By
Maister Colyne Stewart, March AS 53 (2018)
Forth
came the proud hare from a desert of snow
In
fame and good fortune his legend to grow
Bound
to a wolf-prince by cords woven bright red
Fierce
as the badger and as fleet as the doe
With
pole he commanded in far off An Tir
As
vassal to baron he forded war’s flow
Now
pearl-rich himself he holds land of the north
Stood
peik for the queen for her honour to show
Adorned
with the crescent called forward to kneel
His
boots tread the flagstones, he dropped to his toe
As
Sultan proclaimed him his might and his worth
And
told all assembled what honour he’d owe
A
faris, he called him, a lord of the horse
And
girt him with leather, the white of the snow.
Background Information
According
to Bachvarova, a gazel was an
improvised song based on earlier works with a singer using an existing quatrain
as a basis for their improvisation. Though other cultures (such as the Greeks)
used the term interchangeably for lament poetry (the amané or amanés sometimes
also being called gazel), to the
Ottomans the form was used to explore love (both romantic and spiritual). Gazels were sometimes improvised during
long, highly structured songs that would display the singer’s knowledge of the makamlar (or modes of Ottoman music).
According
to Bradley, gazels (or qazels) in Iran featured a rhyming
couplet, followed by couplets whose first line was unrhymed, and whose second
line rhymed with those of the first couplet. There were at least seven couplets.
Each couplet usually put forth separate images that were unified by the idea
expressed in the first couplet.
The
gazels I looked at from the sixteenth
century (though translated into English) seemed to follow the rhyme scheme laid
out by Bradley, though they claimed to be from the Ottoman Empire and not Iran.
It is possible that the quatrains the poets used in my examples just happened
to rhyme AABA though I cannot corroborate that at this time.
Three
examples of gazel are below (all from
Horne):
My pain for thee balm
in my sight resembles
Thy face's beam the clear moonlight resembles.
Thy black hair spread across they cheeks, the roses
O Liege, the garden's basil quite resembles.
Beside thy lip oped wide its mouth, the rosebud;
For shame it blushed, it blood outright resembles.
Thy mouth, a casket fair of pearls and rubies,
Thy teeth, pearls, thy lip coral bright resembles.
Their diver I, each morning and each even;
My weeping, Liege, the ocean's might resembles.
Lest he seduce thee, this my dread and terror,
That rival who Iblis in spite resembles.
Around the taper bright, thy cheek, Muhibbi
Turns and the moth in his sad plight resembles.
---Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520-1566)
Thy face's beam the clear moonlight resembles.
Thy black hair spread across they cheeks, the roses
O Liege, the garden's basil quite resembles.
Beside thy lip oped wide its mouth, the rosebud;
For shame it blushed, it blood outright resembles.
Thy mouth, a casket fair of pearls and rubies,
Thy teeth, pearls, thy lip coral bright resembles.
Their diver I, each morning and each even;
My weeping, Liege, the ocean's might resembles.
Lest he seduce thee, this my dread and terror,
That rival who Iblis in spite resembles.
Around the taper bright, thy cheek, Muhibbi
Turns and the moth in his sad plight resembles.
---Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520-1566)
If 'tis state thou
seekest like the world-adorning sun's array,
Lowly e'en as water rub thy face in earth's dust every day.
Fair to see, but short enduring is this picture bright, the world;
'Tis a proverb: Fleeting like the realm of dreams is earth's display.
Through the needle of its eyelash never hath the heart's thread past;
Like unto the Lord Messiah bide I half-road on the way.
Athlete of the Universe through self-reliance grows the Heart,
With the ball, the Sphere---Time, Fortune---like an apple doth it play.
Mukhlisi, thy frame was formed from but one drop, yet, wonder great!
When thou verses sing'st, thy spirit like the ocean swells, they say.
---Prince Mustafa (1515-1553)
Lowly e'en as water rub thy face in earth's dust every day.
Fair to see, but short enduring is this picture bright, the world;
'Tis a proverb: Fleeting like the realm of dreams is earth's display.
Through the needle of its eyelash never hath the heart's thread past;
Like unto the Lord Messiah bide I half-road on the way.
Athlete of the Universe through self-reliance grows the Heart,
With the ball, the Sphere---Time, Fortune---like an apple doth it play.
Mukhlisi, thy frame was formed from but one drop, yet, wonder great!
When thou verses sing'st, thy spirit like the ocean swells, they say.
---Prince Mustafa (1515-1553)
Ta'en my sense and soul
have those thy Leyli locks, thy glance's spell,
Me, their Mejnun, 'midst of love's wild dreary desert they impel,
Since mine eyes have seen the beauty of the Joseph of thy grace,
Sense and heart have fall'n and lingered in thy chin's sweet dimple-well.
Heart and soul of mine are broken through my passion for thy lips;
From the hand of patience struck they honor's glass, to earth
The mirage, thy lips, O sweetheart, that doth like to water show;
For, through longing, making thirsty, vainly they my life dispel.
Since Selimi hath the pearls, thy teeth, been praising, sense and heart
Have his head and soul abandoned, plunging 'neath love's ocean-swell.
---Sultan Selim II (r. 1566-1574).
Me, their Mejnun, 'midst of love's wild dreary desert they impel,
Since mine eyes have seen the beauty of the Joseph of thy grace,
Sense and heart have fall'n and lingered in thy chin's sweet dimple-well.
Heart and soul of mine are broken through my passion for thy lips;
From the hand of patience struck they honor's glass, to earth
The mirage, thy lips, O sweetheart, that doth like to water show;
For, through longing, making thirsty, vainly they my life dispel.
Since Selimi hath the pearls, thy teeth, been praising, sense and heart
Have his head and soul abandoned, plunging 'neath love's ocean-swell.
---Sultan Selim II (r. 1566-1574).
As
you can see, some of these gazels
have less than seven couplets, which would seem to contradict Bradley. The
first gazel has lines of 11 beats,
while the following two both have lines of 15. You will notice that in the
first example each A line ends with the same word, not just a rhyme.
I
have, so far, not been able to find much information on the form, and it would
appear that what little information exists is not consistent. I therefore
decided to base my poem off of Bradley’s description (since it seemed to fit my
exemplars best) and use lines of 11 beats.
Below
is a footnoted version of the poem:
Forth
came the proud hare[1]
from a desert of snow[2]
In
fame and good fortune his legend to grow
Bound
to wolf-prince[3]
by blood-cords woven bright red[4]
Fierce
as the badger and as fleet as the doe
With
pole he commanded in far off An Tir[5]
As
vassal to baron[6]
he forded war’s flow
Now
pearl-rich[7]
himself he holds land of the north
Stood
peik[8]
for the queen for her honour to show
Adorned
with the crescent[9]
called forward to kneel
His
boots tread the flagstones, he dropped to his toe
As
Sultan proclaimed him his might and his worth
And
told all assembled what honour he’d owe
A
faris[10],
he called him, a lord of the horse
And
girt him with leather, the white of the snow[11].
Sources
Anon.
“Ottoman Turks Poetry.” Ottoman Souvenir. http://www.ottomansouvenir.com/General/Turkish_Poetry.htm
Accessed online on March 6, 2018.
Bachvarova,
Mary R., Dorota Dutsch and Ann Suter, eds. The Fall of Cities in the
Mediterranean: Commemoration in Literature, Folk-song and Liturgy. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2016. pp. 258-259.
Bradley,
D. L. Farsi for English Speakers. United States: Lulu.com, 2014. pp.
242-243.
Horne, Charles F. ed., The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, Vol. VI: Medieval Arabia. New York: Parke,
Austin, & Lipscomb, 1917. pp.
259-325. Available online at https://archive.org/details/sacredbooksearly06hornuoft
Parfatt,
David. Turkish Makamlar. http://oudipedia.info/makamlar.html
Accessed online on March 6, 2018.
[1] Shahid is from the Barony of
Skraeling Althing, which is symbolized by the hare.
[2] I tried to call up images of
where Shahid’s persona would have dwelled by comparing the snow of Ontario to a
desert.
[3] His Highness Baldric Leeman of NewCastle Emlyn
[4] Shahid’s squire’s belt.
[5] Shahid was once polearm
commander for the Tree House
Armoured Combat unit in An Tir.
[6] Shahid was once man-at-arms to
HE Ming Lum Pee of An Tir.
[7] Shahid is now a baron himself
(Baron of Skraeling Althing). This is a reference to the pearls on his coronet.
[8] A member of Suleiman the
Magnificent’ halberdier bodyguards, referencing the fact that Shahid once stood
as huscarl to Queen Rylan.
[9] Shahid’s heraldry contains three
crescents.
[10] Meaning horseman in Arabic, a
title used in the SCA to refer to knights with Arabic personas.
[11] At Winter War AS 53, Shahid was
put on vigil for the Order of the Chivalry.
