Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef'ûlü Fâ'ilâtü Mefâ'îlü Fâ'ilün

Levh-i gönülde yazdı elif kaddüni çü Hak
'Işkun mu'allimi bana virdi o dem sebak
Bâğ içre sünbülüne benefşe boyun burar
Zerler nis̱âr ider yoluna gül tabak tabak
Rüz-ı ezelde 'ışk ile hüsnün kitâbını
Kur'ân hakıçün okumış idüm sebak sebak
Hün-âb akıtdığımı sanma eşk-i çeşmün
Hün-ı ciğer gözümde toludur kabak kabak
Mey-gün lebün hevâsına bağrı kebâb olup
Yüreği kanın içdi Harîmî çanak çanak

In English

1. When God wrote your stature, straight as the letter elif, on the tablet of the heart, the teacher of love gave me a lesson at that moment.

2. In the garden the violet bows its neck to your hyacinth-like hair; the rose scatters gold on your path, tray upon tray.

3. On the day of eternity I had read the book of love and of your beauty, lesson by lesson, by the truth of the Qur'an.

4. Do not think the bloody tears I shed are tears of my eye; my eye is full of the blood of my liver, bowl upon bowl.

5. For longing for your wine-coloured lips his breast was roasted, and Harîmî drank the blood of his heart, cup upon cup.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

It is a ghazal of five couplets. The metre is the muzâri pattern Mef'ûlü Fâ'ilâtü Mefâ'îlü Fâ'ilün. There is no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is the "-ak" of "Hak, sebak, tabak, sebak, kabak, çanak", and every couplet after the first ends with a doubling of the rhyme word ("tabak tabak, sebak sebak, kabak kabak, çanak çanak"). The prayer in the heading is "Efâzallâhü 'aleyhi birrehü" (may God pour His goodness upon him). In the digital text the line division of the first couplet had shifted ("kaddüni çü / Hak") and has been corrected according to sense and metre. The word "idüm" in the third couplet came out as "jdüm". 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

Kılıç lists four couplets of this ghazal as examples of Harîmî building harmony through repeated words. The doublings set the sound of the ghazal and close every couplet with the same rhythm. The first couplet sets up a school scene: there is tenasüp (congruence of images) among tablet, the letter elif, teacher and sebak (lesson). Elif is the upright, straight first letter of the Arabic alphabet, which is why the beloved's stature is likened to it. The third couplet carries the same picture to the day of eternity: the lover read the beloved's beauty lesson by lesson before creation. In the second couplet the drooping posture of the violet is shown as a mark of respect before the beloved's hair, and the yellow, dusty centre of the rose is likened to gold scattered on the path. Since the word "kabak" in the fourth couplet also meant eyelid in old Turkish, a tevriye (double entendre) is formed between the bowl and the eye.

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

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