Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef'ûlü Mefâ'îlü Mefâ'îlü Fe'ûlün

'Işkuñ bu gönülde olalıdan beru peydâ
Tutdum yüzini sana ben ey şâh-ı dilâver

In English

1. Ever since your love appeared in this heart, O valiant king, I have turned its face toward you.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

It is the first of the two single couplets (müfred) that come at the end of the Dîvânçe, after the two-couplet Arabic poem. A müfred is a couplet standing on its own. The metre is the hezec pattern Mef'ûlü Mefâ'îlü Mefâ'îlü Fe'ûlün, also used in Ghazals 11 and 23 of the Dîvânçe. The prayer in the heading is "Tayyeballâhü enfâsehü" (may God make his breaths sweet). The two lines do not rhyme with each other ("peydâ" and "dilâver"), so the couplet cannot be the opening couplet of a ghazal. It may be one of the inner couplets of a lost ghazal, but this is an inference. Kılıç's edition does not say from which source the couplet was taken. The poet's life, works and the state of the Dîvânçe are discussed in Şehzade Korkut (Harîmî): Literary Persona, Works and Poems.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet describes the appearance of love in the heart as a turning. When love fell into the heart, the lover turned his heart's face toward the beloved. The idiom "yüz tutmak" means to turn in a direction and to set out toward something, and it also recalls turning toward the qibla in prayer. The beloved is addressed as "şâh-ı dilâver" (valiant king); in divan poetry the beloved is often spoken of as a ruler. The word "dilâver" contains the word "dil" (heart), so it echoes in sound the word "gönül" (heart) in the couplet. In few words, heart, love and turning form a declaration of devotion.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Harîmî (Şehzade Korkut), Dîvânçe, Millet Library, Ali Emîrî, Manzum Eserler nr. 104.

Academic studies

  • Filiz Kılıç, "Osmanlı Hanedanında Bir Şair: Şehzade Korkut", Bilig (Ahmet Yesevi Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi), 2, Summer 1996, pp. 203–219 (Dîvânçe text pp. 209–218; single couplet 1 at the end of the Dîvânçe, p. 218). teis.yesevi.edu.tr

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