Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

İy kerem-kānı mürüvvet ma‘deni luṭf it buyur
Pāyuña yüz sürmege başumda devlet var mıdur
Bende Fażlī kim du‘ā-gū-yı ḳadīmüñdür senüñ
Āsitān-ı devlete geldi icāzet var mıdur

In English

1. O mine of generosity, source of magnanimity, be gracious and say: is there fortune enough upon my head to rub my face at your feet?

2. Your servant Fazlî, who has long prayed for you, has come to the threshold of felicity; is there leave to enter?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a kıt'a (fragment) of two couplets (beyit). The second lines have the redif (refrain word) "var mıdur" (is there), and the rhyme words are "devlet" and "icāzet"; Özkat counts this kıt'a among those whose redif is a phrase. The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün" of the remel family. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the second couplet. The kıt'a is found in the Fazlî divan section of the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library (fol. 249a) and in miscellany no. 314 of the Âşir Efendi collection in the Süleymaniye Library (fol. 127b). To whom and when it was written is unknown.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

According to Özkat, in this kıt'a the poet asks for permission to come into the presence of the person he addresses. The kıt'a reads like the petition of a poet waiting at a great man's door and sending word inside; both couplets ending in a question conveys this waiting. The word "devlet" is used in two different senses in the two couplets: in the first, "başumda devlet", being fortunate enough to rub one's face at those feet; in the second, "āsitān-ı devlet", the threshold of felicity and power. This double use is our own observation. "Pāyuña yüz sürmek" (to rub one's face at your feet) is a familiar expression of deep reverence in the presence of the great. The poet's presenting himself as "du‘ā-gū-yı ḳadīm", one who has long prayed for him, shows that there had been a bond between him and the person addressed for some time. The address at the head of the first line, "İy kerem-kānı mürüvvet ma‘deni", is the same as the opening of the fifth kıt'a in the divan; this resemblance too is our own observation.

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. 378-379, kıt'a no. 8 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 249a; Süleymaniye Library, Âşir Efendi 314, fol. 127b); also p. 65 (on the kıt'as), p. 69 (redif) and pp. 118-119 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources