Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Didiler mâl alupdur yok kıyâsı
N'ola kim ehlümüzüñ gide yası
Ogul kız kavm u kardaş ilden ayru
Bulımaz halkumuz giye palâsı
Unıtdılar kamu varlıklarını
Dilerler Tañrı'dan bir baş halâsı
Didiler biz günâh itmedük aña
Degüldür bir kılımuz aña 'âsî
Komadı bir kara pul elümüzde
Gedâyîler virür bize yiyesi
Didiler derdümüz üküş vefâ yok
Yüzümüz kalmadı hâlı diyesi

In English

1. They said: "He has taken wealth beyond measure; if only the mourning of our families might pass."

2. "Son, daughter, kin and brother are apart from the land; our people cannot find so much as sackcloth to wear."

3. "They have forgotten all their possessions; they ask of God only that their heads be spared."

4. They said: "We committed no sin against him; not one hair of ours rebels against him."

5. "He has left not a black farthing in our hands; beggars give us food to eat."

6. They said: "Our sorrows are many, there is no faithfulness; we have no face left to tell our state."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Before Timur

The previous two couplets were a reproach to the lords who fled to Timur; these six couplets speak in the voice of those same lords. Each couplet contains "didiler", they said, or an expression standing for it: the lords are complaining to Timur about Bayezid. Bayezid has taken wealth beyond measure; their children, daughters and kin are kept apart from their homes; their people cannot find sackcloth to wear. They have committed no sin against him; not even a black farthing is left in their hands, and they live on what beggars give. In the sixth couplet they say there is no faithfulness and they have no face left to tell their state.

A Poem of Self-Defence

The words of the lords who in the prose beg Timur, "O lord of the conjunction, have mercy on us, for we are greatly wronged", become here a verse of complaint. By setting these couplets beside the previous reproach, Âşıkpaşazâde shows the tangled state of Anatolia before Ankara from two sides: on one side the lords' claim of injury, on the other the ruin their instigation brought about. "Degüldür bir kılımuz aña 'âsî", not one hair of ours rebels against him, in the fourth couplet asserts that these lords did not rebel against the Ottomans but only lost their lands. The refrain is "-ası", and the rhyme is built on the words kıyâsı, yası, palâsı, halâsı, 'âsî, yiyesi, diyesi. "Palâs" is the coarse woollen garment that also appears in the scene of the surrender of the tekfur of Bursa; here it expresses the poverty of the people of the lords who lost their lands.

Bibliography

  • Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, pp. 407-408 (transliterated text, bâb 66).