Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Yine bir şekl-i şîve tutdı âlem
Teferrüc ider anı 'âkıl âdem
Hevâlar yili esdi 'âlem üzre
Niçe nutk u nâtıklar oldı ebkem
Temâşâgâha geldi Âşıkî gör
İder sun'ı temâşâ olur ebkem
Ya Sâni' sun'ına mazhar ne itdi
Bu cem'iyyete mazhar oldı âdem

In English

1. Once more the world has taken a shape, a display; the wise man looks on at it.

2. The winds of passion blew over the world; many words and many speakers fell mute.

3. See, Âşıkî has come to the place of spectacle; he gazes on (God's) making and falls mute.

4. What did the one who is the manifestation of the Maker's art do: man became the manifestation of this gathering.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Kosovo

The battle begins between noon and afternoon prayers. On the right wing Bayezid, on the left Yakub Çelebi fight well; Lazar is on Yakub Çelebi's side, and the infidel army on that side breaks. Meanwhile Miloš Obilić walks towards the khan, trailing his spear behind him, his cap in his hand. The gazis bar his way; he says, "Let me pass, I have come to kiss the hand and to bring good news," announcing that Lazar has been taken with his son. The gazis draw back; when he comes near the khan, Miloš turns his lance and strikes him. At once a tent is set up over the khan and Bayezid is placed at the foot of the banner. Yakub Çelebi is told, "Come, your father wants you," and when he comes to the tent "they did to him as to his father"; Lazar too is killed with his son. That night the army is in great distress; in the morning the people accept Bayezid as sovereign. The chapter gives the date as 791 (1389).

The Poet as Spectator

Rather than narrate this dramatic scene, the poet sets up a place of spectacle. The world has taken a new shape and the wise man looks on. In the second couplet the speakers fall mute; in the third Âşıkî too comes to the place of spectacle and he too is silent. This silence can be read as the poetic expression of the author's refusal to comment on the killing of a sultan and the strangling of a prince. The last couplet returns to the Sufi notion of "mazhar": man is the place where the Creator's art appears. Instead of passing judgement on whether events were good or bad, this ending accepts everything as the appearance of a divine art. As the TDV article notes, Âşıkpaşazâde took the part down to the reign of Yıldırım Bayezid from the menâkıbnâme of Yahşı Fakıh; the Kosovo narrative falls within the section based on that source.

Bibliography

  • Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, pp. 393-394 (transliterated text, bâb 56).
  • Abdülkadir Özcan, "Âşıkpaşazâde", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 4, Istanbul 1991, pp. 6-7. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/asikpasazade

Online sources