Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Cihân kimseye vefâ itmemişdür
Di kimdür kim gele ya gitmemişdür
Hisârda köşki mutabbak yapanlar
Kodı köşki gider san yapmamışdur
Benem sultân benem hakan diyenler
Yalan da'vî-y-ilen mi gitmemişdür
Gelen geçer konan göçer 'Âşıkî
Du'âsı makbûl olan geçmemişdür
In English
1. The world has been faithful to no one; say, who is there that came and did not go.
2. Those who built many-storeyed pavilions in fortresses leave them and go; you would think they had never built.
3. Those who said "I am sultan, I am khan", did they not depart with a false claim.
4. Âşıkî, he who comes passes, he who settles moves on; (only) he whose prayer is accepted has not passed.
Literary and Historical Commentary
An Endowment for an Imaret
On the coast there are infidel villages that lie within Muslim territory but live attached to Constantinople; in the seventy-ninth chapter Mehmed Çelebi is told of them. To endow the imaret he has built in Bursa, Mehmed sends troops against them. The infidel of Hereke beyond Gebze leaves his fort and flees to Constantinople. Old Gebze fights and is sacked, and its houses are given to Muslims. Tarucılar submits by agreement and is endowed to the imaret. The infidels of Pendik and Kartal flee to Constantinople. The author adds that these little coastal forts changed hands, now to the infidel, now to the Muslims, until the time of the Conqueror. The completion of Mehmed Çelebi's reign is dated to 824 (1421).
The Faithless World
At the close of a reign the words turn to faithfulness: the world has been faithful to no one, and whoever comes goes. The second couplet says that those who built many-storeyed pavilions in fortresses left them and went; coming right after an account of an imaret and its endowment, this recalls that even the pious works one builds do not keep their founder in the world. In the third couplet the claim of those who said "I am sultan, I am khan" is called a false claim. The fourth couplet sets a single exception: he who comes passes, he who settles moves on, but he whose prayer is accepted does not pass. This says that a founder's true permanence lies in the prayers said for his good works; since Âşıkpaşazâde considered praying for the dynasty his own duty, the couplet also carries an allusion to the author's own work. The refrain is "-mamışdur/-memişdür": itmemişdür, gitmemişdür, yapmamışdur, gitmemişdür, geçmemişdür.
Bibliography
- Âşık Paşazade, Osmanoğulları'nın Tarihi, ed. Kemal Yavuz, M. A. Yekta Saraç, Istanbul: K Kitaplığı, 2003, p. 429 (transliterated text, bâb 79).
