Original Ottoman Turkish Text
O re'yi tedbîri gör ne olur tuş
Ne takdîr iş ider sen ol hâmûş
Kaçan kim sen ü benlik ola hâlüñ
Belâ gelür ü başuña sensin hôş
'Âşıkî yaz menâkıb 'ibret olsun
Kaçan kondı budaga uçmadı kuş
In English
1. See what that judgement and planning comes upon; see what work destiny does, and you keep silent.
2. Whenever your state becomes "you" and "I", calamity comes, and you are welcome to your own head.
3. Âşıkî, write the legend, let it be a lesson; when did a bird that alighted on a branch not fly off.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Canik and Amasya
How Alparslan's Canik passed into Yörgüç Paşa's possession is told in the hundredth chapter. Yörgüç holds a wedding and invites Alparslanoğlu to it. Alparslanoğlu senses that Yörgüç has a trick in mind and sends word: is your aim to take these forests in my hand? Come, take them as a timar, and I too will go, bowing my face, to the threshold of our fortunate khan. Yörgüç's intention is in any case to march against him. In the end Alparslanoğlu says, "Do not come, I will come," and comes without delay; Yörgüç seizes him and sends him to the khan. He comes to Bursa as a captive and is imprisoned in a house in the castle of Bursa. Meanwhile "Yörgüç also had his household taken to Amasya and kept under guard"; that is, Alparslanoğlu's family is held under watch in Amasya. One night Alparslanoğlu ties up his guard firmly, lets himself down from the castle by a rope prepared beforehand, mounts horses waiting ready and flees. Two years later he comes to the khan himself; the khan gives him a good timar in Rumelia and his family is brought to him. The date is given as 831 (1427-28).
The Bird That Alights Flies Off
Two plans meet, and destiny stands above them both. Yörgüç's trick worked and Alparslanoğlu was seized; but he too escaped by his own planning. The first couplet sees destiny above these two plans and counsels silence. The second shows "sen ü benlik", the "you" and "I" of the ego, as the cause of calamity. The pen name Âşıkî comes in the third couplet: write the legend, let it be a lesson; when did a bird that alighted on a branch ever fail to fly off? This proverb-like line sums up Alparslanoğlu's temporary captivity in Bursa and his final freedom. The chapter is the last of three that show Yörgüç Paşa building up power in a region reaching from Amasya, his centre, to Canik, Çorumlu and Osmancık.
Bibliography
- Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, p. 455 (transliterated text, bâb 100).
