Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ey nûr-ı çeşm-i Ahmed-i Muhtâr yâ Hüseyn
Ey yâdigâr-ı Hayder-i Kerrâr yâ Hüseyn
Ey cân u dil serîrine sultân yâ Hüseyn
V’ey Kerbelâ’da şâh-ı şehîdân yâ Hüseyn
Çeşm-i çerâg-ı âlem ü nûr-ı cemâl-i Hak
Cân-ı cihân u rahmet-i Rahmân yâ Hüseyn
Rûşen yüzünde sûre-i ve’ş-şemsi ve’d-duhâ
Şânunda nâzil âyet-i Kur’ân yâ Hüseyn
Hâk-i rehün katında şehâ seng-rîzedür
Dürr-i Aden’le la’l-i Bedehşân yâ Hüseyn
Hüsnün güninde olmaya bir berg-i sebzce
Bâg-ı bihişt ü ravza-i rıdvân yâ Hüseyn
Ceddün Resûl-i pâk ü atan şâh-ı Murtazâ
Ammün imâm-ı dîn şeh-i merdân yâ Hüseyn
İy nûr-ı çeşm-i Fâtıma mahbûb-ı ins ü cân
İnletdi bizi mihnet-i devrân yâ Hüseyn
Mâh-ı Muharrem irdi dem-i mâtem oldı
Oldun bu ayda gün gibi pinhân yâ Hüseyn
Kan agladı şafak da şehâ şefkatünden âh
Ol dem ki itdiler seni kurbân yâ Hüseyn
Devr-i zamâne döndi vü âlem yıkıldı san
Dutdı cihânı nâle vü efgân yâ Hüseyn
Mâtem tonını geydi bulutlar bölük bölük
Bârân gam-ıla kopdı çü tûfân yâ Hüseyn
Gökler boyandı göge vü gün geydi karalar
Mahv oldı arada meh-i tâbân yâ Hüseyn
Yırtdı yüzini nâhun-ı hasretle mihr ü mâh
Agladı yir ü gök sana yeksân yâ Hüseyn
Çarhun büküldi bili vü sındı sitâresi
Encüm saçıldı yire çü bârân yâ Hüseyn
Deryâlar acıdı sana akar sular dahı
Taşlar alup dögindi firâvân yâ Hüseyn
Kanlar döküp firâk-ıla her kişi dir ki âh
Kanı ne oldı sevgülü cânân yâ Hüseyn
Gül gibi çihre kana boyandı firâk ile
Çâk itse tan mı gonca giribân yâ Hüseyn
Sünbül saçını çözdi vü gül getdi kendüden
Sûsen elinde hançer-i bürrân yâ Hüseyn
Eydür zebân-ı hâl ile kanı ne yirdedür
Şimr-i la’în ü nekbet-i Mervân yâ Hüseyn
Âl-i resûle kankı yüzi kara böyle ider
Olsun Yezîd’e la’net-i Yezdân yâ Hüseyn
Her kim seni ve âlüni cânı gibi sevmeye
İtden beterdür ol nice insân yâ Hüseyn
Bezm-i gamunda âteş-i hasretle yanmayan
Olsun hemîşe ney gibi nâlân yâ Hüseyn
Derdâ ki tâs-ı çarh-ı felek hânedânuna
Gâhî içürdi zehri gehî kan yâ Hüseyn
Sen deşt-i Kerbelâ’da susuz biz bunda âh u dâd
Yire mi geçdi çeşme-i hayvân yâ Hüseyn
Dervişem âstânuna yüz süre gelmişem
Şâh-ı keremsin eylegil ihsân yâ Hüseyn
Haşr güninde el benüm etek senün şehâ
Komagıl anda teşne vü üryân yâ Hüseyn
Kandur şarâb-ı Kevsere Sâfî kulunı sen
Geydür libâs-ı hulle-i rıdvân yâ Hüseyn
Rahmet seni sevüp yoluna cân virenlerün
Olsun hemîşe hil’ati îmân yâ Hüseyn
Olsun kamu muhibbüne rûzî yarınki gün
Şürb-i na’îm ü ni’met-i gufrân yâ Hüseyn
Olsun sana ve âlüne Rûhu’l-emîn müdâm
Kerrûbilerle medh ü senâ-hân yâ Hüseyn

In English

1. O light of the eye of Ahmad the Chosen, O Hüseyin; O keepsake of Haydar (Ali), who charged the enemy again and again, O Hüseyin.

2. O sultan of the throne of soul and heart, O Hüseyin; O king of the martyrs at Karbala, O Hüseyin.

3. O light of the world's eye, radiance of God's beauty; O soul of the world, mercy of the All-Merciful, O Hüseyin.

4. On your shining face the suras "By the Sun" and "By the Morning Light" are read; verses of the Qur'an came down in your honour, O Hüseyin. (Şems means "sun" and Duhâ "the forenoon"; the brightness of the face is expressed through the names of these two suras.)

5. O king, beside the dust of your road the pearl of Aden and the ruby of Badakhshan are mere pebbles, O Hüseyin.

6. Before the sun of your beauty the garden of paradise and the garden of Rıdvân would not amount to a single green leaf, O Hüseyin. ("Gün" means both day and sun.)

7. Your grandfather is the pure Messenger, your father the king Ali, with whom God is pleased; your uncle is the leader of the faith and king of the valiant, O Hüseyin. (Whom the line means by "uncle" is not clear from the text; the epithets "leader of the faith" and "king of the valiant" are mostly used of Ali.)

8. O light of Fatima's eye, beloved of men and jinn; the trials of the age have made us moan, O Hüseyin.

9. The month of Muharram has come, the hour of mourning is here; in this month you vanished like the sun, O Hüseyin. (A link is made between the month, "ay", which is also the moon, and the sun; Hüseyin was martyred in the month of Muharram.)

10. O king, at the moment they sacrificed you, even the dawn wept blood out of compassion for you, O Hüseyin. (The redness of dawn is attributed to this weeping.)

11. The turning of time was overturned, as though the world had collapsed; moaning and lament filled the world, O Hüseyin.

12. The clouds, band upon band, put on the garments of mourning; the rain burst out with grief like a flood, O Hüseyin.

13. The heavens were dyed blue and livid, the sun put on black; the shining moon vanished in between, O Hüseyin. (Blue and black are thought of as colours of mourning.)

14. Sun and moon tore their faces with the nails of longing; earth and sky wept for you as one, O Hüseyin. (Tearing the face with the nails is an old mourning custom.)

15. The back of the wheel of heaven was bent and its star was broken; the stars were scattered on the ground like rain, O Hüseyin.

16. The seas, and even the running waters, grew bitter for you; the stones took up stones and beat their breasts abundantly, O Hüseyin. ("Acımak" means both to feel pity and for water to be bitter or salty; the saltiness of the seas is attributed to this grief.)

17. Everyone sheds blood in separation and says, "Ah, where is that beloved one, what became of him?", O Hüseyin. (There is a likeness of sound between "kanlar", blood, and "kanı", where is, at the head of the lines.)

18. The rose-like face was dyed with blood in separation; is it any wonder if the bud tears its collar, O Hüseyin? (The opening of the bud is likened to the tearing of the collar in mourning.)

19. The hyacinth unloosed its hair, the rose fainted away; in the hand of the iris is a sharp dagger, O Hüseyin. (The scattered leaves of the hyacinth are likened to hair let down in mourning, and the pointed leaves of the iris to a dagger.)

20. Everyone says in the language of circumstance, "Where are the accursed Shimr and the ill-omened Marwan?", O Hüseyin. (Shimr is named first among those who martyred Hüseyin; Marwan is a name from the Umayyad family.)

21. What black-faced one would do such a thing to the family of the Messenger; may the curse of God be upon Yazid, O Hüseyin.

22. Whoever does not love you and your family as his own soul, whatever kind of man he may be, is worse than a dog, O Hüseyin.

23. Whoever does not burn with the fire of longing in the gathering of your grief, may he moan forever like the reed flute, O Hüseyin.

24. Alas, the cup of the turning wheel of heaven gave your house now poison, now blood to drink, O Hüseyin.

25. You were left thirsty on the plain of Karbala, and here we sigh and lament; has the spring of the water of life sunk into the ground, O Hüseyin?

26. I am a dervish; I have come to rub my face on your threshold; you are the king of generosity, grant your favour, O Hüseyin.

27. O king, on the day of the gathering the hand is mine and the skirt is yours; do not leave me there thirsty and naked, O Hüseyin. ("The hand is mine, the skirt is yours" means clinging to someone's skirt to beg intercession.)

28. Quench your servant Sâfî with the wine of Kawthar, and clothe him in the robe of the garden of paradise, O Hüseyin.

29. Mercy upon those who loved you and gave their lives on your path; may their robe of honour ever be faith, O Hüseyin.

30. On the morrow, the day of resurrection, may all who love you be granted the drink of paradise's bliss and the grace of forgiveness, O Hüseyin.

31. May Gabriel, the Trusted Spirit, together with the cherubim, ever sing praise to you and your family, O Hüseyin.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a kaside (qasida) of thirty-one couplets in the muzâri family of aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün". The source does not state the metre; the pattern emerges from scansion. Every couplet ends with the redif (refrain word) "yâ Hüseyn"; the rhyme is the sound "-ân": after Muhtâr and Kerrâr it continues with sultân, şehîdân, Rahmân, Kur'ân, Bedehşân, rıdvân. In the first couplet the rhyme is "-âr", while in the second couplet both lines rhyme in "-ân"; this second couplet works like a new opening couplet that introduces the kaside's real rhyme. The pen name (mahlas) "Sâfî" appears in the twenty-eighth couplet; the last three couplets form the prayer section. The first line of the ninth couplet appears one syllable short in this text; it has been left as it stands.

The kaside comes from the divan of Cezerî Kasım Paşa, of which only one manuscript is known today. This manuscript is in the private library of İsmail E. Erünsal, and the divan was published by Ahmet Sevgi and Hakan Sevindik in 2016. The text given here is the one quoted from that edition (pp. 110-113) in Erünsal's entry in the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü (Dictionary of Names in Turkish Literature). In his entry in the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam, Erünsal states that the divan contains only three kasides, the first addressed to Hüseyin and the others to Mehmed II (the Conqueror) and Bayezid II. The kaside therefore stands at the head of the divan.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The kaside combines a eulogy of Hüseyin with a lament for his martyrdom at Karbala. In divan literature poems on the events of Karbala and on Hüseyin are generally called mersiye (elegy). Sâfî's poem moves in three parts. The first eight couplets are praise: Hüseyin is the light of the Prophet's eye, the keepsake of Ali and the beloved of Fatima; his face is a page on which the suras of the Sun and the Morning Light are read, and the dust of his road is worth more than pearls and rubies. In this part images drawn from the Qur'an, from paradise and from precious stones follow one another.

With the ninth couplet the poem turns to the month of Muharram and to mourning. In the ten couplets that follow all of nature mourns: the dawn weeps blood, the clouds put on mourning garments, the rain pours down like a flood, the sky turns livid, the sun puts on black, the moon disappears, the stars scatter on the ground, the seas turn salt with grief, the stones beat their breasts. The rose dyes its face with blood, the bud tears its collar, the hyacinth unlooses its hair, the iris takes a dagger in its hand. The poet finds for every event in nature a cause connected with the mourning for Hüseyin; this figure, called hüsn-i talil (poetic aetiology) in divan poetry, weaves through this whole section of the kaside. The transfer of mourning customs, tearing the face, loosening the hair, rending the collar, to the beings of the sky and the garden is also a strong example of personification (teşhis).

There are notable plays of sound and sense in this section. In the sixteenth couplet the verb "acımak" is used both for feeling pity and for water being salty; the bitterness of the seas is attributed to their grief for Hüseyin. In the seventeenth couplet the words "kanlar" (blood) and "kanı" (where is) are brought close in sound. In the twenty-first couplet "Yezîd" and "Yezdân" (God) meet in the same line, and the curse is reinforced by this likeness of sound. The twenty-fourth couplet says that the cup of the wheel of heaven gave the Prophet's family now poison, now blood to drink; with the words poison and blood the couplet may allude to the different deaths the house suffered. In the twenty-fifth couplet the thirst at Karbala is set against the spring of the water of life.

In the last part the poet turns to himself. He presents himself as a dervish rubbing his face on Hüseyin's threshold and says that on the day of resurrection he will cling to his skirt. "El benüm etek senün", the hand is mine and the skirt is yours, expresses the hope of intercession in a popular idiom. In the couplet with the pen name the poet asks for the wine of Kawthar and the robe of paradise; thus the thirst of Karbala is set against Kawthar in paradise, and nakedness against the robe of paradise. The kaside closes with prayers asking mercy for those who love Hüseyin and the praise of Gabriel and the angels. Throughout the poem, love for the Prophet's family is expressed within the frame of the devotion to the Ahl al-Bayt widespread in Ottoman poetry.

Historical Context

When the kaside was written is not known. Noting the small number of kasides in the divan and the absence of sections in praise of God's unity and of the Prophet, Erünsal thinks the manuscript may have been compiled in an early period of the poet's life. Since the other two kasides of the divan were written for Mehmed II and Bayezid II, it is possible that this compilation falls in the same period as the years when Kasım Paşa was appointed by Mehmed II as treasurer (defterdar) to Prince Bayezid in Amasya; the sources, however, give no clear information on the point. The biographical anthologies say that Sâfî's divan was famous but do not mention this kaside.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Official sources

  • Sehî Beg, Heşt-Bihişt, ed. Günay Kut, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay. (e-book), pp. 31-32, entry on Kâsım Paşa. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Online sources