Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ'îlün Mefâ'îlün Fe'ûlün

Yine bir âteş oldı cânda peydâ
Ki cüş itdi gönül mânend-i deryâ
Yine bu nâm u nengüñ defterini
Ṣalup deryâya diler k'ola rüsvâ
Yine dîvâne-i sevdâ-yı 'ışkum
Bana ğavğâ-yı 'âlemden ne pervâ
Yine bir derd olupdur dilde zâhir
Devâ bilmez ana hergiz etibbâ
Gamuñ egnüme bir kisvet geyürdi
Palâs oldı bana bi'l-cümle dünyâ
Dili zîr ü zeber kılalı 'ışkuñ
Kamu yeksândur ana zîr ü bâlâ
Harîmî sırrunı fâş eylerüm fâş
Ne bilür mest olan 'âşık müdârâ

In English

1. Once again a fire has appeared in my soul, so that the heart has surged like the sea.

2. Once again the heart wishes to throw this ledger of name and honour (nâm u neng, the concern for reputation) into the sea and be disgraced.

3. Once again I am mad with the passion of my love; what do I care for the quarrels of the world.

4. Once again a pain has appeared in the heart; physicians know no cure for it at all.

5. Your sorrow has put a garment on my back; the whole world has become a coarse dervish's sackcloth (palâs) to me.

6. Ever since love turned the heart upside down, high and low have become one to it.

7. Harîmî, I reveal your secret, and reveal it openly; what does a drunken lover know of discretion (müdârâ).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is the first poem of the Dîvânçe, opening with the basmala, and it stands among the ghazals ending in the letter elif according to the order of the Arabic alphabet. It is a ghazal (gazel) of seven couplets. The metre is the hezec pattern Mefâ'îlün Mefâ'îlün Fe'ûlün. There is no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is formed by the long "-â" in "peydâ, deryâ, rüsvâ, pervâ, etibbâ, dünyâ, bâlâ, müdârâ". Kılıç notes that the poem also appears on folio 178b of Korkut's book on Sufism, Kitâb fi't-tasavvuf (Da'vetü'n-nefsi't-tâliha), where the fifth couplet reads "bu cümle" instead of "bi'l-cümle" and the last couplet "iderüm" instead of "eylerüm". That the poem was included in this book, which the prince presented to his father in 1508, means it is not merely a piece gathered later; it was among the poems the poet chose himself. 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 most striking feature of the ghazal is that its first four couplets begin with the word "Yine" (once again). The tendency Kılıç observes in Harîmî, to build harmony through the repetition of words, is plain here. The repetition also suggests that love is not felt for the first time but returns once more, as a recurring state. The image of the sea links two couplets: the heart surges like the sea, and then the ledger of name and honour is thrown into that sea. This second movement is the Sufi idea of melâmet, abandoning the concern for reputation and accepting the blame of the people. The palâs of the fifth couplet is the coarse woollen cloak worn by dervishes; the whole world turning into sackcloth expresses renunciation of worldly goods. In the sixth couplet "zîr ü zeber" means "upside down" and is also the name of the kesre and üstün vowel signs of Arabic script. The poet answers it in the second line with "zîr ü bâlâ" (low and high), producing repetition and tenasüp (congruence of images). The drunken lover of the final couplet, who reveals his secret, is close to the Sufi type of the ecstatic who cannot keep the secret.

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; ghazal 1, p. 209). teis.yesevi.edu.tr
  • Feridun Emecen, "Korkut, Şehzade", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 26, Ankara 2002, pp. 205–207. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/korkut-sehzade

Books

  • Şehzade Korkut, Da'vetü'n-nefsi't-tâliha ile'l-a'mâli's-sâliha (Kitâb fi't-tasavvuf), Süleymaniye Library, Ayasofya nr. 1763, fol. 178b (after the note in Kılıç 1996).
  • Filiz Kılıç, "Harîmî, Şehzâde Korkud", Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü, 2014 (updated 2020). https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/harimi-sehzade-korkud

Online sources