Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Kaşlaruñ kec râ idüp dönderme yüz ahbâbdan
Mustafâ döndürmedi kıble yüzin aṣhâbdan
Görinen sâkî habâb degil durur bâdeden
Gözleri gitmez Cemüñ câm-ı şarâb-ı nâbdan
Tâk-ı ebrûnı görelden zâhid-i halvet-nişîn
Olmadı bir lahza hâli küşe-i mihrâbdan
Dîdeden niçün nihân oldı nihâl-i kâmetüñ
Serv hod bir dem cüdâ olmaz kenâr-ı âbdan
Ka'be-i kûyumda cân virmez Harîmî diyüben
Ey halîlüm sen anı redd eyleme ol bâbdan

In English

1. Do not bend your brows and turn your face from your friends; even when Mustafa (the Prophet Muhammad) changed the direction of prayer, he did not turn his face from his companions.

2. O cupbearer, what appears on the wine is not wine bubbles; they are eyes that cannot leave the pure wine cup of Cem.

3. Since the ascetic sitting in seclusion saw the arch of your brow, he has not left the corner of the prayer niche for a moment.

4. Why has the sapling of your stature vanished from sight; the cypress, after all, never leaves the waterside for a moment.

5. My friend, do not turn Harîmî back from that door, saying that he will not give his life at the Kaaba of your street.

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 ablative "-dan" (from), and the rhyme is the "-âb" of "ahbâb, aṣhâb, nâb, mihrâb, âb, bâb". The prayer in the heading is "Takabbelallâh hasenâtehü" (may God accept his good deeds). In the digital text the word "ahbâbdan" in the first couplet came out as "alıbâbdan" and has been corrected. In the last couplet the text has "kûyumda" (in my street); the meaning is given according to the reading "kûyuñda" (in your street). According to Kılıç's note, the first line of the second couplet reads "Görinen sâkî habâb-ı mey degildür bâdeden" in Pervâne Bey's anthology (fol. 441b); this reading opens up the sense of the couplet. 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

Three couplets of the ghazal turn around the direction of prayer and the prayer niche. The first couplet alludes to the change of the qibla from Jerusalem to the Kaaba in the Medina period. In divan poetry the brow, for its arch, is likened to the prayer niche and the qibla. The beloved is asked not to bend the brow and turn away, since even when the Prophet changed the qibla he did not turn away from his companions. In the third couplet the same comparison is turned on the ascetic: having seen the arch of the beloved's brow, he no longer leaves the corner of the prayer niche. In the second couplet Cem is Cemşîd, the legendary Iranian king said to have discovered wine and to have owned a cup that showed the world; the bubbles on the wine are likened to eyes that will not leave that cup. In the fourth couplet the cypress is known as the tree that grows by the water. The eye from which tears flow is also a waterside, so the cypress-tall beloved should not leave it. In the last couplet the word "halîl" (friend) recalls the epithet of Abraham, who built the Kaaba, and forms a tenasüp (congruence of images) with the Kaaba.

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 24, p. 213). teis.yesevi.edu.tr

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