Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün

Leşker-gehüñdürür felek encüm saña sipāh
Meh bir ḳuluñdurur geyer altunlu şeb-külāh
Ṭāḳ-ı sarāyuñ üzre güneş cām-ı zer nigār
Ordu-yı ḳadruñ üzre felek kuḥlī bārgāh
Kerrūbiler çıḳara göğüñ iki gözini
Ger mihr göziyile saña itmeye nigāh
Çarḫ üzre görinen giceler kehkeşān degül
Gerdūn-serāñı seyr ideyin diyü ḳıldı rāh
Medḥüñde iñen oḳıdı bir derd-mend-i ‘ışḳ
Bu maṭla‘ı vü eyledi biñ dürlü āh u vāh
Ölsem saçuñ hevāsile ey ‘iẕār-ı māh
Şem‘-i siyāh olur başum ucında dūd-ı āh
Ben pādişāh-ı memleket-i derd ü miḥnetüm
Āhum livā vü ṭabl fiġān u yaşum sipāh
Sevmek seni günāhise ey serv-i nāzenīn
Öldür beni ki çoḳdurur bende bu günāh
Raḥm eyle ben ḳuluña iñen ẓulm itme kim
Nāgāh vāḳıf ola şehinşāh-ı ‘izz ü cāh
İskender-i zamāne vü Keyḫüsrev-i zamān
Şāh-ı sipihr-mertebe Sulṭān Selīmşāh
Ṣādıḳdurur iderse kerem da‘visini kim
Bu ma‘niye du-dest-i zer-efşānıdur güvāh
Peykānını iderdi zebān tīr-i medḥine
Bir kez göz ucıyla aña eylese nigāh
Ḳularuñ üsküfin güne teşbīh eyledüm
Fi’l-ḥāl germ olup göge atdı güneş külāh
Bir pādişāh-ı çarḫ-mekānsın ki şāhlar
Nāmuñ işitseler ḳamu ḳorlar yire ḥayāh
Elburz kūhına güẕer eylerse leşkerüñ
Eylerler anı sümm-i sütūrile şāh-rāh
Ey āfitāb-ı devlet vey sāye-i Ḫudā
Ey Ḥātem-i zamāne vey şāh-ı dīn-penāh
Çeşm-i ‘ināyetile Baṣīrī ḳuluña baḳ
Kim ḥāli zülf gibi perīşāndur vü tebāh
Çarḫuñ ‘arūsı tābınuñ altunlular geye
Tā kim öñüñde āyīneler ola mihr ü māh
‘Ömrüñ libāsın itmeye pūşīde rūzgār
Devlet kemer hemīşe sa‘ādet saña külāh

In English

1. The sphere of heaven is your encampment, the stars your soldiers; the moon is a servant of yours who wears a gold-embroidered nightcap.

2. Upon the arch of your palace the sun is an ornament like a golden cup; over the army of your lofty station the sky is a kohl-coloured pavilion. (The deep blue of the sky is likened to a tent the colour of kohl.)

3. If the two eyes of heaven, the sun and the moon, do not look upon you with the eye of the sun, the cherubim will pluck those two eyes out.

4. The white road seen in the sky at night is not the Milky Way; the sphere opened this road to gaze upon your palace, lofty as the vault of heaven.

5. One stricken with the pain of love has recited this opening couplet many times in your praise and sighed a thousand sighs. (This couplet announces the second opening couplet that follows.)

6. O moon-cheeked one, should I die of longing for your hair, the smoke of my sighs will be a black candle at my head.

7. I am the king of the realm of pain and affliction; my sigh is my banner, my lament my drum, my tears my army.

8. O graceful cypress, if loving you is a sin, then kill me, for this sin is abundant in me.

9. Have mercy on your servant, do not oppress him too much; or the King of Kings, lord of glory and honour, may one day come to know of it. (This couplet makes the transition from the beloved to the sultan.)

10. That King of Kings is the Alexander and the Kay Khusraw of the age, the king of heavenly rank, Sultan Selim Shah.

11. If he claims generosity he speaks the truth; his two gold-scattering hands bear witness to this meaning.

12. Were he to glance once with the corner of his eye at the arrow of his praise, it would turn its arrowhead into a tongue. (The sultan's glance is so powerful that it would make even praise flying like an arrow speak; the meaning of the couplet is not entirely clear.)

13. I likened the üsküf caps of your servants to the sun; at once the sun grew heated and flung its cap to the sky. (The üsküf is the tall headgear worn by the Janissaries. The sun is so delighted, or so proud, at being compared to the üsküf that it tosses its cap into the sky.)

14. You are a king whose abode is the heavens; when kings hear your name they all lay their heads on the ground in shame.

15. Should your army pass by the mountain of Elburz, they would make it a royal highway with the hooves of their beasts.

16. O sun of fortune and shadow of God; O Hâtem of the age, O king who protects the faith. (Hâtem of Tayy was an ancient Arab chief famed for his generosity.)

17. Look with the eye of favour upon your servant Basîrî, for his state is as dishevelled and ruined as tresses.

18. May the bride of heaven wear the golden ornaments of your radiance, so that the sun and the moon may be mirrors before you. (Holding a mirror before the bride was an old wedding custom.)

19. May time never wear out and cover the robe of your life; may fortune ever be your belt and felicity your crown.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a kaside (qasida) of nineteen couplets in the muzâri family of aruz (quantitative metre), "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün"; the edition does not state the metre. There is no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is the sound "-âh": sipāh, külāh, bārgāh, nigāh, rāh, vāh, āh, günāh, cāh, Selīmşāh, güvāh, ḥayāh, şāh-rāh, penāh, tebāh, māh. The kaside is number XLV in Ahmet Kartal's edition and is the only kaside among the Turkish poems at the end of Basîrî's divan. The words "nigāh" and "külāh" are each used twice as rhymes.

The kaside contains the sections of the classical kaside within a short frame. The first four couplets open with an introduction describing the sultan's greatness, likened to the heavens. In the fifth couplet the poet opens a new section by saying he has recited "this opening couplet"; the sixth couplet is a second opening couplet, both of whose lines end in "-âh". In the kaside tradition this is called "tecdîd-i matla", the renewal of the opening couplet. The part from the sixth to the ninth couplet is a love section: the poet addresses the beloved, says he will die of longing for her hair and that he is the king of the realm of pain. In the ninth couplet the poet passes to the sultan by telling the beloved "do not oppress your servant, the King of Kings may hear of it"; this transitional couplet is called the girizgâh. From the tenth to the sixteenth couplet comes the praise of the sultan, in the seventeenth the poet's own state, and in the last two couplets the prayer.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The sections of praise are full of images of the sky. The sphere of heaven is the sultan's encampment, the stars his soldiers, and the moon a servant wearing a gold-embroidered cap. The sun is a golden cup on the arch of his palace, the sky a kohl-coloured pavilion over his army. Even the Milky Way is explained as a road the sphere opened to gaze upon the sultan's palace. These explanations are examples of poetic aetiology (hüsn-i talil): poetic causes connected with the sultan's greatness are found for events in nature. The comparison in the thirteenth couplet is of the same kind: the poet has likened the üsküf, the headgear of the sultan's servants, the Janissaries, to the sun; the sun is so affected by this comparison that it throws its cap into the sky.

In the love section the poet presents himself as "the king of the realm of pain and affliction": his sigh is his banner, his lament his drum, his tears his army. This couplet draws a parallel between the sultan's real army and the lover's spiritual army and binds the two sections of the kaside together. The pairing in order of banner, drum and army with sigh, lament and tears is an example of the figure called leff ü neşr (enumeration and correspondence). In the sixth couplet the smoke of the sigh becoming "a black candle" at the head of the dead refers to the custom of lighting a candle at the head of the dead.

In the praise of the sultan the familiar names of the tradition are used: Alexander and Kay Khusraw stand for world conquest, Hâtem for generosity. The sultan's two gold-scattering hands bear witness to his generosity; should his army pass by the mountain of Elburz, its hooves would turn it into a royal highway. In the seventeenth couplet the poet asks to be looked upon with favour, his "state as dishevelled as tresses". Kartal cites this couplet as an example of Basîrî's hardship; the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam also states that Basîrî lived on the rewards he received for the kasides he presented to the sultan and to the great men of state.

Historical Context

The sultan praised in the kaside is "Sulṭān Selīmşāh". In his article, quoting two couplets from the kaside, Kartal refers to it as "a kaside he wrote to Sultan Selim II". But Basîrî died in 941 (1534-35) according to Âşık Çelebi and Kınalızâde, and in 940 according to Hüsameddin; Selim II, by contrast, came to the throne in 1566. The kaside can therefore only have been presented to Selim I, Selim the Grim (1512-1520).

Hüseyin Hüsameddin gives in his History of Amasya a life of Basîrî different from that of the anthologies. According to him Basîrî grew up in Amasya and became the boon companion and private poet of Prince Ahmed; after the prince's death in 918 he remained in Amasya, and in 920 (1514), when Sultan Selim came to Amasya, he presented a "Victory kaside", won the sultan's favour and went to Istanbul. The sources do not say whether this kaside is that one. The text we have mentions no victory or particular campaign; the mountain of Elburz in the fifteenth couplet is likewise named as a supposition. Since Hüsameddin cites no source and conflicts with the anthologies, this connection can be mentioned only as a possibility.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Âşık Çelebi, Meşâ'irü'ş-şu'arâ, ed. Filiz Kılıç, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), pp. 180-182, entry on Basîrî. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Abdizâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin Yasar, Amasya Tarihi 6-8. Cilt, ed. Songül Keçeci Kurt - Recep Orhan Özel - Metin Hakverdioğlu, Amasya: Amasya Belediyesi, 2022, pp. 418-419. amasya.bel.tr

Academic studies

Books

Online sources