Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün

Çoḳ zamāndur ki göñül ḫastasıdur sen ṣanemüñ
Ne revādur göregelmez anı cevr ü sitemüñ
Dōstum düşdi yaḳam firḳat eline demidür
Dest-gīr olsa baña dāmen-i luṭf u keremüñ
Ṣabr idem miḥnet-i hecre dir idüm bilmez idüm
Böyle kār idecegin cānuma derd ü elemüñ
Pāsbānuñ giceler şem‘i n’ider ṣubḥa degin
Şu‘le-i āhum ile rūşen olur çün ḥaremüñ
Çıḳdı cān ḥasret ile līk budur ölmedügüm
Ḥükm ider cān yirine tende ṭurup derd ü ġamuñ
Ḳaşı sevdāsı n’ola ṭāḳātümi eylese ṭaḳ
Kimse yayın çekemez çünki ol ebrū-yı ḫamuñ
Başın aşaġa idüp şevḳümi yazmaḳdan aña
Ca‘ferā indi gözine ḳara ṣular ḳalemüñ

In English

1. O idol, for a long time the heart has been your patient; is it right that your cruelty and reproach cannot bear it?

2. My friend, my collar has fallen into the hand of separation; now is the very moment for the skirt of your grace and kindness to take my hand.

3. I used to say I would endure the suffering of separation; I did not know that pain and grief would work so upon my soul.

4. What should your watchman do with a candle all night until dawn? Your harem is lit by the flames of my sighs.

5. My soul has gone out in longing; but this is why I have not died: pain and grief for you stay in the body and rule in place of the soul.

6. Is it any wonder if passion for her brow exhausts my strength? No one can draw the bow of that curved brow.

7. O Ca'fer, from bowing its head to write my longing to her, black water has come down over the eyes of your pen.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Black Water in the Pen's Eyes

The pen-name couplet is the one Erünsal gives as an example of Câfer Çelebi's expressing an idea taken from earlier poets more clearly and in the idiom of everyday speech. Ahmed Paşa says that in describing the beloved's tresses the pen's tongue grew long; Necâtî, that in writing the lover's state the head of the pen was dyed in black blood. Câfer Çelebi ties the same image of the pen to an idiom: the pen, bowing its head to write the lover's longing, has grown so weary that "black water has come down over its eyes". "Gözüne kara su inmek", to have black water come down over the eyes, means to have one's eyes fail from long waiting or long labour. The slit at the pen's tip is its eye, and the ink is the black water that has come down over that eye.

The suffix "-üñ" (your) takes the place of a refrain, and the rhyme rests on "-em": ṣanemüñ, sitemüñ, keremüñ, elemüñ, ḥaremüñ, ġamuñ, ḫamuñ, ḳalemüñ. In Nazmî's anthology the ghazal stands within a long series of responses written on this rhyme. Just before it is Muhibbî's second ghazal, given under the heading "Velehû eyzen", "Eksük itme sanemâ cevr ü cefâ vü elemüñ"; after it come Vasfî, Mesîhî, Sâfî, Lâmi'î, Hadîdî, Hevesî, Münîr, Yûsuf-ı Sîne-çâk, Hâverî, Gaffâr, Hasan, Latîfî-i Kastamonî and Nazmî.

Collar and Skirt

The second couplet sets the two ends of a garment against each other. Separation has seized the lover by the collar; and the lover asks that the skirt of the beloved's grace and kindness take him by the hand. "Dest-gīr", one who takes the hand, who helps, is a task laid upon the skirt: the man held by the collar seeks to escape by clinging to a skirt. The third couplet is a confession that belies its own words: the lover said he would endure separation, but did not know that pain would work so deeply on his soul.

The fifth couplet explains how death has been postponed. The soul went out long ago in longing, but the body has not died; for the pain and grief the beloved gives stay in the body and rule in place of the soul. The sixth couplet sets the words "ṭāḳat" (strength) and "ṭāḳ" (exhausted) side by side; the brow is a bow, and no one can draw that bow. In the thesis's notes on the manuscripts, the Cairo copy reads "ola" for "olsa" in the second couplet and gives the last line in the order "Ca‘ferā ḳara ṣular indi gözine ḳalemüñ"; the Hâlet Efendi and Ayasofya copies read "miḥnet ü hecre" for "miḥnet-i hecre" in the third couplet.

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. 394-395, ghazal no. 93. 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. 49 (comparison with Ahmed Paşa, ghazal 159, and Necâtî, ghazal 322). 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. 93 (variants). https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/17182

Official sources

Online sources