Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Hat yazılsa tañ mıdur yâkût-ı la'l-i yârda
Besmele yazarlar evvel Mahzenü'l-esrârda
Sana nisbet ey kamer ruhsâr hüsnile güneş
Nakş olınmış ṣanasuñ bir şemsedür dîvârda
Kan bulaşmış penbe-i dâg-ı dil-i bülbül durur
Kırmızı gül yaprâğı sanma biten gülzârda
Hırmen-i 'ömrüm dağıdır âh o 'ömrüm hâṣılı
Dâmenile yile virür şîve-i reftârda
Kâtib-i eşküm Harîmî dem-be-dem tahrîr ider
Âh şâhum Mustafâyı her der ü dîvâr[da]

In English

1. Is it any wonder if the down (hat) is written on the ruby lips of the beloved; in the Mahzenü'l-esrâr they write the basmala first.

2. O moon-cheeked one, beside you in beauty you would think the sun a şemse (sunburst ornament) painted on a wall.

3. Do not think what grows in the rose garden is a red rose petal; it is the blood-soaked cotton dressing of the wound in the nightingale's heart.

4. Ah, that beloved, the harvest of my life, sweeping the skirt in the grace of a swaying walk, scatters the harvest of my life to the wind.

5. The scribe of my tears, Harîmî, writes every moment on every door and wall, "Ah, my king Mustafa".

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 locative "-da" (in), and the rhyme is the "-âr" of "yâr, esrâr, dîvâr, gülzâr, reftâr". In the digital text "tañ mıdur" in the first couplet came out as "tañ fmıdur". The second line of the last couplet ends in the text with the word "dîvâr"; since rhyme and redif require the sound "-ârda", the missing syllable has been supplied in square brackets. In that case the word "dîvârda", already a rhyme in the second couplet, is repeated. 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 first and last couplets of the ghazal are built in the language of the art of writing. In the first couplet the word "hat" means both calligraphy and the down on the beloved's face, which is a tevriye (double entendre). Mahzenü'l-esrâr ("Treasury of Secrets") is the title of Nizâmî's famous masnavi. Just as that work opens with the basmala, so on the lips, a treasury of secrets, the down is written first. Since the beloved's mouth is thought of as a secret in divan poetry, the comparison fits well. In the second couplet the şemse is a sun-shaped motif used on book covers and in wall decoration; beside the beloved the sun in the sky is reduced to an ornament drawn on a wall. In the third couplet the red rose petal is likened to the bloodied cotton pressed on the nightingale's wound. In the fourth there is a tenasüp (congruence of images) between "harman" (threshing floor) and "ömrün hâsılı" (the harvest of life). In the last couplet the lover's tears are a scribe who writes a name on every door and every wall. The name "Mustafâ" here can be read as an epithet of the Prophet or as a personal name; the sources give no information about this couplet.

Historical Context

The use together of words such as scribe, calligraphy, basmala, şemse and writing suggests the pen of a poet close to the arts of writing and the book. According to the sources Korkut took calligraphy lessons in Amasya as a child from Şeyh Hamdullah. This helps to understand the language of the poem, but says nothing about the poem itself.

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 31, p. 214). teis.yesevi.edu.tr
  • Muhittin Serin, "Hamdullah Efendi, Şeyh", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 15, Istanbul 1997, pp. 449–452. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/hamdullah-efendi-seyh

Books

Online sources