Original Ottoman Turkish Text
'Ömür biñ yıldur aldanma zînhâr
Bu cihan pür-fitne ve çarh gaddâr
Kaçan magrûr olur 'âkil fenâya
Tomar dürüldi temâm oldı defter
Ecel yili eser key mihribândur
Bozup sanularuñ hem ider asgâr
Ne müşkil devre kalduñ 'Âşıkî sen
Giçer güz leşkeri gāziyi basar
In English
1. Though life be a thousand years, beware, do not be deceived; this world is full of strife, the wheel of heaven is cruel.
2. How can the wise be proud in this transient place; the scroll has been rolled up, the register completed.
3. The wind of death blows, seeming very kind; it breaks men's suppositions and makes them small.
4. Âşıkî, in what a hard age you are left; the army of autumn passes and falls upon the gazi.
Literary and Historical Commentary
The Question of Hacı Bektaş
At this point in the chapter another question is put to the author: why has he not mentioned Hacı Bektaş? The answer is that he kept company with no one of the House of Osman. The author tells how Hacı Bektaş came from Khorasan with his brother Menteş to Sivas, to Baba İlyas, went from there to Kırşehir and Kayseri, that Menteş was martyred at Sivas, and that Hacı Bektaş was buried at Karaöyük. Four companies are named in Rum: the Gaziyân, the Ahiyân, the Abdalân and the Bâciyân-ı Rûm; among the Bâciyân-ı Rûm Hatun Ana is named. Then a false belief is corrected: it is said that the janissary cap came from Hacı Bektaş, but the author says, "It is a lie"; this cap appeared at Bilecik in the time of Orhan. The cause of the Bektashis wearing it is Abdal Mûsâ: in Orhan's time he came to the holy war, asked a janissary for an old cap, went home wearing it and said, "This they call elif." The last question concerns the disciples of Mahmud Çelebi, son of Hacı Bektaş; the answer is harsh: "Hemp and drink, shaven heads and bare bodies and devilish customs are many among them." The chapter ends with the warning that whoever says Hacı Bektaş kept company with the House of Osman is lying. The date is 861.
The Army of Autumn
After this contentious chapter the talk returns to the transience of the world. Though life be a thousand years, one must not be deceived; the world is full of strife and the wheel of heaven is cruel. The second couplet uses an image of writing: the scroll has been rolled up and the register completed. In the third the wind of death blows seeming kind and breaks men's suppositions. The last couplet carries a complaint about the author's own age: Âşıkî is left in a hard age; the army of autumn passes and falls upon the gazi. This line may be read as an image of old age or hard times overcoming the gazi. This chapter is the last link of the part that seems added; right after it the edition's modern Turkish section opens the heading "EK", appendix. Zînhâr, gaddâr, defter, asgâr and basar move between "-âr" and "-er".
Bibliography
- Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, p. 572 (transliterated text, bâb 170).
