Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Göñülde biñ hayâl kim arzu soylar
Kimi sûret bulur hem dili söyler
Kimi elden gelür dil söyleyincek
Sebeb olur sürilür il ü boylar
Çıkarur halkı ilinden soyından
Melûl olur yasa döner o toylar

In English

1. A thousand fancies in the heart recount desire; some take on form, and the tongue speaks.

2. Some come into action once the tongue has spoken; they become the cause of lands and clans being driven out.

3. It drives people out of their land and lineage; those feasts turn to mourning, (the people) grieve.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Years of the Raiders

The sixty-first chapter runs to only a few sentences. Bayezid marches and takes Nicopolis and Silistra, then turns towards the Morea. Reaching Karaferye he settles there and sends raiders out in all four directions; the raiders pull down, break and lay waste. There are "abundant conquests and spoils". Bayezid then builds a soup kitchen at Karaferye, comes to Edirne and founds one there too.

Feasts Turned to Mourning

After so brief an account of conquest and booty the verse looks in an unexpected direction: at the people driven out. The thousand fancies of the heart sometimes begin as words, then turn into deeds, and "sürilür il ü boylar", lands and clans are driven out. In the last couplet the people are driven from their land and lineage and the "toylar", feasts and weddings, turn to mourning. On the same page where he tells of the raiders' "toyumluk", their spoils, Âşıkpaşazâde also sees the mourning on the other side of that gain. The word "toy" means both feast and wedding; a play on words can also be sensed between the raider's spoils and the people's feasts turning to mourning. Soylar, söyler, boylar, toylar: the rhyme is set in "-oylar/-öyler". The first line of the second couplet is obscure in sense; "elden gelür", comes from the hand, has been understood as the fancy of the heart turning into an act.

Bibliography

  • Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, pp. 400-401 (transliterated text, bâb 61).