Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Garazsuz söyleyenler Hak kelâmın
Kişiler var anuñ almaz selâmın
Adı câhil olur yâhûd günâhkâr
Sözi hak söyledügi-çün temâmın
Müzevvir olsa diñlerler sözini
İderler ya kādı ya halk imâmın
Ümîzdür Han Bâyezîd eyyâmında
Bula hem bu âlem şer'uñ nizâmın
'Âşıkî it beyân erbâb-ı hayrı
Ki vireler müsâfirüñ ta'âmın
In English
1. There are those who speak God's word without self-interest; there are men who do not return their greeting.
2. Because he speaks the whole of his word as truth, his name becomes ignorant or sinful.
3. Were he a slanderer they would heed his word; they would make him either kadı or imam of the people.
4. We hope that in the days of Bayezid Khan this world may find the order of the sacred law.
5. Âşıkî, tell the people of good works to give the guest his food.
Literary and Historical Commentary
The Quarrels of the Imarets
In the hundred and sixty-seventh chapter the author is again addressed as "O dervish": are these lofty medreses and imarets of the House of Osman for the hereafter? The answer is a harsh criticism of how the imarets are run. The House of Osman is a line whose wonders are manifest, and whatever appears from the sovereigns shows in the viziers. The viziers have intimate stewards beside them; these carry to the paşas what they hear from scholars, dervishes, common folk and the ignorant, and sometimes take falsehood for truth. For this reason order cannot be established and the quarrels over the Ottoman imarets never cease. The founder of an imaret aims at good in the hereafter; but the administrator thought trustworthy does as he pleases: he gives food to some guests and not to others, and does not let some lodge at all. Their excuses are ready: "you are an office-holder," or "you have lodged at another imaret in this town." When the viziers learn of this, an inspector is sent by the sovereign's order; but the inspector too cuts the guests' food, sells the ashes of the hearth, shrinks the imaret's bread, cuts the servants' allowances and puts the surplus akçe into the sovereign's treasury. The author reminds us: the sovereigns made these pious works for the hereafter.
Words Without Self-Interest
The couplets turn to the state of one who voices this criticism. There are those who speak God's word without self-interest, but there are also those who do not return their greeting; because he speaks the truth he is called ignorant or sinful. The third couplet shows the opposite: were he a slanderer, a bearer of false tales, they would heed his word and make him kadı or imam. This couplet is linked with the stewards in the prose who carry falsehood as truth. The fourth couplet carries a hope: may this world find the order of the sacred law in the days of Bayezid Khan. The last gives the author a task: he must tell the people of good works to give the guest his food. Whose criticism this is cannot be settled either: the chapter is absent from the S manuscript and the edition ties it to other hands. Kelâmın, selâmın, temâmın, imâmın, nizâmın and ta'âmın: six rhymes meeting on "-âmın".
Bibliography
- Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, pp. 564-565 (transliterated text, bâb 167).
