Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Bu dügün kim Murâd Han itdi kardaş
Yayıldı sofralar döküldi çok aş
Bir ay yinildi tamâm dürlü ni'met
Fakîr ü ganî vü hem yidi evbāş
'Alemlü hil'atin çok geydiler halk
Tonandı hep yalınçak rind ü kallâş
Kazan kaynadı çok koyun bişürdi
Öküz kebâbın ister oldı ferrâş
'Atâlar eyledi altun u akça
Hocalar gibi oldı cimri kulmâş
Rızâ buldı kamu bu halk-ı 'âlem
Melûl gitmedi halk olmadı savaş
Dügün kim eyledi o Gāzi Hünkâr
Yük-idi Âşıkî bil sükkeri baş
Du'â itdüm o demden bu güne dek
Ölinçe iderem du'âyı yoldaş

In English

1. My brother, at this wedding that Murad Han held, tables were spread and much food was poured out.

2. For a whole month all kinds of dishes were eaten; poor and rich and riffraff too ate.

3. The people put on many robes of honour with banners; the naked rakes and wretches were all clothed.

4. Cauldrons boiled, many sheep were cooked; even the servant came to ask for roast ox.

5. He gave away gold and silver coin; the miserly and the wretched became like gentlemen.

6. All the people of the world were content; no one left aggrieved, there was no quarrel.

7. At the wedding that Gazi Hünkâr held, know that Âşıkî's load was a sugarloaf.

8. From that time to this day I have prayed; until I die I will keep prayer as my companion.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Bride from Kütahya

Murad Han marries his son Bayezid in the fiftieth chapter. The daughter of the lord of Germiyan is asked for, and inviters are sent to all the lords round about: the lords of Karaman, Hamid, Menteşe and Saruhan, İsfendiyar in Kastamonu and the sultan of Egypt. The envoys come with fine horses, strings of camels and all kinds of marvellous gifts; the Egyptian envoy is seated above all the others. Then come Evrenez Gazi's gifts: a hundred slaves and a hundred slave girls, some holding silver trays full of florins, some gold trays, some silver cups and chased ewers. The envoys marvel that a slave should come with such gifts. Murad, however, distributes Evrenez's slaves and slave girls to the envoys and the envoys' horses to Evrenez, and gives the rest to the scholars and the poor.

An Account of a Feast

In the couplets the wedding appears as a table: a month of eating, boiling cauldrons, cooked sheep, a servant asking for roast ox, the poor clothed, gold and silver coin. Poor and rich, rake and gentleman meet at the same table; this is a scene of "bezl", the virtue of generosity that Âşıkpaşazâde praises everywhere. The last two couplets turn to the author himself: at that wedding "Âşıkî's load was a sugarloaf", and since that day he has prayed for the dynasty. How these words are to be understood is not clear. At the end of the next chapter the wedding and the handing over of Kütahya are dated to 783 (1381); according to the author's own statement of his age he was not yet born at the time. The couplet expresses figuratively either a share of the wedding's bounty that fell to the author's family or a sweet task that fell to him in telling of the wedding; the text gives no explanation.

Bibliography

  • Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, pp. 386-387 (transliterated text, bâb 50).