Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Devletinden ķaçan olur ħâk-sâr,
‘Âşıķ olur ma’şuķından şerm-sâr,
Ĥimmetümüz iki ‘âlemde gezer,
N‘olısar Amâsiya ya Niksâr

In English

1. He who flees his fortune becomes as lowly as the dust; and the lover is put to shame before his beloved.

2. Our ambition roams the two worlds; so what are Amasya or Niksar.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a tuyugh (tuyuğ). The tuyugh is a verse form of four lines in which the first, second and fourth lines rhyme and the third is left free; according to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Kadı Burhaneddin served as a bridge in bringing the tuyugh, one of the pre-Islamic Turkic verse forms, to Anatolia. In this tuyugh the rhyme is formed by the sound "-sâr" in the words "ħâk-sâr", "şerm-sâr" and "Niksâr", while the third line stays free with "gezer". The text is taken from Nevzat Özkan's article with the reference KBD 588/10-11; according to the TDV article, pages 586-608 of the divan are given to the tuyughs, and this tuyugh belongs to that section. The source does not give the metre. The tuyugh is one of the four places in which the name of Amasya occurs. 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 first two lines open with two general judgements: he who turns away from his fortune is brought low, and the lover is abashed before his beloved. The words "ħâk-sâr" (dust-like, lowly) and "şerm-sâr" (ashamed) are built with the same Persian suffix; the name "Niksâr" in the fourth line completes this sound with the name of a city and gives the rhyme almost the taste of a pun (cinas). The word "devlet" means fortune and felicity in divan poetry, but in the mouth of a ruler its sense of sovereignty also comes to mind. Reading these two senses together and the play on "-sâr" are our own observations.

The third and fourth lines say what the tuyugh is really about. The poet declares that his himmet, that is, the strength of his heart and his high purpose, roams both worlds, this world and the next, and beside this breadth he presents Amasya and Niksar as small targets. In Özkan's rendering, "what are Amasya or Niksar", the words plainly reflect a ruler's view of the cities of rival emirates. The tuyugh begins in the wisdom manner that dominated the old tuyugh and ends with a ruler's self-assurance.

Historical Context

Özkan connects this tuyugh with Kadı Burhaneddin's capture in 1387 of Niksar, a provincial centre, together with Amasya, which he struggled hard to keep under control. As Özkan relates, in the last period of the Eretnids Hacı Şadgeldi in Amasya and Tâceddin in Niksar had begun to act as independent rulers. According to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Kadı Burhaneddin defeated Hacı Şadgeldi and had him killed in the autumn of 1381 and proclaimed himself sultan, and in 1384 routed the emir of Amasya repeatedly. The year in which the tuyugh was written is not known; the naming of Niksar and Amasya side by side makes it possible to read it within these struggles.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Online sources