Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Dügün iden görinür mikdârından
Ki mahabbet ire sevdük yârinden
Görürler şâdide dost biri birin
Ki ne harç olısar dünyâ varından
Şular kim hisset-ile dügün itdi
Habardâr olmadı nâmûs 'ârından
'Âşıkî bu dügün kim han idüpdür
Niçeler geldi hem Bagdad şarından

In English

1. The worth of one who holds a wedding shows from its measure, so that the love of the beloved friend may reach.

2. In joy friends see one another, (and see) what will be spent of worldly wealth.

3. Those who held a wedding with meanness never came to know what honour and shame are.

4. Âşıkî, to this wedding that the khan held many came even from the city of Baghdad.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Second and Third Days

On the second day of the feast the poor, that is the dervishes, are invited; they too are honoured, the sovereign's gifts reach them according to their state, and the dervishes show their courtesy to the sovereign after their own custom. On the third day the lords of the province are invited; for days there are royal conversations and drinking. Horse races are run over several days' distance, great prizes are given, and none of the horses that ran is left without a prize. The author closes this section with a judgement: "Every sovereign holds a gathering to show what befits him, so that people may see his greatness and might. And this sovereign showed his greatness completely." The date is 861 (1457).

The Measure of Generosity

Here the wedding becomes a measure of generosity. The worth of one who holds a wedding shows from its size; in joy friends see one another and understand what will be spent of worldly wealth. The third couplet says the opposite: those who hold a wedding meanly do not know what honour and shame are. In the closing couplet the author speaks in his pen name and tells of the fame of the feast: many came even from Baghdad. These two verses show Prince Bayezid, then governor of Amasya, at the centre of one of the court's greatest festivities. Bayezid's years in Amasya are told in full on the Bayezid II page. The couplets end on mikdârından, yârinden, varından, 'ârından and şarından, a "-ından/-inden" refrain.

Bibliography

  • Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, pp. 496-497 (transliterated text, bâb 127).