Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Şular kim oglı mukbil olmak ister
Gel imdi ata ogla yolı göster
Ogul dahı ala senden nasîhat
Ger alsa nasîhat olmaya kemter
Şular kim almadı pendi atadan
Olan oldur bu halk içinde ebter
In English
1. Whoever wishes his son to be fortunate, come now, O father, show your son the way.
2. Let the son too take counsel from you; if he takes counsel he will not fall low.
3. As for those who did not take advice from their father, it is they who among this people are left cut off.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Was Osman Still Alive
After the conquest of Bursa is told, the author turns to a question and answer. To the question "When these conquests were made, was Osman Gazi alive?" he answers, as "the soundest account", that Osman was alive and that he himself sent his son on these campaigns. To the question "Why did Osman Gazi not go with him himself?" he gives two answers: Orhan too had two sons, and Osman wished Orhan to gain renown in his own time; moreover Osman had an ailment in his foot, and that was the reason he did not go. The three-couplet verse follows this answer.
Father and Son
The relationship between Osman and Orhan becomes general counsel here. The first couplet addresses fathers, the second sons, and the third tells the end of one who will not take advice. "Mukbil" means fortunate, favoured by luck; "ebter" means one whose line is cut off, without good. This is the word used in the Kevser sura of the Quran for those who were hostile to the Prophet, and it gives the couplet a harsh sense. Father and son are often treated in Âşıkpaşazâde's work: Osman's testament, Orhan's relations with his brother Alâeddin, and in later chapters the conflicts among princes. These three couplets are like a measure set before those conflicts. İster, göster, kemter, ebter: the sound "-ter" binds four line endings together.
Bibliography
- Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, p. 354 (transliterated text, bâb 23).
