Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilün

Dilde cüş itdi yine sevdâ-yı 'ışk
Âlemi gark idiser deryâ-yı 'ışk
Çıkdı güşumdan ṣadâsı 'âlemün
Bâda virdi başumı ğavğa-yı 'ışk
Bâde-i 'ışkı çü pür-nüş itdi dil
Nef u zarrdan oldı bi-pervâ-yı 'ışk
Komayup dilde karâr u cânda ṣabr
Yine sergerdân gezer bî-cây-ı 'ışk
Sırr-ı 'ışkı kimsene ketm idemez
Pes Harîmî olalum rüsvâ-yı 'ışk

In English

1. Once again the passion of love has surged in the heart; the sea of love will drown the world.

2. The voice of the world has left my ears; the quarrel of love has thrown my head to the wind.

3. When the heart drank its fill of the wine of love, it became love's carefree one, heedless of gain and loss.

4. Love left no rest in the heart and no patience in the soul; love's homeless one wanders again, dizzy and bewildered.

5. No one can keep the secret of love; so, Harîmî, let us be love's disgraced ones.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

It is a ghazal of five couplets and one of the poems ending in the letter kaf of the Arabic alphabet. The metre is the short remel pattern Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilün. The redif (refrain word) is "-yı 'ışk" (... of love), and the rhyme is the "-â" of "sevdâ, deryâ, ğavğa, pervâ, cây, rüsvâ". Every couplet ends with the word "love", and the ghazal turns around this one word. The letters ṣ (sad) and s̱ (se), which came out as ş in the digital text, have been restored according to the original spelling of the words. 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 ghazal reworks, in a short metre, the themes of the first poem of the Dîvânçe. As there, love surges "once again", covers the world like a sea, and the lover in the end chooses disgrace. In the first couplet the passion of love swells like a flood or a sea. In the second the voice of the world leaves the ear; the lover no longer hears worldly affairs, and the quarrel of love has given his head to the wind. The idiom "to give one's head to the wind" expresses here both being swept away and accepting death. In the third couplet love is a wine; whoever drinks it passes beyond the reckoning of profit and loss. In the fourth the words "sergerdân" (dizzy, bewildered) and "bî-cây" (homeless) present the lover as a dervish. The closing couplet, by saying that the secret of love cannot be kept, sets melâmet, accepting the blame of the people, as the outcome.

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 15, p. 212). teis.yesevi.edu.tr

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