Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün

Mecmū‘a-i cemālüñi açup varaḳ varaḳ
‘Işḳuñ mu‘alliminden oḳur cān sebaḳ sebaḳ
Żayf-ı ḫayālüñe ruḫ-ı zerdümden ey ṣanem
‘Āşıḳlaruñ getürdi müza‘fer ṭabaḳ ṭabaḳ
Bülbül çemende medḥün oḳımış nesīm-i ṣubḥ
Gül defterin açup anı ister varaḳ varaḳ
Çeşmüm ḫayāl-i yār ile ṣoḥbet kılup müdām
Eşküm ṭutar bu bezme şarābı ḳabaḳ ḳabaḳ
Zülf ile ruḫlarını gören didi Ca‘ferā
Reyḥān gül üzre sāye ṣalubdur budaḳ budaḳ

In English

1. Opening the anthology of your beauty leaf by leaf, the soul reads lesson by lesson from the teacher of your love.

2. O idol, for the guest that is your image, your lovers have brought saffron pudding from my yellow face, plate upon plate.

3. The morning breeze heard the nightingale reciting your praise in the meadow; opening the rose's notebook, it seeks it leaf by leaf.

4. My eye holds converse without end with the image of the beloved, and my tears offer wine to this gathering gourd by gourd.

5. O Ca'fer, whoever saw her tresses and cheeks said: the basil has cast its shade upon the rose branch by branch.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Rhyme of Reduplications

All the rhymes of the ghazal are Turkish reduplications: varaḳ varaḳ, sebaḳ sebaḳ, ṭabaḳ ṭabaḳ, varaḳ varaḳ, ḳabaḳ ḳabaḳ, budaḳ budaḳ. Some of the words are of Arabic origin (varaḳ, sebaḳ, ṭabaḳ), some Turkish (ḳabaḳ, budaḳ), but all are put into the same Turkish pattern of reduplication and joined in the sound "-aḳ". Each couplet thus ends in a repeated motion: opening leaf by leaf, reading lesson by lesson, bringing plate upon plate, offering gourd by gourd, casting shade branch by branch.

The opening couplet is a schoolroom scene. The beloved's beauty is an anthology, love a teacher; the lover's soul opens this book leaf by leaf and reads it lesson by lesson. Erünsal sets this opening beside Necâtî's opening "Gül muṣḥafın ṣabā yili açdı varaḳ varaḳ / ‘Işḳ āyetini bülbül oḳudı sebaḳ sebaḳ"; but he notes that the shared image is common in divan poetry, so that no definite influence can be spoken of. Nazmî, for his part, lists the ghazal among the responses to Kâsım Paşa's ghazal with the opening "Açılmış idi defter-i gülşen varak varak / Dil mushaf-ı cemâlüñ okurken sebak sebak"; Necâtî's ghazal is in the same circle, and Câfer Çelebi's response comes right after it.

Saffron Pudding from a Yellow Face

The second couplet is built on the picture of a banquet. The beloved's image has become a guest in the lover's heart; the dish offered to the guest is "müza‘fer", a sweet dish coloured yellow with saffron, made from the lover's yellowed face, and it is brought plate upon plate. The colour shared by the yellow face and the saffron pudding is the wit of the couplet. The eye, in the fourth couplet, has set up a gathering of converse with the beloved's image; the tears are the cupbearer offering wine to this gathering, handing it out gourd by gourd. Dried gourds were formerly also used as vessels for wine and water.

The morning breeze of the third couplet looks for the praise recited by the nightingale in the leaves of the rose's notebook; the opening couplet's image of the anthology and its leaves is carried into the garden. The pen-name couplet makes the beloved's tresses basil casting shade, branch by branch, upon the rose. In the circle Câfer Çelebi is followed by Kemalpaşazâde, Sa'dî, Şâhidî, Tâli'î, Resmî, Mesîhî, Fahrî, Lâmi'î, Hadîdî, Sehî, Mu'îdî, Gedâyî, Fakîrî, Za'îfî and Nazmî. The "ṣanem" of the second couplet becomes "perī" in the Paris, Ayasofya and Hâlet Efendi copies; in the fourth the Paris copy reads "çeşm-i" for "çeşmüm" and the Hâlet Efendi copy "ṭaşur" for "ṭutar".

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. 392-393, ghazal no. 91. 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. 52 (comparison with Necâtî, ghazal 281). 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. 91 (variants). https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/17182

Official sources

Online sources