Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Nedür bu fitneyi gör çarh-ı gaddâr
İdinmez ata oglın kendüye yâr
Hevâ yili cefâ burcından eser
Yıkar milkini esbâb-ıla deyyâr
Bu bir iki nefes virüp alanlar
Sor âhir hâlını ol niçe tuyar
Şunı bilmez ki soñı n'olısardur
Binüp 'ömr atına turmaz ha çapar
Atı yorulur u kendü yorulmaz
Bogazını alur bir iki Tatar
Kanı milk ü kanı mansıb kanı câh
Bozuldı tavlası vü gitdi katar

In English

1. See what the mischief of this cruel wheel is: a father does not take his son as a friend.

2. The wind of desire blows from the constellation of torment; it ruins the realm with all it holds.

3. These who give and take one or two breaths: ask how in the end they come to know their state.

4. He does not know what his end will be; mounted on the horse of life he gallops without stopping.

5. His horse tires, but he does not tire; one or two Tatars take him by the throat.

6. Where is the realm, where the office, where the rank; his stable is in ruins and his string of beasts is gone.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Giurgiu and Kasım Beg

Mehmed Çelebi gathers his whole army in the seventy-fourth chapter; the lord of Karaman sends troops too, and İsfendiyar sends his son Kasım. Mehmed comes to the Danube, builds Giurgiu and lets loose the raiders; the lord of Wallachia sends his tribute with an envoy, shows complete submission and sends his sons to the Porte to serve. On the return to Bursa, Kasım Beg son of İsfendiyar says, "I will not go; I will serve at my sultan's Porte." The khan sends an envoy to İsfendiyar: let him set aside a timar from his lands for Kasım, and in return also give up Tosya, Kankırı and Kal'acuk. İsfendiyar sends a holy man named Vâiz Muhammed to Mehmed's vizier Bayezid Paşa: he will give those places to the khan, but not to Kasım, "because he is a wretch". The khan accepts the places and grants them in turn to Kasım; Kasım never returns to his father as long as he lives and remains at the Ottoman Porte.

The Wheel's Mischief

"Çarh-ı gaddâr", the treacherous wheel, is summoned as the culprit in the first line: the break between father and son is its mischief. The first couplet states the subject plainly: a father does not take his son as a friend. The following couplets paint a picture of greed and heedlessness: man, not knowing his end, mounts the horse of life and gallops; his horse tires but he does not, and in the end one or two Tatars take him by the throat. The sixth couplet uses the old pattern of question known as "ubi sunt": where is the realm, where the office; the stable is in ruins, the string of beasts is gone. A "katar" is a line of camels or mules tied together; it shows the scattering of a fortune. The Bayezid Paşa mentioned in this chapter is Mehmed Çelebi's vizier; in the chapter of the work that lists the viziers it is said, "Works of Bayezid Paşa: he built an imaret in Amasya." There is a separate page on Bayezid Paşa of Amasya.

Bibliography

  • Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, pp. 423-424 (transliterated text, bâb 74).
  • Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, "Önsöz" and "Hayatı ve 'Tarih'iyle Âşık Paşazade", in Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, pp. 25-48.