Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Mihâl kim dügün itdi gör ne itdi
Gāziler şevketine bünyâd itdi
Dügüne nice tekürler ki geldi
Kamusı 'Osmân-ıçun tedbîr itdi
Kimi didi ki tîz bunı dutalum
Bilecük teküri bir tedbîr itdi
Kim ya'nî dügün idüp karvayalar
Muhâlif tedbîri kendüyi tutdı

In English

1. See, Mihal held a wedding, and what did he do: he laid a foundation for the might of the gazis.

2. Many tekfurs came to the wedding; all of them laid plans concerning Osman.

3. Some said, "Let us seize him quickly"; the tekfur of Bilecik devised a plan.

4. That is, they would hold a wedding and catch (Osman); but the hostile plan caught its maker.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Trap Born of a Wedding

When Köse Mihal's daughter is given to the lord of Gül-Falanoz, Osman Gazi too is invited to the wedding; he sends gifts, as the eleventh chapter tells; but the tekfurs who come to the wedding talk among themselves about Osman. The tekfur of Bilecik proposes to hold a wedding of his own, invite Osman to it and seize him there. Mihal reports these conversations to Osman. The verse is spoken while the trap is still being laid; its outcome, the "hostile plan" turning against its maker, will be told in the next chapter.

A Note on the Text and Its Form

Passages missing from manuscript A but helpful to the sense are supplied in the Yavuz–Saraç edition from the S manuscript, in italics. The third couplet of this verse is in italics in the edition; that is, it is found only in the S manuscript in the Süleymaniye Library. Without it the piece still makes sense, but the information that the trap was the tekfur of Bilecik's is lost. The refrain "itdi" is kept in all four couplets; only in the last line is the rhyme changed with "tutdı". The departure may not be accidental: the plan is told with "itdi", made, while the outcome comes with "tutdı", caught, and the change of word mirrors the turn in meaning. "Karvamak", to seize or catch, is an old Turkish verb and is used again in the next verse.

Bibliography

  • Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, p. 335 (transliterated text, bâb 11).
  • Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, "Önsöz" and "Hayatı ve 'Tarih'iyle Âşık Paşazade", in Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, pp. 25-48.