Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

‘Ālem-i dilde ‘alemler ḳaldırup sulṭān-ı ‘ışḳ
Pādişāh-ı ‘aḳl olupdur bende-i fermān-ı ‘ışḳ
Ruḫlaruñdan zülfüñi farḳ eylemez āşüfte-dil
Ṣubḥdan şāmı ne bilsün vālih ü ḥayrān-ı ‘ışḳ
Ṣofrasında sebze yer yeneydi ḫażra-yı felek
‘Āşıḳa bezm-i ezelde kim çekildi ḫvān-ı ‘ışḳ
Düşdi girdāb-ı zenaḫdānına yārüñ fülk-i dil
Baġlayup mevc urdı çün deryā-yı bī-pāyān-ı ‘ışḳ
Bir çemendür dil ki sevdāsı-yle cānā zülfüñüñ
Ḫoş biter her gūşesinde sünbül ü reyḥān-ı ‘ışḳ
Çekdügi sevdāsıdur her laḥẓa miskīn dillerüñ
Beñzer olmışdur dil ü cān keffe-i mīzān-ı ‘ışḳ
Zülf ü ebrūñuñ ḫayāli-yle gören dir sīnemi
Sāyebān-ı fitnelerle pür durur meydān-ı ‘ışḳ
Şevk eli-yle urmaġa cāndan melāmet ṭopını
Ṣundılar ebrūlaruñ bī-dillere çevgān-ı ‘ışḳ
‘Āşıḳam himmet idüñ sā’ir kemālātum gibi
Mūcib-i endūh u ḥırmān olmaya ‘irfān-ı ‘ışḳ
Ruḫlaruñ şevḳinde gör zülfüñ şebinde göñlümi
Nūrdan ḳandīller ile zeyn olur dükkān-ı ‘ışḳ
Ca‘ferā ol serv-i gülruḫsāra bu şi‘rüm benüm
Bir maḥabbet-nāmedür k’olmış anuñ ‘unvānı ‘ışḳ

In English

1. The sultan of love has raised banners in the realm of the heart; the king of reason has become a slave to love's decree.

2. The distracted heart cannot tell your tresses from your cheeks; how should the bewildered and enraptured one of love know morning from evening?

3. When the table of love was spread for the lover at the feast of pre-eternity, the green vault of heaven would have been a green herb eaten at that table.

4. As the boundless sea of love swelled and surged, the ship of the heart fell into the whirlpool of the beloved's chin-dimple.

5. O soul, the heart is a meadow in which, through passion for your tresses, the hyacinth and basil of love grow fair in every corner.

6. What wretched hearts endure every moment is passion for you; heart and soul have come to resemble the two pans of love's scale.

7. Whoever sees my breast with the image of your tresses and brows says: the square of love is full of canopies of mischief.

8. So that with the hand of longing they might strike the ball of blame from the soul, your brows have handed the heartless the polo-mallet of love.

9. I am a lover; lend me your blessing, that the knowledge of love may not, like my other accomplishments, become a cause of sorrow and deprivation.

10. See my heart in the longing for your cheeks and in the night of your tresses: the shop of love is adorned with lamps of light.

11. O Ca'fer, this poem of mine to that rose-cheeked cypress is a letter of affection whose heading has become "love".

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Letter Headed "Love"

Every couplet of this eleven-couplet ghazal ends with the word "‘ışḳ" (love), and each time the word is the second member of a construction: sulṭān-ı ‘ışḳ, fermān-ı ‘ışḳ, ḫvān-ı ‘ışḳ, mīzān-ı ‘ışḳ, çevgān-ı ‘ışḳ, dükkān-ı ‘ışḳ. Love thus turns into a sultan, a table, a sea, a scale, a square and a shop. The pen-name couplet turns this pattern upon itself: the poem itself is a "maḥabbet-nāme", a letter of affection written to the beloved, and its "‘unvān", that is, the heading of the letter or the address written on it, is love. The word repeated at the end of every couplet is thereby explained as the letter's heading.

The opening couplet tells the old conflict between love and reason as a change of rule. The sultan of love has raised his banners in the land of the heart, and the king of reason has become a slave to his decree. The third couplet goes back to the feast of pre-eternity: the table of love was spread for the lover in pre-eternity, and "ḫażrā-yı felek", the green vault of heaven, is no more than a green herb eaten at that table.

Scale, Polo-Mallet and Shop

Heart and soul are the two pans of love's scale in the sixth couplet. The eighth couplet rests on the game of polo: the arched brows resemble polo-mallets; these mallets have been handed to the heartless so that they may strike the ball of blame from the soul. Night and light appear together in the tenth couplet: the tresses are night, the cheek is light, and the heart resembles a shop of love lit at night with lamps. In the ninth, the lover says that his other accomplishments have brought him only sorrow and deprivation, and wishes that the knowledge of love may not do so too; this complaint can be read as an allusion to the poet's own life, but the couplet does not say so openly.

In the KTB printing the first line of the seventh couplet is printed in a corrupt form that repeats part of the first line of the sixth couplet ("Zülf ü ebrūñuñ sevdāsıdur her laḥẓa miskīn dillerüñ"). Here the line is given from the text in Erünsal's thesis as "Zülf ü ebrūñuñ ḫayāli-yle gören dir sīnemi". Among the variants in the thesis, the Ayasofya and Hâlet Efendi copies read "sengīn" (stony) for "miskīn" in the sixth couplet, and the Paris copy "sevdāsına" for "sevdāsı-yle" in the fifth and "şevḳi-yle" for "şevḳinde" in the tenth. This long ghazal is absent from Nazmî's anthology.

Bibliography

Online sources