Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilün (not given in the edition; our scansion)

Kim ki dirse 'âşıkum odlar bırakur cânuma
Korkarum ki dostlar 'âşık ola cânânuma
Gice gündüz fikr ü endişem müjeñ oklarıdur
Ey kemân-ebrû terahhüm eyle geçdi cânuma
Hem-demüm sâyem durur gam günlerinde ol dahı
Başuma bir kutlu gün toğmazsa gelmez yanuma
Görinen cismümde mûlar ṣanma kanın tutmağa
'Ankebüt ağını urdum zahm-ı hûn-efşânuma
Gün gibi şi'rüm Harîmî tutdı 'âlem mülkini
Bir nazar eylerse ol meh mihr ile dîvânuma

In English

1. Whoever says "I am a lover", fires fall upon my soul; I fear my friends will fall in love with my beloved.

2. Night and day my thought and care are the arrows of your lashes; O bow-browed one, have pity, they have pierced my soul.

3. In the days of sorrow my companion is my shadow; and it too does not come to my side unless an auspicious day rises over my head.

4. Do not think the hairs seen on my body are there to stop the blood; I have bound a spider's web on my blood-scattering wound.

5. Harîmî, my verse has seized the realm of the world like the sun; if only that moon would also look with love upon my divan.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

It is a ghazal of five couplets. The metre is not given in the digital text; by our scansion it is the remel pattern Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilün. The redif (refrain word) is the suffix "-uma" (to my), and the rhyme is formed by the "-ân, -an" of "cân, cânân, cân, yan, hûn-efşân, dîvân"; the rhyme "cânuma" recurs in the first and second couplets. The prayer in the heading is "Tâbe s̱erâhû". In the digital text the word "zahm" (wound) in the fourth couplet came out as "zabm". 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 couplet rests on jealousy: the lover fears that others too will fall in love with the beloved. In the second couplet the brow is a bow and the lashes arrows that have passed through the lover's soul. The third couplet carries the ghazal's subtlest invention. A shadow appears only in the sun. The lover's only companion in days of sorrow is his shadow, but it too comes to him only if "an auspicious day", that is a sunny day, rises. The double sense of "gün" as both sun and day forms a tevriye (double entendre) here. In the fourth couplet the hairs on the body are likened to a spider's web bound over a wound; it is known that spider webs were once placed on wounds to stop the bleeding. The last couplet is of the kind Kılıç counts among the couplets in which Harîmî praises his own poetry. "Mihr" means both sun and love, and "dîvân" both a poet's divan and the ruler's council. The poem seizing the realm of the world like the sun is a boast spoken in the language of conquest.

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

Books