Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Her nefes gamdan gönül âzâd oldı,
Gönüller bu arada dil-şâd oldı,
Dünyâ müşerref durur adum ile,
Bu ara şimdi hele Baġdâd oldı.

In English

1. At every breath the heart has been freed from sorrow; meanwhile the hearts have been gladdened.

2. The world is honoured by my name; meanwhile it has now become Baghdad (it has turned into a place as joyful and prosperous as Baghdad).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a tuyugh (tuyuğ) of four lines. The first, second and fourth lines rhyme in the words "âzâd", "dil-şâd" and "Baġdâd"; the rhyme is the sound "-âd" and the redif (refrain word) is "oldı". The third line stays free with "adum ile". The text is taken from Nevzat Özkan's article with the reference KBD 596/4-5 and comes from the tuyugh section of the divan. In this quotation Özkan writes the words "gamdan" and "gönül" without the special letters used in his other quotations; the text has been kept here as in the source. 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 tuyugh describes a state of joy. In the first two lines the heart is freed from sorrow and the hearts are gladdened; there is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between "gönül" (heart) and "dil-şâd" (glad-hearted), arising from a Turkish and a Persian word carrying the same notion, and the word "gönül" is repeated in two lines. These relations of sound and word are our own observations. In the third line the speaker says that the world is honoured by his name, and in the fourth he expresses this joy through the world's turning into a Baghdad.

According to Özkan, the poet here wishes to measure the happiness he feels by the beauty of Baghdad; in his poetry Baghdad is a prosperous city that gladdens the heart, and in oral literature it is exalted in proverbs such as "There is no friend like a mother, no land like Baghdad". Özkan explains the lines as "while the world was honoured by my name, it became a prosperous place like Baghdad". The words "Dünyâ müşerref durur adum ile" take on a particular meaning in the mouth of a ruler: according to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Kadı Burhaneddin proclaimed his sultanate in 1381 by having the Friday sermon read and coins struck in his name. The idea that the line calls this event to mind is our own interpretation; the date of the tuyugh is not known.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Online sources