Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Meclis-i 'ağyârde ol serv-i kadd-i gül-'izâr
Bir nihâl-i tâzedür bağlamış etrâfında hâr
Dâğlardan üstüne mühr urdum anuñ hıfz içün
Sînemüñ ṣandukı içre genc-i mihr-i yâr var
Kand-i la'lüñden gider cânâ nebât-ı hattuñı
Konmasun dirseñ eger canına 'uşşâkuñ gubâr
Sîneme 'ışk âteşi urdum görüp ruhsâruñı
Dâ'imâ abdâl olan külhanda yatur ey nigâr
Ey Harîmî şâ'ire mahbübı mı eksük olur
Eksük olmaz çünki şehbâze cihân içre şikâr

In English

1. In the gathering of rivals, that rose-cheeked, cypress-tall beloved is like a fresh sapling with thorns grown all around it.

2. To guard it I have set seals of brands upon my breast; in the chest of my breast there is a treasure of love for the beloved.

3. O soul, if you would not have dust settle on the lovers' souls, remove the plant (nebât) of the down from the sugar of your lips. The couplet can be read in two ways: the down growing around the lips is seen as dust fallen on sugar, or it is spoken of as a sweet ornament like sugar candy.

4. Seeing your cheek, I struck the fire of love into my breast; O beauty, the abdal always lies in the furnace room.

5. O Harîmî, can a poet lack a beloved; he cannot, for the falcon never lacks prey in the world.

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 the "-âr" of "'izâr, hâr, (yâr) var, gubâr, nigâr, şikâr". The prayer in the heading is "Nevverallâhü medca'ahü" (may God illuminate his resting place). 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

In the first couplet the beloved among the rivals is a fresh sapling surrounded by thorns. Rose and thorn are the best-known counterparts of beloved and rival in divan poetry. In the second couplet the breast becomes a chest, love for the beloved a treasure in that chest, and the brands burned into the breast for love the seals that guard the treasure. There is a fine tenasüp (congruence of images) among chest, treasure and seal. In the third couplet "kand" (sugar) and "nebât" (both plant and sugar candy) call each other up. In divan poetry the down on the beloved's face is also called "gubâr" (dust), so the rhyme word "gubâr" is linked to the down. In the fourth couplet the abdal, the wandering kalender dervish, sleeps in the külhan, the furnace room of the bathhouse; the fire of love in the lover's breast has turned it into such a furnace. In the closing couplet the poet likens himself to a falcon that never lacks prey. The image of hunting with a falcon gives an easy close that expresses the poet's self-assurance.

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 6, p. 210). teis.yesevi.edu.tr

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