Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ūlü Fā‘ilātü Mefā‘īlü Fā‘ilün

Olmışdı zīr-i zīn baña bir esb-i pād-şā
Kim görmedi naẓīrini mīr-āḫūr-ı ḳażā
Gītī-güẕār u ṣā‘iḳa-cünbiş felek-reviş
Hāmūn-nevred ü bādiye-peymā vü bād-pā
Bir esb idi ki ‘ālemi devr eyler yidi cest
Bādī naẓarda niteki fikr-i ūlü’n-nühā
Ḳavs-i ḳuzaḥ mis̱āl idi hey’etde gerçi kim
Sür‘atde līk tīr gibi ṭāyirü’l-hevā
Ġāyet ‘aẓīm cüs̱s̱e velīkin ḫafīf pāy
Gerçi sebük-‘inān idi ammā girān-bahā
Ḫiffetde bād öñince uçar berg-gāh-veş
Ḳuvvetde līk kūh gibi s̱ābitü’l-binā
Maşrıḳda bir kişi aña olsa süvār eger
Maġrib zemīni eyler idi bir adımda cā
Sebḳat iderdi sāyesine ḳılsa ger reviş
Görmezdi gerdeni yele yillerle ger ṣabā
Mānend-i murġ bāl açup uçardı yürise
Bir berḳ-seyr idi n’ola dirsem Burāḳ aña
Atlu eşeklü farḳı-var anuñla görmezem
Ben anı raḫş-ı Rüstem’e beñzetmegi revā
Sür‘atde ‘ömr disem eger aña yiri durur
Kim ‘ömr gibi geçdi cihāndan bulup fenā
Şöyle serī‘-seyr idi kim bir adımda rāst
Dār-ı fenādan oldı yiri menzil-i beḳā
Ḥayfā ki şāh-bāz-ı ecel eyledi şikār
Olmışdı ol hevā-yı leṭāfetde bir hümā
Lu‘b ile aldı atumı māt eyledi beni
Leclāc-ı dehr gör ne oyun oynadı baña
Ferzāne ḫāk-i pāyına yüz sür göñül varup
Ḳalduñ piyāde irmeye ger şāhdan ‘aṭā
Ġam çekme gitdi ise ger atuñ ecel irüp
Anı viren birin daḫi iḥsān ider saña
Iṣṭabl-ı şāhda ata ḫod ḥadd ü ḥaṣr yoḳ
Ḳoş ḳoş da yüğrügini al iy ḫaste-dil gedā
Rüstem-nihād-ı ma‘reke vü Ḳahramān-ı rezm
Çābük-süvār-ı ‘arṣa Şehen-şāh Muṣṭafā
Bir şāhdur ki sümm-i semendi ġubārını
Şehler ḳılurdı gözlerine bulsa tūtiyā
Sürseñ semend-i nuṣreti meydāna ‘azm idüp
Teng ola düşmenüñ başına ‘arṣa-i veġā
Binseñ semend-i devlete cānlar virür ḳamu
Şehler öñüñce ġāşiye-dār olmaġa şehā
Meydān senüñdür eyle şehā şeh-süvārlıḳ
Esb-i sa‘ādeti saña rām itdi çün Ḫudā
Ḳadrüñ semendi ‘arṣa-i çerḫa güẕer ḳılup
Na‘lın düşürdi ṣanma hilāl anı ḫüsrevā
Sen naṭ‘-ı devlete süricek esb-i pīl-ten
Ferzāne şāhlar ura yüz ḫāke māt ola
Görse semend-i salṭanat üzre şehā seni
Ḫink-i felekden ercül ola ḫüsrev-i semā
Sensin ol şeh ki sümm-i semendüñe yiridür
Ger olsa na‘l-i zer meh-i nev mīḫlar Sühā
Ḫink-i sipihr ḳan ḳuşanur ṣanmaġıl şafaḳ
İster ki zīr-i zīn ola sen şāha serverā
Meydān-ı naẓm gerçi ki ġāyetde tengdür
Ṣaldum ṭabī‘at esbini Ḥaḳ’dan budur recā
Öğdül alam ki naẓmla meydānda olmışam
Çābük-süvār-ı ‘arṣa-i evṣāf-ı pād-şā
Dönder ‘inānı semt-i s̱enāya ki ḥaşre dek
Sürsüñ ṭabī‘at esbini sa‘y ile Fażliyā
Evṣāfı menziline o şāhuñ irişmeye
Ṭab‘uñ Burāḳ gibi eger berḳ-seyr ola
İḫlāṣ esbine demidür oluben süvār
Olsañ eger ki rāh-rev-i menzil-i du‘ā
Nice ki ḫink-i çerḫa şeh-i necm olup süvār
Ḳaṭ‘-ı menāzil eyleye her ṣubḥ tā mesā
Binsün sa‘ādet esbine iḳbāl ü ‘izz ile
Şehler olup piyāde rikābında dāyimā
A‘dā atı ayaġına pā-māl idüp reviş
Ṣıḥḥatde ẕāt-ı pākı ola sālim ü ṣafā

In English

1. Beneath my saddle there was a royal horse; even the master of the horse of destiny had never seen its like.

2. It was a horse that ranged the world, moved like lightning and went like the turning sky; that crossed the plains, measured the deserts and had feet like the wind.

3. It was such a horse that it went round the world in seven leaps, just as the thought of the wise ranges everywhere at a glance.

4. In shape it was arched like the rainbow, but in speed it was like an arrow flying through the air.

5. Its body was very large, yet its foot was light; it answered quickly to the rein, yet its worth was heavy.

6. In lightness it flew like a straw before the wind, but in strength it stood firm-founded like a mountain.

7. If someone in the east mounted it, it would reach the land of the west in a single stride.

8. If it raced its own shadow it would overtake it; the morning breeze, blowing for years, could not catch sight of its mane.

9. When it went, it spread its wings like a bird and flew; it was a horse that moved like lightning, and I may well call it Burak. (Burak is the mount the Prophet rode on the night of the Ascension.)

10. Between it and Rakhsh, the horse of Rüstem, there is as much difference as between a horseman and a man on a donkey; I do not think it fitting to compare it to Rakhsh.

11. In speed I may well call it "life", for like life it was spent and passed out of the world.

12. It went so swiftly that in one stride it passed straight from the transient world to the abiding one.

13. Alas, the falcon of death made it its prey; yet it had been a huma bird flying in the air of grace.

14. The chess master of time took my horse (knight) with one move and checkmated me; see what a game it played on me.

15. O heart, go and rub your face in the dust at the feet of the wise vizier; if no gift comes from the king you will be left on foot. (In chess "ferzāne" is the vizier, "piyāde" the pawn and "şāh" the king; the words are used in both their courtly and their chess senses.)

16. If death came and your horse is gone, do not grieve; he who gave it to you will bestow another.

17. In the king's stable there is no limit or number to the horses; O sick-hearted beggar, run, run and take the swiftest.

18. He is the king of kings Mustafa, with the nature of Rüstem in battle and like Kahraman in combat, the nimble rider of the field. (Rüstem and Kahraman are heroes of the Persian epics.)

19. He is such a king that if kings found the dust raised by his horse's hoof they would use it as collyrium for their eyes.

20. If you resolve to drive the horse of victory onto the field, the field of battle grows narrow around the enemy's head.

21. O king, if you mount the horse of fortune, all the kings will give their lives to carry your saddle cloth before you.

22. O king, the field is yours, show your horsemanship, for God has made the horse of felicity obedient to you.

23. O sovereign, the horse of your worth passed across the field of the sky and dropped its shoe; do not take it for the crescent.

24. When you move your elephant-bodied horse on the chessboard of the state, wise kings rub their faces in the dust and are checkmated.

25. O king, were the ruler of the sky, that is, the sun, to see you upon the horse of sovereignty, he would dismount from the white steed of the heavens and go on foot. (The word "ercül" in the line has been understood as meaning "on foot".)

26. You are such a king that, were the new moon a golden horseshoe and the star Suha its nails, it would only then be worthy of your horse's hoof.

27. The white steed of the sky is clad in blood, do not take it for the twilight; O chief, it too wishes to be under the saddle of a king like you.

28. The field of verse is indeed very narrow, yet I have let loose the horse of my nature; and this is my wish from God:

29. That, having come onto the field with verse, I may receive a reward for being the nimble rider of the field of the padishah's virtues.

30. Fazlî, turn the rein towards praise and drive the horse of your nature with zeal until the Resurrection.

31. Even if your nature moved like lightning like Burak, it could not reach the station of that king's virtues.

32. If you are to be a traveller on the road to the station of prayer, now is the time to mount the horse of sincerity.

33. As long as the king of the stars, the sun, mounts the white steed of the sky and passes through its stations from morning to evening each day,

34. May he mount the horse of felicity with fortune and honour; may kings always walk on foot at his stirrup.

35. May he go trampling his enemies under his horse's feet; may his pure person be safe, sound and content in good health.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a kaside (qasida) of thirty-five couplets (beyit). The metre is the "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün" pattern of the muzari family; the rhyme is the sound "-ā": pād-şā, ḳażā, bād-pā, ūlü'n-nühā, hevā and the same sound in the following couplets. According to Mustafa Özkat's summary, in the introductory section (nesib) the poet describes a horse that had been given to him as a gift, expresses his sorrow at its death and asks for a new horse. The name of the person praised appears in couplet 18 and the poet's pen name (mahlas) in couplet 30; the kaside ends with a prayer in which concepts relating to the horse are used. The first thirteen couplets praise the horse and tell of its death, couplets 14-17 lead to the request, couplets 18-27 praise the prince, couplets 28-32 are the poet's words about his own poetry, and the last three couplets are the prayer.

Özkat publishes the kaside as the twenty-second kaside of the divan. The poem is found without a title in miscellany no. 314 of the Âşir Efendi collection of the Süleymaniye Library (fol. 120a) and with the title "Ḳaṣīde-i Fażlī berāy-ı Sulṭān Muṣṭafā" in miscellany no. 1966 of the Revan collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library (fol. 148a). In the Revan copy the second line of couplet 32 and the first line of couplet 33 are missing.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

All the images of the kaside gather around the horse. In the introduction the dead horse is praised with hyperbolic comparisons: it goes round the world in seven leaps, reaches the west from the east in one stride, overtakes its own shadow, and the morning breeze blowing for years cannot catch sight of its mane. Antitheses are built in the fourth couplet between the rainbow and the arrow, and in the fifth and sixth between the large body and the light foot, the light rein and the heavy worth, the straw and the mountain. The poet likens the horse to Burak, the Prophet's mount, and counts Rakhsh, Rüstem's famous horse, as a donkey beside it. In couplets 11 and 12 the horse's speed is linked to its death: the horse, swift as life, passed in one stride from the transient world to the abiding one. This is a hüsn-i talil, a poetic explanation of the death by the horse's speed.

Chess terms come into play in couplets 14 and 15. "Leclāc-ı dehr", the chess master of time, has taken the poet's horse with one move and checkmated him; the heart must rub its face at the feet of the "ferzāne", meaning both a wise man and the vizier piece, or else it will be left "piyāde", both on foot and a pawn. Özkat notes that in couplet 24 too the affairs of state are likened to a chessboard and the checkmating of the opponent with a move of the elephant or the horse is described. In couplets 23 and 26 the crescent in the sky becomes the golden horseshoe dropped by the prince's horse or deemed worthy of its hoof; Özkat explains that in couplet 26 the stars of the Great Bear are counted as the nails of this shoe. "Yüğrük" (a fast-running horse) in couplet 17 is one of the examples Özkat gives of old Turkish words that continued to live in the poet's language.

Couplet 14 of the kaside is almost identical to the opening couplet of the twenty-fifth kaside, in which Fazlî again asks Şehzade Mustafa for a horse: there too he says "Bir oyun oynadı baña leclāc-ı rūzgār / Lu‘b ile aldı atumı". The line "Iṣṭabl-ı şāhda ata ḫod ḥadd ü ḥaṣr yoḳ" in couplet 17 is also repeated in almost the same words in couplet 17 of the twenty-fifth kaside. Özkat notes that the two kasides express the same request. In couplets 28-31 the image of the horse is transferred to poetry itself: the field of verse is narrow, the poet lets the horse of his nature loose on it and expects a reward for being the nimble rider of the padishah's virtues.

Historical Context

The title in the Revan copy and the words "Şehen-şāh Muṣṭafā" in couplet 18 show that the kaside was presented to Şehzade Mustafa. Fazlî served as secretary in Mustafa's divan at Amasya from 1543 to 1553; the year in which the kaside was written is unknown. Özkat understands the phrase "esb-i pād-şā" in the first couplet as a horse given to the poet by the padishah; since the words "şāh" and "pād-şā" are also used for the prince in the poem, it is also possible that the gift came from the prince himself. That the divan secretary asked the prince for a horse in two separate kasides shows that the servants of a princely court depended on the ruler's bounty for their mounts and their livelihood.

Bibliography

  • Mustafa Özkat, Kara Fazlî'nin Hayatı, Eserleri, Edebî Kişiliği ve Dîvânı (İnceleme-Tenkitli Metin), MA thesis, Marmara University Institute of Turkic Studies, Istanbul 2005, pp. 188-191, kaside no. 22 (Süleymaniye Library, Âşir Efendi 314, fol. 120a; Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Revan 1966, fol. 148a); also pp. 53-54 (on the kasides), p. 79 (chess and the horse) and pp. 105-106 (old Turkish words), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.
  • Hasan Aksoy, "Kara Fazlî", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 24, Istanbul 2001, pp. 360-361, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kara-fazli.

Online sources