Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Bi-hamdillâh zamân-ı devletinde
Temeyyüz ehl ü nâ-ehl olunurken
Bu kâr-ı müşkili kime soralım
Serîr-i fazlda sen otururken
Geliboluda nâ-ehlin kazâsı
Acep câ'iz midir Ehlî dururken

In English

1. Praise be to God, in the time of your rule, while the worthy and the unworthy are being told apart,

2. to whom else shall we put this difficult matter, while you sit on the throne of merit?

3. Is it right that the judgeship of Gelibolu goes to the unworthy while Ehlî stands by?

Literary and Historical Commentary

All the subtlety of the kıta gathers in the last line, in the poet's pen name. The name "Ehlî" comes from the Arabic word "ehl" and describes someone worthy of a task, competent in it. In the first couplet the poet praises the chief judge's term as a time when "ehl ü nâ-ehl", the worthy and the unworthy, are told apart; in the last he says that the district of Gelibolu has been given to someone "nâ-ehl" and sets his own name against him. The words "Ehlî dururken" can be understood both as "while the poet called Ehlî stands by" and as "while a worthy man stands by". Praise and complaint are joined in one sentence.

According to Hüsameddin the event took place in 1001 (1592-93). Ehlî is waiting unemployed in Istanbul; the chief judge (kazasker) of Rumelia is Bostanzâde Mehmed Efendi, who had earlier been dismissed from the office of Şeyhülislam. When the vacant judgeship of Gelibolu is given to another, Ehlî presents the kıta to the chief judge. The chief judge's answer is also in verse, and Hüsameddin quotes it as follows:

Tecâhül eyledik ey merd-i ârif
Suâl etdin cevâbını bilirken
Gel insâf eyle ne etsin kazasker
Efendi hatt-ı sultânî dururken

That is: "Man of knowledge, we feigned ignorance; you asked though you knew the answer. Come, be fair: what is the chief judge to do while the sultan's handwritten order stands?" The answer takes up exactly the refrain "dururken" the poet had set and reminds him that the decision was not in the chief judge's hands, that the appointment was made by an imperial rescript. Together the two poems are a small testimony to how judgeships were assigned at the end of the sixteenth century and how unemployed judges waited in Istanbul. The kıta does not appear in the anthologies; it is found only in Hüsameddin, whose source is not stated. Ehlî's years as a judge are followed in the article Ehlî (Tayyibzâde Mehmed Efendi).

Bibliography

Online sources