Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilün

Hüsni evsâfı beyâna gelse ol cânânenün
Cân virür kalmaz karârı bu dil-i vîrânenün
Hüsrevâ Şîrîn anılmaz bezm-i 'ışkunda senün
Ṣohbet-i germ içre olmaz lezzeti efsânenün
Cân atup dil 'ârızun şevkiyle yanar yakılur
Oda yanmakda benümle bahs̱i yok pervânenün
Tolalı 'ışkun şarâbiyle bu gönlüm hânesi
Kalmadı hergiz cihânda hürmeti meyhânenün
Bu Harîmîye nazar itmezse lutf idüp nigâr
Mahv olur âs̱ârı cümle bu dil-i vîrânenün

In English

1. Should the qualities of that beloved's beauty begin to be told, this ruined heart would give up its life and lose all rest.

2. O Hüsrev, in the gathering of your love Şîrîn is not mentioned; in the warm conversation the tale has no savour.

3. The heart, longing for your cheek, flings itself in and burns; the moth cannot compete with me in burning in the fire.

4. Since this house of the heart was filled with the wine of your love, the tavern has had no honour left in the world.

5. If the beauty does not graciously look upon this Harîmî, every trace of this ruined heart will be erased.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

It is a ghazal of five couplets. The metre is the remel pattern Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilün. The redif (refrain word) is the genitive suffix "-nüñ", and the rhyme is formed by the "-âne" of "cânâne, vîrâne, efsâne, pervâne, meyhâne". The word "vîrâne" (ruin) serves as a rhyme in both the opening and closing couplets, so the ghazal opens and closes with the same ruined heart. The letter heading in the text is "Harfü'l-kâf"; the ghazal ends in "-nüñ" because in the old spelling this sound was written with the letter kâf. 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 second couplet alludes to Nizâmî's famous masnavi Hüsrev and Şîrîn. The beloved is addressed as "Hüsrev". In the gathering of his love even Şîrîn's name is not mentioned, for beside this warm conversation the old story is no more than a tale; the word "efsâne" means both a tale and idle talk. The third couplet works the motif of the candle and the moth. The moth is the insect that throws itself into the candle's flame and burns, the symbol of the self-sacrificing lover in divan poetry; here the lover leaves even the moth behind. In the fourth couplet the heart is a house, and since it is full of the wine of love, the tavern has no more worth. In the ghazal the words "hâne, meyhâne, vîrâne" (house, tavern, ruin) form a tenasüp (congruence of images) in both sound and sense.

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

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