Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef'ûlü Fâ'ilâtü Mefâ'îlü Fâ'ilün

Ol yâr-ı bî-vefâyı görürse nihâyeti
Cevr ü cefâ ile beni öldüre gâyeti
Gamzen kirişme ile dile dilsitân olur
Ol çeşm-i cânsitânuñ irerse himâyeti
Kurup kaşuñ kemanını kaṣd itme cân ile
Gamzen okından eylemesün dil şikâyeti
Kapuñda her nefes baha itdügin it rakîb
Şerh eylesem tapunda dükenmez hikâyeti
Tutmaz elini bu miskin Harîmînüñ
Cevrüñ yükin çeke çeke tak oldı tâkati

In English

1. If that faithless beloved sees me, in the end the beloved will kill me outright with tyranny and cruelty.

2. If the protection of that soul-taking eye reaches your glance, it becomes, with coquetry and charm, a stealer of hearts from the heart.

3. Do not draw the bow of your brow and aim at my life; let the heart not complain of the arrow of your glance.

4. If I were to tell in your presence how the dog of a rival gains worth at your door every moment, the tale would never end. The couplet is not entirely clear; this reading is ours.

5. The beloved does not take the hand of this wretched Harîmî; bearing and bearing the burden of your cruelty, his strength is spent.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

It is a ghazal of five couplets. The metre is the muzâri pattern Mef'ûlü Fâ'ilâtü Mefâ'îlü Fâ'ilün. Kılıç adds the note "(metre faulty)" to the first line of the last couplet. The redif (refrain word) is the suffix "-i", and the rhyme is formed by the "-âyet, -at" of "nihâyet, gâyet, himâyet, şikâyet, hikâyet, tâkat". The prayer in the heading is "Tekabbelallâh hasenâtehû". In the digital text "himâyeti" in the second couplet came out as "bimâyeti" and "Şerh" in the fourth as "Şerb". The word "tâkati" in the last couplet stands in the text as "tâkı"; since Kılıç quotes the same line in her study as "tak oldı tâkati", that form has been adopted. The third couplet is very close to the third couplet of Ghazal 5, in the same metre. 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 ghazal rests on complaint against the cruelty of a faithless beloved. In the first couplet the words "nihâyet" (in the end) and "gâyet" (utterly) form the rhyme with their close sounds. In the second the eye is imagined as a ruler and the glance as a servant under its protection; eye and glance stealing the heart together is a familiar picture of the spell of the look in divan poetry. In the third the brow is a bow and the glance an arrow. The word "it" in the fourth couplet can be read both as "dog" and as the verb "do"; the obscurity of the couplet comes partly from these two readings. The last couplet is one Kılıç lists among her examples of repetition. The doubling "çeke çeke" (bearing and bearing) makes the weight of the burden felt, and in "tak oldı tâkati" there is a play of sound between "tak" (spent) and "tâkat" (strength).

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 39, p. 216). teis.yesevi.edu.tr

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