Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Tâze tâze sînem üstinde görinen dâğlar
Sanki bir vîrânedür üstine kondı zağlar
Hüsnünün çağında rahm it 'âşık-ı bî-dillere
Yohsa ṣu gibi geçer eşk-i revânum çağlar
Her ne dem zülf-i siyâhuñ yâd idüp gamgîn olam
Ey güneş yüzlü benüm içün bulutlar ağlar
Gülşen-i kûyuñ koyup murg-ı dil uçmak istese
Zülf-i müşkînüñ hevâsı ayağını bağlar
Sinem üzre göz karardırlar beni öldürmege
Hasret-i dildâr içündür tâze tâze dağlar
Şâh-ı 'ışkum ey Harîmî tâze dâgum dir gören
Kangı il sultânınuñdur bu kızıl otağlar

In English

1. The fresh brands (dağ) seen on my breast are like a ruin on which crows have settled.

2. In the season of your beauty, have pity on lovers who have lost their hearts; otherwise my flowing tears will rush like water.

3. Whenever I remember your black locks and grieve, O sun-faced one, the clouds weep for me.

4. If the bird of the heart wishes to leave the rose garden of your street and fly away, the passion for your musky locks binds its feet.

5. The fresh brands darken their eyes upon my breast to kill me; they are for longing for the beloved.

6. O Harîmî, those who see me say, "He is the king of love, he bears fresh brands"; to the sultan of which land do these red pavilions belong?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

It is a ghazal of six couplets. The metre is the remel pattern Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilün. The rhyme is the "-ağlar" of "dağlar, zağlar, çağlar, ağlar, bağlar, otağlar", and the word "dağlar" is repeated in the first and fifth couplets. The prayer in the heading is "Enârallâhü merkadehü" (may God illuminate his grave). Kılıç cites the repetitions "tâze tâze" and "tâze dâgum" in the first, fifth and sixth couplets as examples of word repetition. 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

At the centre of the ghazal is the image of the brand. In divan poetry the dağ is the wound a lover burns into his breast with hot iron or fire to show his love. In the first couplet these black burn scars are likened to crows settled on a ruin; crow and ruin form a pair that call each other up. In the second and third couplets the tears are tied to rushing water and the lover's grief to weeping clouds, and a tenasüp (congruence of images) is formed between the sun-faced beloved and the cloud. In the fourth couplet the heart is a bird and the locks the cord tied to its feet. The last couplet carries the ghazal's strongest invention: the red wounds on the breast are likened to the red tents, the pavilions, of a sultan, and so the lover becomes "the king of love". Besides the repetitions Kılıç emphasizes, the poem has a strong inner harmony from the sounds "dağ, zağ, çağ, ağ, bağ".

Historical Context

According to Kılıç's note this ghazal also appears in the nazire anthology of Pervâne Bey (fol. 224b). There the last two couplets are merged into a single couplet: "Ey Harîmî göz karardırlar beni öldürmeye / Hasret-i dildâr içündür tâze taze dağlar". In this form the closing couplet is made from the lines of the fifth couplet of the Dîvânçe, and the image of the "red pavilions" drops out. Its inclusion in an anthology of nazires shows that the ghazal was read and known within the tradition of the nazire (response poem).

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 8, pp. 210-211). teis.yesevi.edu.tr

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