Navoiy’s ghazals: “Kelmadi”, “Yo‘q”, “Bo‘l”

The ghazal with the radif “Yo‘q” is ghazal 310 in “G‘aroyib us-sig‘ar”. In it each couplet continues the last thought of the one before: a heart parted from the beloved is a kingdom without a sultan; a kingdom without a sultan is a body without a soul; a body without a soul is black earth without flowers; that is a dark night without a moon; that is a darkness without the spring of life; that is a hell without hope; in the maqta‘ the poet says that parting brings pain and union brings no cure. The chain begins already in the matla‘, where the heart is likened to a kingdom and the kingdom to a body. The ghazal with the radif “Bo‘ldum sanga” is ghazal 16 in “G‘aroyib us-sig‘ar”, a seven-couplet love ghazal. The third couplet has a strong tazod: when the lover asked the beloved for faithfulness she was cruel instead, but when she asked him to sacrifice himself he did so at once. In the fourth couplet the words “bo‘ldum sanga” are understood as “I went mad for you”, and classical literary scholarship calls such skill balog‘at. The sixth couplet is a stray couplet: it has the symbols soqiy, jomi Jam and the water of Xizr (jomi Jam is the legendary cup of King Jamshid, Xizr a prophet who lives forever). In the maqta‘ “navo” and “Navoiy” share one root, producing the device ishtiqoq. The ghazal with the radif “Bo‘l” is ghazal 384 in “G‘aroyib us-sig‘ar”, with seven couplets, a reflective (orifona) ghazal in which thoughts on the fleetingness of life and a call to goodness prevail. Its address keeps changing: the matla‘ and the fifth–sixth couplets address a “you”, the second couplet God, the third the heavens and the world, the fourth the lover’s broken heart, and the maqta‘ Navoiy himself. The textbook gives four more ghazals for independent reading: the one with the radif “Etmas”, “Muvofiq kiydilar...”, “To muhabbat dashti bepoyonida...” and “Sho‘x ikki g‘izolingni...”.