Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ey gönül hâlüñ nedür kim böyle zâr oldun yine
Bülbül-i şevk-ı gül-i rûy-ı nigâr oldun yine
Bûy-ı vuslat mı irişmişdür dimağına bu gün
Hasretinde cûşa gelüp bî-karâr oldun yine
Va'de-i kurbet mi irmişdür kulağına senüñ
İltifât-ı mevte vakf-ı intizâr oldun yine
Ârzû-yı 'âlem-i vahdet mi kılduñ yine kim
Cân u dilden böyle kes̱retden kaçar oldun yine
Ey Harîmî kaldı 'akluñ bir nefes cem' olmadan
Çünki derd-i 'ışk râhında gubâr oldun yine

In English

1. O heart, what is your state that you have come to moan so again; with longing for the beloved's rose-like face you have become a nightingale again.

2. Has the scent of union reached your nostrils today, that you have surged with longing and become restless again.

3. Has the promise of nearness reached your ear, that you have again devoted yourself to waiting for the coming of death. The couplet is not entirely clear; this reading is ours.

4. Have you again desired the world of unity, that you have come to flee multiplicity like this with heart and soul.

5. O Harîmî, your mind has been left unable to gather itself for even a breath; for on the path of the pain of love you have become dust again.

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 "oldun yine" (you have become ... again), and the rhyme is the "-âr, -ar" of "zâr, nigâr, bî-karâr, intizâr, kaçar, gubâr". The prayer in the heading is "Ahsenallâhu ileyhi" (may God do him good). The ghazal consists from beginning to end of questions addressed to the heart. The word "yine" (again) in every couplet recalls that this state has been lived before. 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 poet speaks with his own heart and asks why it has surged again. In the first couplet the heart is a nightingale moaning for the beloved's rose-like face. In the second and third couplets two senses are named in turn: the scent of union reaching the nose and the promise of nearness reaching the ear. Linking the scent to the nose with the word "dimâğ" is a deliberate choice, since the word means both nose and brain. In the third couplet the waiting for death can be explained by the Sufi idea that death is union with the beloved. The fourth couplet is the Sufi centre of the ghazal. Vahdet (unity) and kesret (multiplicity) are a basic pair of Sufi concepts; the heart flees the world of multiplicity and longs for the world of unity. The Sufi elements Kılıç sees in Harîmî's ghazals are plain here. In the last couplet the mind is scattered and the lover has turned into a mote of dust on the path of love.

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 33, p. 215). teis.yesevi.edu.tr

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