Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Ol dem ki fenâ buldı şehr-i dil-âbâdum
Hîç nesneye meyl itmez bu hâtır-ı nâ-şâdum
Şimdi garazum bu kim anlamıya hîç âdem
Ey bü’l-heves-i devlet magrûr-ı mey-i gaflet
Şimdengirü dünyâyı al sana bagışladum

In English

1. Since the moment the flourishing city of my heart was destroyed, this sorrowful heart of mine inclines to nothing. Now my only aim is that no one should understand it. O you who are caught up in the craving for fortune and power, proud with the wine of heedlessness, from now on take the world: I have given it to you.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The text we have is the single surviving stanza of a muhammes, a poem made of five-line stanzas. Beyânî calls the poem a "murabba"; the editor Aysun Sungurhan notes that it is a muhammes, and Kınalızâde gives the same poem explicitly as a "muhammes". The other stanzas of the poem are unknown. The first, second and fifth lines rhyme in "-âdum" (dil-âbâdum, nâ-şâdum, bagışladum), while the fourth has an internal rhyme between "devlet" and "gaflet". The word "âdem" at the end of the third line does not quite fit this rhyme scheme; whether the text changed as it was copied into the biographical anthologies (tezkire) is not known, and this observation is ours. The editions of the tezkires do not indicate the metre; the lines fit two repetitions of the pattern mef'ûlü mefâîlün, an observation that is also ours. The text is given from Beyânî. In Kınalızâde the fourth line reads "Ey bu'l-heves-i devlet mahmûr-ı mey-i gaflet" and the last line begins "Şimden girü"; "mahmur" in place of "mağrur" describes the person intoxicated with the wine of heedlessness through a more explicit wine metaphor.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The stanza is built in the voice of a dervish who has turned his back on the world. "Şehr-i dil-âbâd" means the flourishing city of the heart; in divan poetry the heart is often imagined as a city or a land that love or grief burns and lays waste. Here the ruin of the city is presented as the cause of the poet's state, in which he no longer attaches himself to anything. The word "garaz" in the third line means aim, and expresses the poet's wish to tell his trouble to no one. This wish for silence contrasts with the open address of the last two lines. "Ebü'l-heves", literally "father of craving", is one seized by ambition; "mey-i gaflet", the wine of heedlessness, is a metaphor (istiare) likening to wine the love of the world that leaves man unaware of God and of death. At the end of the stanza the poet bestows the world on his addressee as if it were a gift. The gesture expresses both the humility and the disdain of the dervish who sets no value on the world: he leaves what he finds worthless to whoever wants it.

Historical Context

The two biographers tell the occasion of the poem in different tones. According to Beyânî, Derûnî first attached himself to the household of Şehzade Mustafa (Prince Mustafa), then came to the door of Şehzade Selim and, failing to find the favour he wished there, composed this poem. Kınalızâde says that Derûnî had been admitted to Şehzade Selim's private gatherings but repaid the prince's favour with ingratitude and wrote this muhammes. When the poem reached the prince's ears it aroused his anger and the poet was driven from the door. On these accounts the address "ebü'l-heves-i devlet" was understood as a barb aimed at a prince craving the throne, or at his circle. The poem itself does not say clearly to whom the address is directed; this reading rests on the biographers' narrative. The poet's link with Prince Mustafa and its relation to Amasya are treated separately in the biography in this category.

Bibliography

Online sources