Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Ṣaldum engine göñül zor ḳanı şâh oñara
Dostlar n'olsa gerek idelüm Allah oñara

In English

1. I have cast my heart out to the open sea; where is the strength, let the shah set (my affairs) right. Friends, whatever must be, let us say "may God set it right." (The edition gives no explanation; the reading and meaning are ours. The second half of the first line can also be understood as "it is hard; come, let the shah set it right.")

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

According to a footnote in the edition, this couplet is missing from four manuscripts, together with the word "diyüp" that introduces it. In Âşık Çelebi's tezkire it stands under the heading "Beyt" in the account of Hayâtî's life: the poet, having exhausted his fortune, boarded a ship reciting ("diyüp") it and set out on the sea of trust in God saying "where are you, shore of Egypt." Âşık Çelebi does not distinguish whether it was Hayâtî's own words or a known saying he recited on setting out, so the couplet cannot be given to the poet with certainty. Both lines have the refrain word (redif) "oñara," and the rhyme is the sound "-âh" in "şâh" and "Allah." The metre could not be determined with certainty. In the text, taken from Filiz Kılıç's edition, long vowels are shown with a circumflex.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet is a saying of trust in God spoken on the threshold of a sea voyage. "Engin" means the open sea in old Turkish; to cast one's heart out to the open sea describes both actually putting out to sea and abandoning oneself to the unknown. "Oñarmak" means to set right, to heal, to put one's affairs in order, and as the refrain it is tied in the two lines to two different powers: in the first to the shah, in the second to God. Whether "şâh" refers to the sultan, to Ali, as is common in the language of Sufism, or simply to a powerful protector is unclear. The conversational tone of the second line, addressed to "friends," gives the couplet an air of farewell: the traveller tells those he leaves behind that his affairs now rest with God. As the source does not explain the couplet, this reading is not certain.

Historical Context

According to Âşık Çelebi, Hayâtî fell for a young man named Saraç Ramazan and spent all his wealth, and his house at Eyüp was bought by the chancellor Celâlzâde. The couplet follows this ruin: the poet boarded a ship for Egypt, lived there on a small income, and spent his life with his brother Memâtî between the Hejaz and Egypt. Kınalızâde describes the same journey with the line "Sabrum dükendi lâzım olupdur bana sefer." Âşık Çelebi links the couplet to Mehmed Çelebi Hayâtî, brother of Memâtî; those who identify him with Latîfî's Hayâtî of Merzifon are Kınalızâde and Hüsameddin. For details, see the article Hayâtî Çelebi of Merzifon.

Bibliography

Online sources