Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Only the following couplet of this poem has been published in the source; the complete poem has not been published.

Didüm feryâd-ı riḳḳat-i ḫayrla târiḫ idüp ‘Âkif
Gidüp Bayrâm Efendi ḳıldı şîven-i ‘ıydımı hey vâh (1112)

In English

1. I, Âkif, composed the chronogram with a heart-rending cry full of blessings and said: Bayram Efendi has gone and turned my feast (‘ıyd) into mourning, alas.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The couplet is the last couplet of the second chronogram poem in Âkif's divan. According to Öntürk and Tunçadam, this kıt‘a, headed "Tariḫ-i intiḳâl-i vâlid-i laṭîfü'l-ḫıṣâl raḥmetullâhu", has 18 couplets; the poet expresses his deep grief at his father's death and lists his fine qualities. The article did not publish the whole poem but gave only the chronogram couplet, in Arabic script and in transliteration. The note "(1112)" at the end of the line belongs to the edition.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The subtlety of the couplet lies in its second line. The poet's father, Bayram Efendi, wrote poetry under the pen name "Îdî", derived from the Arabic word "‘ıyd", meaning feast or festival (bayram); Âkif's own name "Îdîzâde" comes from it. The words "Bayram Efendi has gone and turned my feast into mourning" bring together, in a single double entendre (tevriye), the father's name, his pen name and the poet's own family name: the father's death is the loss of the poet's "feast", of both his joy and the "Îdî" from whom his identity derives. We calculated the abjad total of the second line in the Arabic-script spelling given in the article: it comes to 1111, one less than the 1112 given in the edition. The difference probably arises because a letter in the manuscript, for example the alif in the spelling "بایرام" of the name "Bayram", is missing from the spelling in the article; this explanation is our conjecture.

Historical Context

The hijri year 1112 corresponds to the period between June 1700 and June 1701. According to Hüsameddin, Îdî Bayram Efendi was a scholar of the rank of mevâlî and was mufti of Amasya when Âkif was born; the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü writes that he was a poet with a divan who taught at the Bayezid II Madrasa. The words "Mother and father are gone" in the poet's na't also refer to this loss. For the poet's life, see the article Îdîzâde Âkif Mustafa Efendi.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

  • Tolga Öntürk and Özcan Tunçadam, "Amasyalı 'Îdî-zâde Âkif Mustafa ve Divanı", Hikmet-Akademik Edebiyat Dergisi, 6(12), 2020, pp. 259-281 (text: pp. 265). https://doi.org/10.28981/hikmet.683811

Books

Online sources