Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Didiler ahmak u mecnûndur ol er
İki nesneyi kim ol heves ider
Biri geçmiş ola giden ho gitdi
Biri muhâl olanı turmaz umar

In English

1. They said that man is a fool and a madman who sets his desire on two things:

2. One is what has passed, what is gone is gone; the other is to hope without end for what cannot be.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Move to Yenişehir

Where İsmail Beg went after giving up Sinop is the matter of the hundred and thirty-third chapter. At Dürekâni İsmail Beg loads all his goods, his sons and daughters onto his beasts, takes with him his vizier Şehabeddin Ağa and all his slaves, and comes to Yenişehir in the province of Bursa; for he had asked the khan for Yenişehir, İnegöl and Yarhisar, and the khan had granted them. A question and answer explains what became of the lord of Karaman: the khan had given him a robe of honour when he came to Ankara and sent him back to his father. Then "the devilry of Karaman" is told. When the khan reaches the province of Koylıhisar, the lord of Karaman sends a man to İsmail Beg: "Turn back, you slave of the tekfur. Do not go to Yenişehir." He says they have found their chance against the Ottoman, that they can do away with him, and that word will be sent to Hasan Beg too.

Two Follies

İsmail Beg's answer is plain: "This word of yours is not one that fits with being a Muslim. Such a word is called hypocrisy. A gazi sovereign is going on a holy war." The sovereign's slaves sit in the fortresses, and the land is in the hands of his brother Ahmed. The author adds that the lord of Karaman was left "downcast and cheated". A maxim of two couplets closes the scene. The one called a fool and a madman is he who sets his desire on two things: to want back what has passed, and to hope without end for what cannot be. The couplets seem addressed not to İsmail Beg directly but to the lord of Karaman: to hope that İsmail Beg would win back his lost principality is desire for the past, and to hope to do away with the Ottoman is a hope that cannot be. The sentence of the first couplet is completed in the second; together the two couplets form a single sentence. The short rhyme words er, ider and umar carry the "-er/-ar" sound.

Bibliography

  • Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, pp. 508-509 (transliterated text, bâb 133).