The Gazel of Chubuklu

by iliass49700 (12/24/2005)

The Gazel* of Chubuklu*

My sweetheart! Row calmly as far as possible in order that the moonlight shall not awake;
Be careful! The waves which are lost in a world of imagination and which have been occupied in daydreaming shall not awake.

The whole universe has fell asleep in spring’s embrace within all its creation.
Let this sleep extend and continue until the beginning of the Resurrection* and not awake.

The saz* should postpone all its songs during this great and heavenly music;
As long as we can hear these divine tunes even a single plectrum shall not awake.

Oh, rose!* Order the nightingale to keep all silent and voiceless.
Lovers who are in a mood of drunkenness of enjoyment and delight shall not awake.

Oh, Kemal!* Of course it is not worthwile to wake up and complete the remains of your life-span.
Let this sleep be the end of your utterly exhausted heart so that it shall never awake !

Yayha Kemal BEYATLI
A free interpretation by Ilias Saeem

*Gazel: The gazel is a lyric poem of a certain pattern.The defining characteristics of this form are as follows:

-It was quite common in eastern literature.Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Urdu have countless masterpieces composed by this form.This can be likened to the popularity of the sonnets in Italian, French and English.

-It comprises four to fifteen couplets.The scheme below shows the fixed pattern of rhyme of this form.The same letters represent the rhymes and (x) stands for an arbitrariness in rhyming.

 

------------ a
------------ a
(The first couplet rhyming with one another)

 

------------ x
------------ a
(The first line is arbitrary.In other words it is not necessary to rhyme it with the former two lines.)

------------ x
------------ a
(Including the last poem it goes on like this until the end of the gazel.)

-Certain poetic kinds express certain topics.Gazels are known as poems of love.However over the passage of time some Turkish poets began using this form to deal with social issues such as wars, economy, immorality etc. rather than using it as an expression of individual emotions.

 

-Today it is rather rare and reused by only those who respect its glorious past and do not want to quit it totally.

 

*Chubuklu: Known as Eiranaion in the Byzantine period.A neighbourhood in the Anatolian shore of the Bosphorus, Istanbul.Since people used to produce pipe stems in this district, it is estimated that the word Chubuklu derived from the word “chubuk” which means long tobacco pipe.The reason why the poet preferred the mentioned place as the scene and fracture for his poem may have a historical basis for it was an excursion spot/pnomenade solely for the sultan of the time.

 

*The resurrection: In Muslim and Christian beliefs the time of the last judgement when all dead people will become alive again.

 

*A stringed oriental instrument which is played by using a plectrum.

 

*In classical Turkish literature the nightingale represents the lover, and the rose stands for the belovéd.This relationship however, is always painful.The nightingale cries,moans, and laments but the arrogant rose ignores it and its lovely songs alike.

 

*Poets conventionally use a pseudonym towards the end of the gazel.They mostly mention it in the last couplet.Thus Kemal is the pen name of the poet whose real name is Ahmet Agâh.