Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Gerekdür düşmene kim ola tedbîr
İdegör tedbîri sen itme taksîr
Ki tedbîr Hak sebeb kodı arada
Velî dikkat gerekdür oña tefkîr
In English
1. Against an enemy, planning is needed; make your plans and do not fall short.
2. For God set planning in between as a means; but it needs care and reflection.
Literary and Historical Commentary
The Raid around Çorumlu
While the Kızılkocaoğulları are suffocating in the dungeon in Amasya, Yörgüç Paşa orders, "Finish their business and destroy their lives," and himself mounts and rides against the Turkmens' camps. The Turkmens have pitched their tents around Çorumlu; Yörgüç falls upon them, kills many of the Turkmens who remain there and has all their cattle and goods plundered. The author says a sheep sold for one akçe at Çorumlu; women and children are left destitute, scattered over the lands as beggars. From that time to the author's own day the Turkmens have no longer been able to commit "villainy" as before. Then comes a question: "Was there sin in these men? How much evil can there have been in them, that they were slaughtered thus?"
The Place of Planning
Coming right after the question, the two couplets give an indirect answer: against an enemy planning is needed, and there must be no shortcoming in it. The second couplet places planning in a theological frame: God left planning in between as a means, that is, human planning is an instrument in the working of divine decree. But this instrument requires care and reflection. What Yörgüç did is not openly defended here; while they affirm the legitimacy of planning, they add that it must be done with reflection. The real answer will be given in the next question and answer: the Kızılkocaoğulları used to invite the lords of Dulkadır and Karaöylük into the province. The rhyme rests on "-îr": tedbîr, taksîr, tefkîr.
Bibliography
- Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, p. 452 (transliterated text, bâb 98).
