Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilātün Mefā‘ilün Fe‘ilün

Baña manṣūbesini gör felegüñ
Ḳodı naṭ‘-ı ġam u belāda beni
Esb-i maḳṣūdumı elümden alup
İtdi dermān-de vü fütāde beni
Varayın ruḫ ḳoyayın ol şehe kim
Yād ider her zamān ‘aṭāde beni
Umarum kim o şāh-ı ferzāne
Luṭf ide ḳomaya piyāde beni

In English

1. See the game that fate (the celestial sphere) has set up against me: it has left me on the chessboard of grief and affliction. (Manṣūbe is the arrangement or plan a chess player sets up on the board; naṭ‘ is the leather cloth spread out as a chessboard.)

2. Taking the horse of my desire from my hand, it has left me helpless and fallen. (The horse is both a riding horse and the knight in chess.)

3. Let me go and lay my face before that king who always remembers me when he bestows gifts. (Ruḫ is both face and the rook in chess; şeh is both ruler and the king in chess.)

4. I hope that wise king will be gracious and not leave me on foot. (Piyāde means both on foot and the pawn in chess; ferzāne means "wise" and recalls the ferz, the vizier piece in chess.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a kıt'a (fragment) of four couplets (beyit). The second lines of the couplets have the redif (refrain word) "beni" (me), and the rhyme is the sound -āde (belāda, fütāde, ‘aṭāde, piyāde). The metre is "fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün" of the hafif family. There is no pen name (mahlas). The kıt'a is found only in the Fazlî divan section of the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library (fol. 249a). According to Özkat's footnote, the heading "müfred" (single couplet) was placed at the head of this kıt'a by mistake in the manuscript. To whom and when it was written is unknown.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Özkat says that in this kıt'a Fazlî plays artfully with the chess pieces and voices his request for help in this way. The whole vocabulary of the kıt'a is drawn from chess: fate is the player, life is a chessboard, and the poet is a piece cornered on that board. Fate first takes the horse of his desire and leaves the poet helpless. In the third and fourth couplets the poet seeks rescue, as in chess, in the king. The expression "ruḫ ḳoymak" carries the sense of laying one's face on the ground, bowing humbly before a great man, while also recalling the rook; "şeh" is both ruler and the chess king; "piyāde" means both being left on foot, that is, without help or means, and the pawn. The double meanings in these words are instances of double entendre (tevriye). That the word "ferzāne" calls to mind the ferz piece of chess is our own observation. Explaining the chess senses of these words one by one is our own interpretation; Özkat states only that the poem plays artfully with chess pieces.

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, p. 378, kıt'a no. 7 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 249a); also p. 65 (on the kıt'as) and p. 69 (redif), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources