Kara Fazlî, Elegy for Prince Mehmed (Terkib-bend 38)

Kara Fazlî's seven-stanza terkib-bend elegy on the death in 950 (1543) of his first master, Prince Mehmed: an allusion to sura al-Rahmân, the cosmos called to mourn, and a prayer.

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilātün Mefā‘ilün Fe‘ilün

Oldı menşūr-ı ‘āleme ‘unvān
Āyet-i “كل من عليها فان”
Yazmadı levḥ-i ‘ömre ḫaṭṭ-ı beḳā
Ḳalem-i kāf u nūn ile Yezdān
Dehr baḥr-i fenāda bir yildür
Cümle ḫalḳ andan olısar güẕerān
Bu ribāṭa gelen göçer āhir
Olısar cümle kārvānı revān
Ne gedā vü ne şāh u mīr ḳalur
Bir durur ‘āḳıbet ḳamuya cihān
Ḳanı ol burc-ı salṭanat māhı
Ya‘ni şāh-ı cihān Meḥemmed Ḫān
Oldı mānend-i çeşme-i ḫūrşīd
Ḫāk içinde nihān o çeşme-i cān
Taḫt iken eyleyüp yirin taḫte
Vardı taḫte’t-türābı itdi mekān
Ol hümā uçdı āşiyānından
Eyleyüp ‘azm-ı āşiyān-ı cinān
Didi ervāḥ-ı ḳuds “طاب ثراه”
Ce‘al-Allāhu cennete mis̱vāh

Reading (I-1b and I-10a): Āyet-i "Küllü men ‘aleyhā fān"; Didi ervāḥ-ı ḳuds "ṭābe s̱erāh". The readings and meanings are from Özkat's footnotes (pp. 268-269).

Yıḳıl iy ṭārem-i sipihr-i berīn
Söyün iy şem‘-i ḳubbe-i zerrīn
Bozul iy imtizāc-ı ‘unṣur-ı çār
Üzül iy ‘aḳd-i ‘uḳde-i pervīn
Ṭaġıl iy cünd-i bī-şümār nücūm
Ṭolun iy māh sür‘at ile hemīn
Aġla iy ebr ḳıl yaşuñ bārān
İñle iy ra‘d idüp fiġān u enīn
Eyle iy berḳ āh-ı āteş-nāk
Ki yana sūz ile zamān u zemīn
Çāk ḳıl iy seḥer girībānuñ
İy şafaḳ eyle baġruñı ḫūnīn
Bürün iy şeb libās-ı mātemüñi
Ḳararup eyle ḫāṭıruñ ġam-gīn
Gün ṭoġar ṣanma başuña iy rūz
Ki ṭolındı o mihr-i devlet ü dīn
İtdi rıḥlet bu dār-ı süflīden
Oldı ‘ālī maḳāmı ‘illiyyīn
Ṣad hezārān dirīġ vā-veylā
Ki belā üzre cāna irdi belā

Bize yā Rab bu ne muṣībetdür
Ne belādur ‘aceb ne ḥāletdür
Gitdi devletlü begden ayrılduḳ
Ḳullarına bu nice nekbetdür
Bize ayruḳ cihānda rāḥat yoḳ
Gitdi rāḥat zamān-ı miḥnetdür
Tāzelikde o serv-i bāġ-ı cinān
Ḫāke düşdi bu ne ‘alāmetdür
Daḫı açılmadın o ġonce-i ter
Gül gibi ṣoldı hey ne āfetdür
Manṭıḳı mürdeye virürken cān
Kendü cān virdi bu ne ḥikmetdür
Lāle-veş ol gülüñ firāḳından
Baġrumuz ṭolu dāġ-ı ḥasretdür
Ṣad-hezārān dirīġ ü ḥasret ü āh
Gitdi ol Şeh zamān-ı firḳatdür
Ḫāke düşsek ‘aceb mi ẕilletle
Yirümüz gūşe-i meẕelletdür
Gice gündüz demidür aġlayalum
Baġrumuz nār-ı ġamda ṭaġlayalum

Yā İlāhī ne ṭurfa ḥāl oldı
Ki ḳatı mūcib-i melāl oldı
Bedr iken ol meh-i ḫuceste-ḫıṣāl
Ne zevāl irdi kim hilāl oldı
İşiginde sa‘ādet üzre iken
O sa‘ādet bize ḫayāl oldı
Oldı çünkim revān o rūḥ-ı revān
Bize dirlik daḫi muḥāl oldı
Baġrumuz ḳana döndi ḥasretle
Görüñüz kim bize ne āl oldı
Üstüḫᵛāna irişdi ġam bıçaġı
Hep eḥibbāsı bī-mecāl oldı
Gül-i ‘ömrine hem ḥayıflar anuñ
Ki düşüp ḫāke pāy-māl oldı
Bu muṣībet çü geldi başumuza
Şevḳ ü şādī bize vebāl oldı
Ġam yiyüp rūz u şebde ḳan içelüm
Ki bize Ḥaḳ’dan ol nevāl oldı
Çāre ne rūz u şeb fiġān idelüm
Baġrumuz ḥasret-ile ḳan idelüm

Rūz u şeb iy göñül fiġān eyle
Rāzuñı ḫalḳa dāstān eyle
Demidür aġla iy gözüm aġla
Ebr-veş yaşuñı revān eyle
Ṭutuş iy sīne nār-ı ḥasret ile
Sūzuñı gün gibi ‘ıyān eyle
İy ciger tīr-i hecr ile delinüp
Baġruñı ḥasret ile ḳan eyle
İtdi cānın revān o şāh-ı güzīn
İy göñül sen de terk-i cān eyle
Düşdi ḫāke o genc-i bī-hem-tā
Sen de bir günci var mekān eyle
Çıḳdı elden çü oḳ gibi o şāh
Ḳāmetüñ ġuṣṣadan kemān eyle
Menzilin tīr-i āhuñuñ yiridür
Ṣaḥn-ı ṣaḥrā-yı āsümān eyle
Çünki terk eyledi cihānı o şāh
Sen de terk-i cihāniyān eyle
Ḥasretā ḥasretā dirīġ dirīġ
Ḳapladı āfitāb-ı devleti mīġ

İy felek bī-amān imişsin sen
Ḳatı nā-mihribān imişsin sen
Ẓulm ile ‘ālemi ḫarāb itdüñ
Nice ẓulm ıssı ḫān imişsin sen
Göz göre nice ḳıyduñ ol şāha
Ẓālim ü bī-amān imişsin sen
Bizi ol yaḫşı begden ayırduñ
Hey ne yavuz yaman imişsin sen
Evvelā luṭf u soñra ḳahr itdüñ
Nice ḳavli yalan imişsin sen
Yedi ḳat ṭāsdan geçer zehrüñ
Ejder-i cān-sitān imişsin sen
Ḳāmetüñ gerçi kim kemān olmış
Tīr-i āha nişān imişsin sen
Kimse sende ḳarār itmez imiş
İki günlük mekān imişsin sen
Niçe ‘anḳāları uçurmışsın
Köhne bir āşiyān imişsin sen
Dād u feryād elüñden iy eflāk
Yirini eyledüñ o şāhuñ ḫāk

Aña yā Rab cinān ṭuraġ olsun
Meskeni gülsitān u bāġ olsun
‘Arṣa-i tāb-nāk-ı maḥşerde
Sāye-i ‘arş aña oṭaġ olsun
Meclisinde şarāb-ı Kevs̱er’den
Dest-i ḥavrāda pür-ayaġ olsun
Ḳabri tārīk olmasun bir dem
Pertev-i nūr-ı Ḥaḳ çerāġ olsun
Ola cennetde ol Burāḳ’a süvār
Öñce ġılmān ḳamu yayaġ olsun
Aña ṭaġ üsti bāġ olup her-dem
Ḥasreti baġrumuzda dāġ olsun
Yirde yatduḳça ol vücūd-ı şerīf
Pādişāh-ı zemāne ṣaġ olsun
Şecer-i ‘ömri pāydār oluban
‘Avn-i Ḥaḳ dāyimā ṭayaġ olsun
Ṣaḳlasun hep budaḳların Mevlā
Cümle pür-berg ü pür-budaġ olsun
Fażliyā ṣıdḳ ile diyen āmīn
Dilegüm bu belādan ola emīn

In English

I-1. The verse "All that is upon the earth will pass away" has become the heading of the decree of the world.

I-2. God, with the pen of kāf and nūn, that is, with the command "Be", did not write the script of permanence on the tablet of life.

I-3. Time is a bridge over the sea of transience; all people will pass over it and be gone. (In İsen's edition, cited by Özkat, "pil", bridge, is read instead of "yil".)

I-4. Whoever comes to this caravanserai departs in the end; its whole caravan will take to the road.

I-5. Neither beggar nor king nor lord remains; in the end the world is one and the same for all.

I-6. Where is that moon of the constellation of sovereignty, that is, the king of the world, Mehmed Han?

I-7. That fountain of life, like the source of the sun, has been hidden within the earth.

I-8. While sitting on the throne he left his place to the board (the bier); he went and made his dwelling beneath the earth.

I-9. That huma bird flew from its nest and set out for the nest of paradise.

I-10. The holy spirits said, "May his earth be sweet"; may God make paradise his abode.

II-1. O dome of the lofty heaven, collapse; O candle of the golden dome, the sun, go out.

II-2. O mixture of the four elements, break apart; O string of the Pleiades, come undone and scatter.

II-3. O countless army of stars, disperse; O moon, be eclipsed at once.

II-4. O cloud, weep, make your tears rain; O thunder, groan with lament and moaning.

II-5. O lightning, heave a fiery sigh, so that time and the earth may burn with this fire.

II-6. O dawn, tear your collar; O twilight, stain your breast with blood.

II-7. O night, put on your garment of mourning; grow dark and make your heart sorrowful.

II-8. O day, do not think the sun will rise over your head any more; for that sun of the state and the faith has been eclipsed.

II-9. He departed from this low world; his lofty station has become Illiyyîn. (Illiyyîn is the exalted station named in the Qur'an as the place of the righteous.)

II-10. A hundred thousand alases, woe to us; affliction upon affliction has reached the soul.

III-1. O Lord, what calamity is this for us; what affliction, what strange state.

III-2. Our fortunate lord has gone, we are parted from him; what a great disaster this is for his servants.

III-3. There is no more ease for us in the world; ease has gone, it is the time of hardship.

III-4. That cypress of the garden of paradise fell to the earth while still fresh; what a portent is this.

III-5. That fresh bud withered like a rose before it had even opened; alas, what a disaster.

III-6. While his speech was fair enough to give life to the dead, he himself gave up his life; what wisdom is this.

III-7. From separation from that rose our breast, like the dark spot at the heart of the tulip, is full of the wound of longing.

III-8. A hundred thousand alases, longing and sighs; that king has gone, it is the time of separation.

III-9. Is it any wonder if we fall to the ground in abasement; our place now is the corner of humiliation.

III-10. Night and day it is the time for weeping, let us weep; let us brand our breast in the fire of grief.

IV-1. O God, what a strange state has come about, that it has become a cause of great sorrow.

IV-2. That moon of auspicious nature was full; what decline befell it, that it became a crescent.

IV-3. While we were in happiness at his threshold, that happiness became a dream for us.

IV-4. Since that flowing life, that dear soul, has departed, living has become impossible for us.

IV-5. Our breast has turned to blood with longing; see what trickery has befallen us.

IV-6. The knife of grief has reached the bone; all who loved him are left without strength.

IV-7. Alas too for the rose of his life, which fell to the earth and was trodden underfoot.

IV-8. Since this calamity befell us, eagerness and joy have become a sin for us.

IV-9. Night and day let us eat grief and drink blood; for that is the portion that has come to us from God.

IV-10. What remedy is there; let us lament night and day, let us make our breast blood with longing.

V-1. O heart, lament night and day; make your secret a tale for the people.

V-2. It is the time for weeping; weep, O my eye, weep, let your tears flow like a cloud.

V-3. O breast, catch fire with the fire of longing; show your burning as plainly as the sun.

V-4. O liver, pierced by the arrow of separation, make your breast blood with longing.

V-5. That chosen king has given up his life; O heart, you too renounce your life.

V-6. That matchless treasure has fallen to the earth; you too go and make some corner your dwelling. (The word "günci" in the edition has been understood, as in Çavuşoğlu's publication, as "künc", corner.)

V-7. Since that king has slipped from the hand like an arrow, bend your stature like a bow with grief.

V-8. It is fitting that you make the range of the arrow of your sigh the open field of the plain of the sky.

V-9. Since that king has left the world, you too leave the people of the world.

V-10. What longing, what longing; alas, alas; a cloud has covered the sun of fortune.

VI-1. O heaven, you have proved merciless; you have proved most unloving.

VI-2. With oppression you have ruined the world; what a tyrant of a khan you have proved to be.

VI-3. How could you slay that king before our very eyes; you have proved cruel and merciless.

VI-4. You have parted us from that good lord; alas, how wicked, how harsh you have proved.

VI-5. First you showed favour, then you crushed; what a one whose word is false you have proved to be.

VI-6. Your poison passes through the seven layers of the sky; you have proved a life-taking dragon.

VI-7. Though your stature is bent like a bow, you have proved to be the target of the arrow of sighs.

VI-8. No one, it seems, stays in you for good; you have proved a lodging of two days.

VI-9. You have made many an anka bird fly away; you have proved an old nest.

VI-10. O heavens, help and lament because of you; you have made the place of that king the earth.

VII-1. O Lord, may the gardens of paradise be his home; may his dwelling be a rose garden and an orchard.

VII-2. On the bright field of the place of resurrection may the shade of the Throne be his tent.

VII-3. In his gathering may the cup in the houri's hand be full of the wine of Kevser.

VII-4. May his grave not be dark for a single moment; may the radiance of God's light be his lamp.

VII-5. May he ride Burak in paradise; may all the youths of paradise walk on foot before him.

VII-6. For him may the tops of the mountains ever be gardens; may longing for him be a wound in our breast. (The couplet is obscure; a play of sounds is made with the words "ṭaġ" (mountain), "bāġ" (garden) and "dāġ" (brand, wound).)

VII-7. As long as that noble body lies in the earth, may the padishah of the age stay well.

VII-8. May the padishah's tree of life be lasting; may God's help ever be his support.

VII-9. May the Lord protect all his branches; may they all be full of leaves and boughs.

VII-10. O Fazlî, say "amen" sincerely; my wish is that safety be found from this affliction.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a terkib-bend elegy of seven stanzas written on the death of Şehzade Mehmed. The terkib-bend is a verse form in which stanzas written in the same metre, each rhymed like a ghazal, are joined by a "linking couplet" (vasıta beyti) whose rhyme changes in every stanza. As Mustafa Özkat notes, each stanza consists of ten couplets: a body of nine couplets and the linking couplet that closes it. In all there are seventy couplets. The metre is the "fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün" pattern of the hafif family. The rhyme of the first stanza is "-ān" (‘unvān, fān, Yezdān, güẕerān), of the second "-īn" (berīn, zerrīn, pervīn), and of the third the sound "-et" with the redif (refrain word) "-dür" (muṣībetdür, ḥāletdür); the following stanzas are built on the rhymes and redifs "-āl oldı", "-ān eyle", "-ān imişsin sen" and "-aġ olsun". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet in the form "Fażliyā".

Özkat publishes the elegy as the thirty-eighth musammat of the divan from the miscellany numbered Âşir Efendi 314 in the Süleymaniye Library (fol. 69b); a few folios further on, the same miscellany also contains Zâtî's elegy for Şehzade Mehmed. In the manuscript the poem is recorded under the name terci-bend; Özkat notes that it is in fact a terkib-bend, and that in early periods terkib-bends too were called terci-bend. Özkat compared the text with the one published in Mustafa İsen's book Acıyı Bal Eylemek, quoted from Hayrullah Efendi's Târih-i Devlet-i Aliyye, and showed the differences in his footnotes. The first stanza contains two Arabic phrases, printed in Arabic script in the edition: the Qur'anic verse in the second line and the prayer "ṭābe s̱erāh" in the tenth couplet. In the original text these phrases have been copied letter by letter from the printed page of the edition; their readings and meanings are from Özkat's footnotes. Özkat also notes that İsen wrote the word "‘aleyhā" in the verse by mistake as "‘aleynā".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Özkat summarises the plan of the elegy as follows: the first stanza opens with an allusion to verse 26 of the sura al-Rahmân, meaning "All that is upon the earth will pass away", and tells that every living being will die; in the second stanza the poet calls on all beings on earth and in the heavens to mourn the prince's death; in the third and fourth stanzas he says that with this death no ease or peace remains in the world; in the fifth stanza he calls on his own limbs to burn and blaze; in the sixth he reproaches heaven; the seventh ends with a prayer.

The first stanza tells of death as a general truth and comes to the prince's name only in the sixth couplet: "Ya‘ni şāh-ı cihān Meḥemmed Ḫān". The world is a bridge, a caravanserai and a caravan; Özkat cites the fourth couplet among the proverb-like sayings in Fazlî's poems. In the eighth couplet there is a strong pun (cinas): the words "taḫt" (throne), "taḫte" (board, that is, the washing board or bier on which the dead are laid) and "taḥte't-türāb" (beneath the earth) come one after another; a descent from throne to board and from board to earth is described. In the ninth couplet the prince is likened to the huma, the bird believed to bring fortune to the one on whom its shadow falls. The Arabic prayer in the linking couplet that closes the stanza, "May his earth be sweet", is a well-known formula said for the dead.

The second stanza is entirely an address: the dome of heaven, the sun, the four elements, the Pleiades, the stars, the moon, the cloud, the thunder, the lightning, the dawn, the twilight, the night and the day are called one by one and invited to mourn. Each couplet begins with an imperative; the succession of the verbs "yıḳıl, söyün, bozul, üzül, ṭaġıl, ṭolun, aġla, iñle" (collapse, go out, break apart, come undone, disperse, be eclipsed, weep, groan) gives the stanza a strong rhythm. This manner of speech accords with the elegiac tradition in which the universe loses its order in the face of a death. In the third and fourth stanzas the dead prince is a bud withered early, a cypress fallen to the earth, a moon that turned from full to crescent. In the sixth couplet of the third stanza the death of the young man whose speech was fair enough to give life to the dead is expressed through a contrast; that there is an implicit allusion here to the prophet Jesus, who raised the dead, is our own inference. In the expression "revān o rūḥ-ı revān" in the fourth stanza the word "revān" is used both in the sense of "going, flowing" and in the sense of "soul".

In the fifth stanza the poet addresses his own heart, eye, breast and liver. In the sixth couplet there is a pun (cinas) between "genc" (treasure) and "künc" (corner): since the treasure has been buried in the earth, the heart too should withdraw into a corner. The seventh couplet uses the image of arrow and bow: the king has slipped from the hand like an arrow, and the lover's stature should be bent like a bow with grief. The sixth stanza, with the redif "imişsin sen" (you have proved to be), is a reproach addressed to heaven; heaven is called merciless, cruel, false of word, a life-taking dragon, an old nest and a lodging of two days. The seventh stanza is a prayer full of images of paradise: the shade of the Throne, Kevser, the houris, Burak and the youths of paradise.

Historical Context

Şehzade Mehmed was a son of Sultan Süleyman the Lawgiver. According to Özkat, he was appointed in 949 (1542) to the sanjak of Manisa, left vacant when Şehzade Mustafa was sent to Amasya, and died young on 8 Şaban 950 (6 November 1543), of smallpox according to another passage of Özkat. Fazlî's official career had begun at Mehmed's side: according to the biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire), the poet recited a kaside to Süleyman at the circumcision feast of the princes through the good offices of Zâtî, and after this event, when Mehmed went out to Manisa as sanjak governor, he became his divan secretary. On Mehmed's death Fazlî moved to Amasya, to the divan secretaryship of Şehzade Mustafa. The TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi also records that Fazlî wrote his "famous elegy" on Mehmed's death. This elegy is both a lament for the poet's first master and the poem of the event that prepared his move to the Amasya period.

The last four stanzas of the elegy were published by Mehmet Çavuşoğlu, with some small differences, under the title "Mers̱iye-i Merḥūm Sulṭān Muṣṭafā", mistakenly among the elegies written for Şehzade Mustafa; this is reported by Özkat. The open mention of the prince's name as "Meḥemmed Ḫān" in the first stanza, the heading in the manuscript and the heading "Mers̱iye Berāy-ı Şehzāde Meḥemmed" that İsen quotes from Hayrullah Efendi show that the poem was written for Mehmed. The prayer "Pādişāh-ı zemāne ṣaġ olsun" (may the padishah of the age stay well) in the seventh stanza also suits Mehmed, who died a natural death in his father's lifetime, far better than Mustafa, who was put to death on the order of his father Süleyman; this assessment is our own interpretation. In the eighth and ninth couplets of the same stanza the poet prays for the protection of the padishah's tree of life and its branches; that the branches stand for the other princes of the dynasty is also our own interpretation.

Bibliography

Academic studies

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. 268-275, musammat no. 38 (Süleymaniye Library, Âşir Efendi 314, fol. 69b); also p. 6 (Mehmed's circle and death), pp. 9 and 17-18 (Fazlî as Mehmed's divan secretary), pp. 57-59 (on the musammats and this elegy), p. 89 (proverbs) and p. 118 (description of the manuscript), 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.
Mehmet Çavuşoğlu, "Şehzâde Mustafa Mersiyeleri", Tarih Enstitüsü Dergisi, 12 (1981-1982), pp. 669-672 (as cited by Özkat).

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