Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Ben Türkem ü sen Tatar yolıyle sorışalum,
O cây gerek baŋa baħar iseŋ oynuma.

In English

1. I am a Turk and you are a Tatar; come, let us speak in due form. That place is mine to have; if you heed my word, withdraw from this game.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The couplet is quoted in Nevzat Özkan's article with the reference KBD 238/7. According to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi the first 581 pages of the divan are given to ghazals, so the couplet comes from a ghazal (gazel). Since its lines do not rhyme with each other, it is not the opening couplet of the ghazal; the refrain and rhyme of the ghazal cannot safely be deduced from a single couplet. As Ergin's edition could not be consulted, the whole ghazal cannot be given, and the source does not give the metre. The poet's divan, its editions and his other poems are discussed in Kadı Burhaneddin: Literary Persona, Divan and Poems.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet opens with two persons facing each other: one is a Turk, the other a Tatar, and the talk between them is to be held "yol ile", that is, in accordance with custom and due form. In the second line the speaker says openly that he wants a certain place for himself and calls on the other to withdraw from the "game". Özkan explains the couplet as "I am a Turk, you are a Tatar, come, let us speak in due form; that place is mine to have; if you heed my word, withdraw from this game, do not play". The word "oyun" (game) here seems to describe a contest for power rather than an amusement.

In divan poetry "Turk" is very often the name of the fair and cruel beloved, and "Tatar" the name of musk-scented hair or of a plundering force; Özkan too shows in other couplets that the name Tatar is named together with musk and cruelty. The couplet can therefore also be read as words addressed to the beloved within the ghazal: the lover calls himself a Turk and the beloved a Tatar and lays claim to the land of the heart. This second reading is our own interpretation. Özkan's political reading, on the other hand, ties the couplet to one of the most striking features of the divan, the joining of the language of the ghazal and political challenge in a single utterance.

Historical Context

According to Özkan, Kadı Burhaneddin here tells Timur, whom he saw as a bloodthirsty ruler come from the land of the Tatars, that he must keep his hands off Anatolia. Elsewhere Özkan relates that in 1387 Timur laid waste Erzurum and turned towards Anatolia, then went back to Georgia and withdrew. According to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Timur demanded Kadı Burhaneddin's submission in October 1393, Kadı Burhaneddin refused, and Timur came as far as Erzurum at the beginning of 1394 and turned back. Which of these events the couplet is connected with is not known; nor does the source say which land is meant by the words "o cây" (that place).

Bibliography

Online sources