān, ḳan, yalan, nātüvān, rīsmān, ḫazān, beyān. In the opening couplet the two lines complete each other: separation has bent the stature like a bow, and then made it the target, not of that bow, but of the arrows.

A Thread Wound Round a Letter

Yellowed and thinned by grief, the lover's body has become a yellow thread (rīsmān) in the fifth couplet. Letters used to be rolled and tied with thread; so the lover thinks of wrapping himself round a letter by a trick and reaching the beloved. There is a play of sound between the verb "ṣarılmak" (to wrap oneself round) and the colour "ṣarı" (yellow). The sixth couplet makes the beloved the rose, and the lover a yellowed autumn leaf fallen far from the rose; it is no wonder that it falls beneath people's feet.

Separation turns narrator in the pen-name couplet; in "the tongue of circumstance" (lisān-ı ḥāl), that is, not in words but through the situation itself, it tells the lover of the sufferings of Ferhad and Mecnun: the lover now learns them by living them. The "lisān-ı ḥāl" of this couplet appears as "zebān-ı ḥāl" in the Cairo, Manchester and Paris copies. In the Manchester and Cairo copies "cānumı" and "baġrumı" exchange places in the second couplet; the Hâlet Efendi and Ayasofya copies have "dāġ-ı derd" for "dāġ-ı ġam". The Manchester copy reads "bād ide" for "bād-ı āh" in the fourth couplet. Nazmî's anthology has no trace of it.

Bibliography

Online sources