Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilün

Ḳalbe rāḥat-baḫşdur el-ḥaḳ hevāsı Lādiḳ’üñ
Cān baġışlar cāne āb-ı cān-fezāsı Lādiḳ’üñ
Dünyede olmaz leṭāfetde naẓīri bir daḫi
Ṭa‘n ider gülzār-ı firdevse feżāsı Lādiḳ’üñ
‘Āleme ‘arż itmege her-dem cinānuñ ‘aksini
Oldı bir āyīne-cūy-ı pür-ṣafāsı Lādiḳ’üñ
Sebzelerle bir yeşil aṭlas-kebīr maḥbūbdur
Kim gören cāndan olurlar mübtelāsı Lādiḳ’üñ
Fażliyā bir şāh-ı ‘ālem sāye ṣalmışdur aña
N’ola ger olsa müşerref her arası Lādiḳ’üñ

In English

1. Truly, the air of Lâdik gives ease to the heart; the life-giving water of Lâdik grants life to the soul.

2. In charm it has no equal anywhere in the world; the open upland of Lâdik puts even the rose garden of Paradise to shame and finds fault with it.

3. To show the image of Paradise to the world at every moment, the pure flowing water of Lâdik has become a stream like a mirror.

4. With its verdure Lâdik is a beloved dressed in a great robe of green satin; everyone who sees it falls in love with it with all his soul.

5. O Fazlî, one who is king of the world has cast his shadow over Lâdik; no wonder, then, if every corner of Lâdik is honoured. (To cast one's shadow over a place means that a ruler has come there and taken it under his protection.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets (beyit), written in the metre "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün" of the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre). The redif (refrain word) is "Lādiḳ'üñ", "of Lâdik"; the rhyme is built on the sound "-ası" in the words hevāsı, cān-fezāsı, feżāsı, pür-ṣafāsı, mübtelāsı and arası. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet in the form "Fażliyā". In Mustafa Özkat's critical text the ghazal is number 117, and it rests on a single manuscript, folio 100b of the miscellany Âşir Efendi 314 in the Süleymaniye Library. Özkat notes that in this manuscript the ghazal is found within a prayer book in mingled verse and prose entitled "Du‘ā-nāme-i Ḥażret-i Şāh-zāde Cüvān-baḫt Ṭāle Beḳāhü".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal does something for which divan poetry offers few examples: it is devoted to naming and praising a particular Anatolian town. Özkat sees Fazlî's description of a small town like Lâdik, rather than the distant and imaginary place names inherited from Persian poetry such as Kandahar, Badakhshan or Khitai, as a sign of the poet's native idiom, and connects this attitude with Nedim's descriptions of Istanbul in a later century. The refrain repeating Lâdik in every couplet turns the poem into a praise of place.

The language of praise is borrowed from the description of Paradise. In the first couplet air and water, the two basic elements of life, are named as things that give life to the soul; the threefold repetition of the word "cān" (soul, life) in the same couplet is a figure of repetition (tekrir). In the second couplet the upland of Lâdik "ṭa‘n" eder, that is, scorns the rose garden of Paradise; this is a hyperbolic simile that makes a place superior even to Paradise. In the third couplet the water is likened to a mirror reflecting the image of Paradise to the world; in the fourth the town is personified as a beloved wearing a robe of green satin. Thus a town takes the place of the usual beloved of the ghazal, and those who see it become "mübtelâ", captivated, like lovers smitten with the beloved. The idiom "sāye ṣalmak" (to cast one's shadow) in the last couplet is a common metaphor in Ottoman poetry for the protection of sultans and princes.

Historical Context

To whom and when the ghazal was written is disputed because of the prayer book in which it stands. In a footnote to the critical text Özkat says that the duânâme was written in dedication to Şehzade Mehmed (Prince Mehmed). In the section introducing the works, however, he states that the duânâme was composed on Şehzade Mehmed's death in 1543, but thinks that, because a town near Amasya is praised and Şehzade Mustafa is mentioned in the work, it must have been written in Amasya during Mustafa's governorship of the sanjak. The prayer "ṭāle beḳāhü" (may his life be long) in the title is a formula used for the living; for this reason the question of to whom the work was presented remains open in the sources. Since Fazlî became Mustafa's divan secretary in Amasya after Mehmed's death, and Lâdik lies north of Amasya, it is plausible that the "king of the world" said in the last couplet to have cast his shadow over Lâdik is Mustafa, sanjak governor of Amasya. The sources, however, mention no particular visit of the prince to Lâdik.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources