Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Zihi sultân ki hükmine müsahhar oldı 'âlemler
Cemî'i meddâhı anuñ melek ü cinn ü âdemler
Nazar itse kuru taşa o gevher kıymetin bulur
Ferah olur kamu 'âlem eser bulmaz dahı gamlar
Ayagı basdugı yirler misâl-i cennet olmışdur
Yüzin gören gedâyîler olurlar gark-ı in'âmlar
'Âşıkî nesl-i 'Osmân'uñ 'atâsı 'âleme toldı
'Acebdür kim ele gire o han devrindeki demler
In English
1. How fine a sultan, to whose command the worlds submitted; angels, jinn and men are all his praisers.
2. If he looks at a dry stone, it gains the worth of that jewel; all the world rejoices, griefs find no trace any more.
3. The places where his foot has trodden have become like paradise; the beggars who see his face are drowned in bounty.
4. Âşıkî, the gifts of the line of Osman filled the world; it is a wonder whether the days of that khan's reign will (ever) come to hand (again).
Literary and Historical Commentary
The Night Raid
The Wallachian campaign whose cause was given in the previous chapter begins, in the hundred and thirty-seventh, with the crossing of the Danube; the sovereign marches for some time in the province of Wallachia. One night a clamour rises from one side; the sovereign's gazi slaves are ready and see that this clamour is the Impaler's army. The Impaler has wanted to make a night raid. The gazis let the enemy come close to the camp until they are among them, then cut them down so that half cannot escape; the slaughter lasts till morning and the Impaler Voivode barely saves his head. In the morning Ali Beg is sent after him. The cavalry of the province who had come with the Impaler gather, fall at the sovereign's feet and surrender as captives. The Impaler has a younger brother serving at the sovereign's side; the sovereign gives him the lordship of Wallachia, hands over to him the lords of the province, assigns him companions, and returns to his throne. The date is 866 (1461-62).
A Glance at a Dry Stone
The couplets praise the Conqueror without restraint. The worlds have submitted to his command; angels, jinn and men have become his praisers. The second couplet uses an image from alchemy: if he looks at a dry stone, the stone gains the worth of a jewel. In the third the places where he treads turn into paradise, and the poor who see his face are drowned in bounty. These couplets dwell less on the victory told in the prose than on the ruler's generosity and holiness. In the last couplet a question appears: the gifts of the line of Osman have filled the world, but will the days of that khan's reign come to hand again. This line suggests that in the years when the author wrote his work he recalled the Conqueror's reign as a time already past. The long-metre lines end on 'âlemler, âdemler, gamlar, in'âmlar and demler, all in the plural "-ler/-lar".
Bibliography
- Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, p. 514 (transliterated text, bâb 137).
