Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Germ olup 'âlem n'ola meh-rüña olsa müşteri
Ey güneş oldun bu gün sen mâh-rülar ülkeri
Yalınup üstine anuñ nakd-i cân virsem n'ola
Bir yalın yüzlü güzeldür ol nigâruñ hançeri
Ol sehî-kâmet kaçan gelse kıyama dir gören
Âh kim kâmet getürdi öldüre [okunamadı]
İñteyüp karşuñda sâfi sana engellenmesün
Lutf idüp âyineye yüz virme bi'llâh ey peri
Ey halîlüm kül ider gayret odı eczasını
Şi'r-i pür-sûzın Harîmînüñ görürse Âzeri

In English

1. What if the world grows warm and Jupiter (Müşteri) becomes a buyer (müşteri) for your moon-like face; O sun, today you have become the Pleiades of the moon-faced ones.

2. That beauty's dagger is a bare-faced beauty drawn from its sheath; what if I threw myself upon it and gave the coin of my soul. The couplet is not entirely clear; this reading is ours.

3. Whenever that cypress-tall one rises to stand, those who see it say "the Day of Resurrection has come"; alas, that stature has called the prayer to rise (kâmet), to kill [illegible].

4. O fairy, let the mirror not bend before you with its pure face and stand in your way; for God's sake, be gracious and do not give the mirror your face. The couplet is not entirely clear; this reading is ours.

5. My friend, if Âzer saw Harîmî's burning verse, the fire of envy would turn his whole being to ash.

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. There is no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is formed by the "-eri, -erî" of "müşteri, ülker, hançer, perî, Âzerî". The prayer in the heading is "Tayyeballâhü s̱erâhû". The end of the second line of the third couplet came out blurred in the digital text ("öldüre ^ti ları"); the same fault appears in Kılıç's quotation in her study. The passage has been marked as illegible. Kılıç quotes this couplet as an example of letter repetition. 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 is built on images of heavenly bodies and the Resurrection. In the first couplet "müşteri" is both the name of the planet Jupiter and a word for buyer; this is a tevriye (double entendre). Ülker is the star cluster of the Pleiades, used in divan poetry as a likeness for bright beauties gathered together. In the second couplet "yalın" is used both for a sword or dagger drawn from its sheath and for a bare face. The third couplet is built on sounds: "kıyam" (rising to stand), "kıyamet" (Resurrection) and "kâmet" (stature, and also the call recited before standing for prayer) call each other up. The beloved's rising is like the Resurrection, and the stature seems to have called the prayer. In the fourth couplet "yüz vermek" means both to show one's face and to indulge someone. In the last couplet the epithet of Abraham, Halîl, the idol-making father Âzer and the word "od" (fire) form a web of allusion and tenasüp (congruence of images); in Persian the word âzer also means fire. The poet's burning verse is so fierce that it would turn even fire to ash with envy.

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 50, pp. 217-218). teis.yesevi.edu.tr

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