Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

İḫtiyār itdi çün ol māhliḳā bir kepenek
Maẓhar-ı luṭf-ı Ḫüdā oldı baña bir kepenek
Kepenekden çü ġılāfı olur āyīnelerüñ
Ol ḳalender beçe ṣarılsa n’ola bir kepenek
Beni sen şāh-ı nemed-pūşa esīr itdi çü ‘ışḳ
Ben daḫi ‘ışḳ ile geydüm ṣanemā bir kepenek
Böyle āhen-dil iken gün yüzünüñ mihriyle
Geydi dervīş olup āyīne şehā bir kepenek
Bes durur bu yola Ca‘fer gibi ṣādıḳlıġ ile
Gelene ḫūn-ı ciger zād u ḳabā bir kepenek

In English

1. Since that moon-faced one chose to wear a felt cloak, a felt cloak has become for me the manifestation of God's grace.

2. Since the cases of mirrors are made of felt, is it any wonder if that young kalender wraps himself in a felt cloak?

3. O idol, since love made me the captive of you, the felt-clad king, I too, through love, have put on a felt cloak.

4. O king, though it is so iron-hearted, the mirror, through love of your sunlike face, has become a dervish and put on a felt cloak.

5. For one who comes to this path with sincerity, like Ca'fer, liver's blood as provision and a felt cloak as a garment are enough.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Beloved in a Felt Cloak

The "bir kepenek" of the refrain is a felt cloak, a rough sleeveless overgarment; shepherds wore it, and the dervishes of the Kalenderi order wore it to show that they had renounced the world. The ghazal is built on this plain garment: the beloved has put on a kepenek and taken on the dress proper to dervishes. The opening couplet counts this a grace. The garment the beloved has chosen is also a door opened to the lover; for a beloved in a kepenek comes close to a lover in a kepenek. The second couplet calls the beloved "ḳalender beçe", a young kalender; in the third he is "şāh-ı nemed-pūş", the felt-clad king. The contrast between king and felt shows the beloved as both ruling and disguised as a dervish.

Before the refrain stands a rhyme in "-ā": māhliḳā, baña, n'ola, ṣanemā, şehā, ḳabā. The lover follows the beloved: when love made him the captive of the felt-clad king, he too put on a kepenek for love's sake. The garment becomes a sign of companionship between lover and beloved.

The Mirror's Felt Cloak

The second and fourth couplets rest on knowledge of a household object. In that period mirrors were made of polished metal and kept in a case of felt or cloth so that they would not rust or be scratched. The beloved's face is a mirror; since the cases of mirrors are made of felt, it is natural that the owner of that face should wrap himself in a felt cloak. The mirror of the fourth couplet, being metal, is "iron-hearted"; but on falling in love with the beloved's sunlike face it too has become a dervish and put on its felt case like a kepenek. That even a stony-hearted object should turn dervish through love is the wit of the couplet.

The pen-name couplet counts the provisions of the Kalenderi path: for one who enters this path with sincerity, liver's blood as provision and a kepenek as garment are enough. The "luṭf-ı Ḫüdā" (God's grace) of the opening becomes "nūr-ı Ḫüdā" (God's light) in the Manchester, Cairo, Ayasofya and Hâlet Efendi copies; the Paris copy reads "uyup" for "olup" in the fourth. Nazmî's anthology lacks the ghazal.

Bibliography

Online sources