Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe'ilâtün Fe'ilâtün Fe'ilâtün Fe'ilün

Ṣanemâ gülşen-i hüsnündeki berg-i semenün
Kıymetin urdı kesâd itdi gül ü yâsemenün
Hey dimezsek bu dem ol âhu-yı şîr-efgenüne
Kan ider yüreğini nâfe-i misk-i Hutenün
Beni yakma oda ey rüh-ı revân başun içün
Cevrüni nice çeke bu dil-i dîvâne senün
Nice bir bağrıma dâğ ura benün Hindüsı
Nice bir 'ışkumı telh eyleye şîrîn dehenün
Ey Harîmî sana rahm itmeye ol şâh-ı cihan
Yüz süri ayağına boynuna takup kefenüñ

In English

1. O beauty, the jasmine petal in the rose garden of your beauty has lowered the worth of the rose and the jasmine and left them unsold.

2. If at this moment we do not praise that lion-felling gazelle, the musk pod of Khotan will turn its heart to blood. The couplet is not entirely clear; this reading is ours.

3. O walking soul, by your head, do not burn me in the fire; how is this mad heart to bear your cruelty.

4. How long will the Indian of your mole brand my breast; how long will the sweet-mouthed one make my love bitter.

5. O Harîmî, if that king of the world shows you no mercy, tie your shroud around your neck and rub your face at the king's feet.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

It is a ghazal of five couplets. The metre is the remel pattern Fe'ilâtün Fe'ilâtün Fe'ilâtün Fe'ilün. The redif (refrain word) is the genitive suffix "-üñ", and the rhyme is formed by the "-en" of "semen, yâsemen, şîr-efgen, Huten, sen, dehen, kefen". The prayer in the heading is "Esba'allâhü 'aleyhi teâ'bibü'l-ğufrân" (may God pour His forgiveness abundantly upon him). 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

In the first couplet the beloved's white skin is likened to a jasmine petal, which lowers the worth of the rose and jasmine in the garden. The phrases "kıymetin urdı" and "kesâd itdi", taken from the language of the market, tell beauty in terms of trade. In the second couplet the beloved is a gazelle that fells lions. Musk forms from clotted blood in the navel of the Khotan musk deer, which is why divan poetry imagines the heart of musk full of blood. In the fourth couplet the black mole is again likened to an Indian and brands the breast; there is a contrast between "telh" (bitter) and "şîrîn" (sweet). In the last couplet coming into the ruler's presence with one's shroud around one's neck is the bearing of a culprit who surrenders entirely and accepts death; the same image occurs in the last couplet of Ghazal 38. A prince calling the beloved "king of the world" and showing himself as a culprit coming before the throne with his shroud is a love scene built in divan poetry's language of ruler and servant.

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 19, pp. 212-213). teis.yesevi.edu.tr

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