Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ey şehsuvâr-ı server-i iḳbâl ü fażl u cûd
Ṭoptolıdur süheyl-i semendüñle şeş cihât
Diñle ḥikâyetüm göñül alçaḳluġın idüp
Bir oyun oynadı baña leclâc-ı kâyinât
Ferzâne iken itdi piyâde felek beni
Rûḥum ʿinâyet eyle baña fil-veş bir at
Bir ḫâne yoḳ ki varam kiş diseñ baña
Şâhum recâmı red ḳılup itme ḳuluñı mât
Ferzânesin cihânda eyâ şâh-ı rûḥ-baḫş
Ḳaṭʿ-ı keremde ben ḳuluña ṭarḥ ḳıl bir at

In English

1. O great horseman, chief of fortune, virtue and generosity; the six directions are filled with the glory of your steed. (The exact meaning of the phrase "süheyl-i semend" is not clear; Süheyl is the name of a bright star, and the brilliance or renown of the horse may be expressed through it. "Şeş cihât", the six directions, means the whole world; "şeş" is also the six on a die.)

2. Humble your heart and listen to my tale: the chess master of the universe has played a trick on me. ("Leclâc" appears in the old dictionaries both as "stammerer" and as the name of a famous chess master; here fate is imagined as a master who plays chess with mankind.)

3. While I was a ferzâne, fate made me a piyâde; my dear lord, grant me a horse like an elephant. (In chess the "ferz" is the piece known today as the queen; "ferzâne" means both wise and ferz. "Piyâde" is both a man left on foot and the pawn. "Rûḥ" means soul, and also recalls "ruh", the name of the rook in chess; the elephant (fil, the bishop) and the horse (at, the knight) are chess pieces too.)

4. If you say "check" to me, I have no square to flee to; my king, do not reject my plea and checkmate your servant. (In chess "kiş" is the threat to the king, "hane" the square to which a piece can move, and "mat" the end of the game.)

5. O life-giving king, you are the peerless sage of the world; by way of generosity grant your servant a horse. (In chess "tarh" means a strong player giving a weaker opponent a piece at the start as odds; the poet asks for a knight's odds, that is, for a horse to be given him. The exact meaning of "Ḳaṭʿ-ı kerem" is uncertain.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a kıt‘a (fragment) of five couplets. In a kıt‘a only the second lines of the couplets rhyme; here the rhyme is the sound "-ât": şeş cihât, kâyinât, at, mât, at. The use of the word "at", horse, twice as a rhyme is striking; since the subject of the poem is the wish for a horse, the word stands at the centre of the kıt‘a. The metre is from the muzâri family of aruz (quantitative metre), "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün"; the first line of the fourth couplet appears one syllable short in the edition. The kıt‘a is given in Latîfî's entry on Sâfî together with a story explaining why it was written, and Latîfî heads it "Der-recâ-i esb", on the wish for a horse.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The kıt‘a is woven throughout with chess terms. The poet speaks of fate as of a chess master: "leclâc-ı kâyinât", the chess master of the universe, has played a trick on him. In this game the poet, once a "ferzâne", has become a "piyâde". "Ferzâne" means wise in Persian, but it also recalls the "ferz" of chess, the piece known today as the queen and once called the vizier; "piyâde" is both a man left on foot and the smallest chess piece. The poet, whose horse has in fact died and who has been left on foot, describes his situation by likening it to the fall of the vizier piece to a pawn. Coming from the pen of a vizier, this comparison may also contain a subtle reference to his own rank.

The address "Rûḥum" in the third couplet means "my soul, my dear", and also recalls "ruh", the name of the rook in chess. The poet asks for a horse like an elephant; elephant and horse are chess pieces, but here they are also real animals: what is asked for is a mount as strong as an elephant. In the fourth couplet the chess language reaches its densest form. A player who says "check" to his opponent threatens his king; the threatened king is checkmated if it has no "hane", no square, to escape to. The poet likens himself to a king with no square left to take refuge in and asks his patron not to reject his plea and "checkmate" him. In the last couplet he again addresses his patron with a wish taken from chess: he asks for "tarh", the odds a strong player gives a weaker opponent at the start, that is, for a horse to be given him. Thus the whole kıt‘a expresses a real wish in the manner of a game. Since the words of the poem can be read at once in their chess and their everyday senses, the kıt‘a is a long and successful example of double entendre (tevriye).

Historical Context

Latîfî tells the story of the kıt‘a as follows: Sâfî had a dappled (abraş) horse that he rode in the days of campaign and that outran the morning breeze. The horse died for want of fodder; Latîfî tells this with the joke that it went off "to the pasture of nothingness" together with Necâtî's black mule. When Sâfî realised that his horse would not come back, he wrote this kıt‘a in the hope of obtaining one of the dappled horses of the man who was commander and chief general of that campaign; and that horseman of the field of generosity gave him one of his horses. Latîfî does not give the commander's name, nor does he say which campaign it was. The address "şehsuvâr", great horseman, in the first couplet of the kıt‘a is directed at this commander.

Bibliography

  • Latîfî, Tezkiretü'ş-şu'arâ ve Tabsıratü'n-nuzamâ, ed. Rıdvan Canım, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), pp. 322-323, entry on Sâfî. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • İsmail E. Erünsal, "Kasım Paşa, Cezerî", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 24, Istanbul 2001, pp. 545-546. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr