Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Reh-rev-i rāh-ı ma‘ānī çābük-i meydān-ı naẓm
İkidür Fażlī cihān içinde meşhūr-ı cihān
Birine mevlid Sitanbul u birine Edrine
İkisi de birbiriyle hem-rikāb u hem-‘inān
Fażlī-i s̱ānī de gerçi yüğrügidür ‘arṣanuñ
Aḳsadur anı velī Fażlī-i evvel her zamān

In English

1. As travellers on the road of meaning and nimble riders in the field of verse, there are two Fazlîs in the world whose names have spread throughout the world.

2. The birthplace of one is Istanbul and of the other Edirne; the two ride side by side, stirrup to stirrup and rein to rein.

3. The second Fazlî, too, is indeed a swift steed of this field; but the first Fazlî always makes him limp and leaves him behind. (The couplet can be read in two ways: if the "first Fazlî" is the Istanbul Fazlî mentioned first, the poet places himself above the other; if the word "evvel" is taken in the sense of "the one who came earlier, the elder", the order is reversed.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a kıt'a (fragment) of three couplets (beyit). The kıt'a is a short poem of two or more couplets without an opening couplet (matla), that is, whose first couplet does not have rhyming lines; here only the second lines of the couplets rhyme: cihān, ‘inān, zamān. The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün" of the remel family. Mustafa Özkat publishes this poem as kıt'a 11 in the kıt'a section of the divan, from the Fazlî divan section (fol. 249b) of the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library. According to Özkat, the chronograms and kıt'as of the divan exist only in this manuscript. The kıt'a is quoted twice more in Özkat's thesis: as evidence that the poet was from Istanbul, and in the discussion of the poets who influenced him.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

All the images of the kıt'a are chosen from the field of horses and riding. The poets are "çābük-i meydān-ı naẓm", nimble riders of the field of verse; in the second couplet they ride "hem-rikāb u hem-‘inān", stirrup to stirrup, rein to rein; in the third the second Fazlî is the "yüğrük", the swift-running horse, of this field. There is a clear congruence of images (tenasüp) among these words. The real sting of the kıt'a is in the verb "aḳsa-" in the last couplet. His namesake from Edirne was known as "Fazlî-i Leng", the lame Fazlî, because he limped; the verb "to make limp" recalls both leaving someone behind in a race and this lameness. Özkat notes that here Kara Fazlî, pointing to Fazlî-i Leng's lameness, says that his poems limp. This is a double entendre (tevriye) that plays on two meanings of one word.

The first two couplets present the two poets as almost equal: both are travellers on the road of meaning, both are famous in the world, and they ride side by side. The balance of the praise is broken in the last couplet, and the kıt'a takes on the air of a joke, of a poets' sparring match. Özkat describes this poem as one in which Fazlî compares himself with Fazlî-i Leng and boasts of his poetic skill.

Historical Context

According to the information Özkat gathers from the biographical anthologies, the real name of Fazlî of Edirne was Fazlullah, and he was known as Fazlî-i Leng because he was lame. He studied the sciences of his day, became a candidate for office (mülazım) under Ümmülveledzâde, the mufti of Amasya, and died in the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent without being appointed to an official post; his date of death is unknown. Âşık Çelebi describes him as a man who thought himself a great scholar and poet, making puns on the same lameness. All the anthologies record that Kara Fazlî was from Istanbul; Özkat notes that this kıt'a confirms the poet's birthplace from his own mouth as well. When the kıt'a was written is unknown.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Âşık Çelebi, Meşâ'irü'ş-Şu'arâ, ed. G. M. Meredith-Owens, London 1971, fol. 197b (as quoted in Özkat).

Academic studies

Online sources