Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Nakıd göndürdi tekür-i Baras
Kim vire hisârı hem ola halâs
Hazineyi kodı Baras kim gider
Kuşandı bir ip ü hem geydi palas
Kodı gitdi tekür hisârı eydür
Yirümde idüñüz iy Türkler celes
In English
1. The tekfur of Bursa sent cash so that he might give up the fortress and be free.
2. The tekfur of Bursa, leaving the treasury, is departing; he girded himself with a rope and put on sackcloth.
3. The tekfur left the fortress and went; "O Turks, sit in my place," he says.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Thirty Thousand Florins
After camping at Pınarbaşı, Orhan sends Köse Mihal to the tekfur of Bursa and demands the fortress. The tekfur asks for a pact that no one will be harmed, and requests a few trustworthy men so that the Turks will not molest the infidels leaving the fortress; Mihal makes peace for thirty thousand florins and the tekfur accepts "with all his heart". "Nakıd göndürdi", he sent cash, in the first couplet refers to this bargain; the prose presents the money as a price paid by the tekfur.
Sackcloth and Rope
The second couplet gives the picture of the departing tekfur: he has left the treasury, girded his waist with a rope and put on sackcloth. Palas is a poor garment woven of coarse wool, known as the dress of dervishes and penitents. A ruler leaving his city in such clothes is a portrayal of defeat together with humiliation. Whether this image rests on a historical observation or is a symbol chosen by the author to give meaning to the surrender cannot be told from the text. In the last couplet a single sentence is quoted from the tekfur: "Yirümde idüñüz iy Türkler celes", O Turks, sit in my place. "Celes" comes from the Arabic root for sitting; the words stand between a farewell and the handing over of a throne. Baras, halâs, palas and celes are the four words that rhyme on "-âs/-as".
Bibliography
- Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, p. 352 (transliterated text, bâb 23).
