Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Rûyunda çıkdı cânân gör hatt-ı pâdişâhî
Bahtın açıldı oldun âşıkların penâhı

In English

1. O beloved, see, a down (hat) worthy of kings has appeared on your face; your fortune has opened, you have become the refuge of lovers. (The couplet is also read as "on your face has appeared the script of Pâdişâh", that is, the handwriting of the calligrapher Pâdişâh Ahmed Çelebi.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

We have a single couplet. Since its two lines rhyme on the words "pâdişâhî" and "penâhı", it must be the matla, the opening couplet, of a ghazal (gazel); the rest of the ghazal is unknown. The source does not indicate the metre; the lines fit the pattern "mef'ûlü fâ'ilâtün mef'ûlü fâ'ilâtün" of aruz (quantitative metre), and this reading is ours.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In divan poetry "hat" is the fine down that appears on the beloved's cheek and above the lip. Poets mostly compare this down to writing: the beloved's face is a page and the down the lines drawn across it. The literal meaning of the word is in any case "script". The couplet takes this double meaning a step further with the expression "hatt-ı pâdişâhî". The phrase means a script of kingly beauty; it can also mean a decree written in the sultan's own hand. The person who carries such a decree finds his fortune opened and becomes a holder of office in whom others take refuge. In the couplet, too, the down on the beloved's face is imagined as a decree: once the down has appeared the beloved's fortune has opened and lovers seek refuge with her. "Penâh" means refuge and recalls the epithet "âlem-penâh" (refuge of the world) used for sultans; a congruence of images (tenasüp) is built between the words sultan, decree, fortune and refuge.

The second layer of the couplet rests on a personal name. The word "pâdişâhî" also carries the name of the calligrapher Pâdişâh Ahmed Çelebi and the name "hatt-ı Pâdişâhî" given to his script. The couplet thus praises both the beloved's face and a calligrapher's handwriting; it is a fine example of tevriye (double entendre).

Historical Context

Hüsameddin gives the couplet in the entry on Pâdişâh Ahmed Çelebi. According to him, Pâdişâh Ahmed Çelebi was the son of Abdullah Efendi of Amasya, counted among the seven famous calligraphers, and had learned the various scripts from his father. In Prince Ahmed's time he entered the ranks of the divan secretaries and became keeper of the registers (defter emini) in 916 (1510). When Prince Ahmed proclaimed his sultanate in Amasya he made him reisülküttab (chief of the scribes). After the prince's death he became secretary of the provincial divan, trained many calligraphers and died around 938 (1531-32). Because his handwriting was very beautiful it was called "hatt-ı Pâdişâhî". Hüsameddin says that "the famous poet Çeşmî Çelebi of Amasya" meant him in this couplet. Since Çeşmî too was one of the prince's divan secretaries, the two men worked in the same chancery, and the couplet can be read as an elegant compliment addressed to a colleague; this last assessment is ours. For Çeşmî's life see the article Çeşmî Mehmed Çelebi.

Bibliography

Online sources