Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün / fā‘ilātün / fā‘ilātün / fā‘ilün

Ṣubḥ-dem zāl-i felekden ṭoġdı bir ḫurşīd-nām
Şöyle altun başlı ṣırma ṣaçlu bir şīrīn-ġulām
Nūr-ı ḥüsni ḫāne-i çarḫı münevver eyledi
Ḳalb-i me’yūs içre gūyā ḳalmadı aṣlā ġumām
Ḫīr-baḫş-ı dīdegān olan degül ḫayṭ-ı şu‘ā‘
Tāb-ı tār-ı zülfüdür zeynidir anuñ şems-fām
Bir siyeh kemḫādan olmuş cāme-ḫᵛābdır aña leyl
Kim vücūd-ı nāzenīni üzre ḳorlar şām şām
Görinen kevkeb degildir fi’l-ḥaḳīḳa māh-ıla
Zer benek sīmīn göbek ol cāme-ḫᵛāb üzre tamām
Ba‘dezā cümle melekler ḳıldılar bir meşveret
Şimdi bu nev-zāde-i ḫurşīd-çehre ḫoş-ḫırām
Didiler kim ḳanḳı ṭıfl-ı pāk-ile olsun ṭufeyl
Kimiñ ile bir yata bir ḳalḳa bir ola müdām
Ḳanḳı ṭıfl-ı pāk-ile hem-mekteb-i ‘irfān ola
Ḳanḳı ṭıfla idelim cüzdān-ber çāker ḫıdām
Dāḫi emr-i meşveret bulmamış-idi intihā
İçlerinden birisi çün ḳıldı ‘izzetle ḳıyām
Didi bilürsiz ki bir mihr-i necābet vardır
İsmidir Seyyid Süleymān Rif‘at-i ‘ālī-maḳām
Hem Ḳapucıbaşı-yı dergāh-ı Sulṭān Ḫan Selīm
Hem silaḥşūr-ı şecā‘at-perver-i ẕī-şān u kām
Hem Amāsiyye livāsı kendiye teslīmdir
Hem odur ġāyet ile ṣāḥib-niẓām u intiẓām
‘İlm ü fażl u dāniş ü ‘irfān u iẕ‘ān cümlesi
Oldı ol mīr-i mükerremde tāmāmā iḫtitām
Ġālibā on gün muḳaddemce Muḥarremden anıñ
Ḳıldı bir maḫdūmı dünyāya şerāfetle ḳudām
Aña bu nev-zādeyi yoldaş u bekdaş idelim
Pek münāsibdir olunsa ḫiẕmetine inżimām
Didiler pek rāy-ı müstaḥsen budur ṣad āferīn
Bārekallāhu te‘ālā bu zihī aḥsen kelām
Ḳaldırup her birleri dest-i du‘āyı ol zamān
Didiler Ḫāliḳ u Ḥayy u [yā] Semī‘[u] Lā-yenām
Sen o ṭıfla ‘ömr-i ‘Īsā Meryemi eyle kerem
Ḳıl semā’-ı bedrde māder pederle müstedām
Ḳadr ü bahtın gün gibi eyle mu‘allā müncelī
Āstān u rāstānın merci‘-i cümle enām
İtdiler cümle melekler böyle tekmīlī du‘ā
Emr-i tārīhi de ḳaldı saña Vāżıḥ müstehām
İt şu mıṣra‘ı ḥisāb olmaḳ gerek tārīḫ aña
Geldi dünyāya selāmet ile Mīr ‘Abdü’s-selām (1209)

In English

1. At dawn a child named Sun was born of the old woman of the heavens; a sweet boy, golden-headed, with hair of gold thread.

2. The light of his beauty illuminated the house of the heavens; it was as if no cloud at all remained in the despairing heart.

3. What blesses (dazzles) the eyes is not a thread of light; it is the gleam of the strands of his locks, his sun-coloured ornament.

4. Night is a coverlet of black brocade (heavy silk) for him; evening after evening they lay it over his delicate body.

5. What appears is in truth not the moon and the stars; they are the gold spots and silver bosses all over that coverlet.

6. Thereupon all the angels held a council: now this sun-faced, gracefully moving newborn (what of him),

7. They said: to which pure child should he be a companion; with whom should he lie down and rise, and be together always?

8. With which pure child should he share the school of learning; to which child shall we make him the servant who carries the satchel of Qur'an sections?

9. The business of the council had not yet come to an end when one of them rose with dignity.

10. He said: you know that there is a sun of nobility; his name is Seyyid Süleyman Rif'at of exalted station.

11. He is both head gatekeeper (kapıcıbaşı) of the court of Sultan Selim Han and a valiant, glorious and fortunate swordsman.

12. The sancak of Amasya has been entrusted to him, and he is a man of the greatest order and discipline.

13. Knowledge, virtue, learning, wisdom and understanding have all come to perfection in that generous lord.

14. Probably some ten days before Muharrem a son of his set foot in the world with honour.

15. Let us make this newborn his companion and comrade; it would be most fitting if he joined his service.

16. They said: "This is the most commendable view, a hundred bravos; may God Most High bless it, what an excellent word."

17. Then each of them raised the hand of prayer and they said: "O Creator, O Living, O Hearing, O Sleepless One,

18. Grant that child, in Your generosity, the life of Jesus son of Mary; make him lasting in the sky of the full moon together with his mother and father.

19. Make his worth and fortune exalted and radiant like the sun; may his door be the resort of all mankind."

20. Thus all the angels completed the prayer; the task of the chronogram, O Vâzıh, was left to you as a thing requested.

21. Count this line, it must be his chronogram: "Mîr Abdüsselâm came into the world in safety."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This twenty-one-couplet poem is the longest chronogram in the Dîvânçe. It is in the remel pattern "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün", and all its couplets rhyme on "-ām"; for this reason Özçakmak calls it a "kaside of 21 couplets". According to Babaarslan the poem was written for the birth of Mîr Abdüsselâm, son of Seyyid Süleyman Rif'at Efendi, head gatekeeper of Sultan Selim, and gives the year 1209 (1794-95). A chronogram (tarih) gives the year of an event through a phrase or line whose letters, added up by their numerical values (the ebced system), yield that year. In the last couplet the poet says plainly that the chronogram is the whole of the last line.

Written as "گلدی دنیایه سلامت ایله میر عبد السلام", it gives "geldi" 64, "dünyāya" 80, "selāmet" 531, "ile" 46, "Mīr" 250 and "‘Abdü's-selām" 238; the total is exactly 1209. The calculation is ours and assumes that the manuscript spells the words in this way.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem is built like a small story. In the first five couplets the morning sun is described as a golden-haired baby born of the old woman of the heavens; the sun's rays are his strands of hair, night is his black silk coverlet, and the moon and stars are the gold spots and silver buttons of that coverlet. This part is a description woven of personification and metaphor. From the sixth couplet on, the angels gather and debate whose companion this "sun child" should be; one of them proposes the newborn son of Seyyid Süleyman Rif'at, and the others accept with prayers. Thus the sun becomes the cradle companion and servant of Mîr Abdüsselâm. This device of making a newborn the companion of the sun is an indirect way of praising father and son.

In the couplets of prayer God's names Hâlık (Creator), Hayy (Living) and Semî‘ (Hearing) are named together with the attribute "Lā-yenām" (who does not sleep). Asking for the child the life of Jesus alludes to the long life of Jesus, who is believed to have been raised to heaven. This analysis is ours. In the last two couplets the angels leave the task of the chronogram to the poet, and the poet names his own pen name.

Historical Context

According to the fourteenth couplet the child was born "probably some ten days before Muharrem", that is, in the last days of the year 1208, while the chronogram line gives 1209. The poem may have been written at the beginning of the new year. Hüsameddin writes that at the beginning of Muharrem 1209 the sancak of Amasya was given to Hazînedârzâde Süleyman Bey, nephew of Canikli Hacı Ali Paşa, who became muhassıl (revenue governor) of Amasya. The poem's words "the sancak of Amasya has been entrusted to him" agree with this record; it is therefore likely that Seyyid Süleyman Rif'at was Hazînedârzâde Süleyman Bey. Hüsameddin, however, does not call him "Rif'at" or mention him as a head gatekeeper; the identification is our inference.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

  • Giyasi Babaarslan, "Amasyalı Vâzıh ve Dîvânçesi", Akademik Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi, 5(4), 2021, pp. 1922-1984 (text of the poem: pp. 1976-1977; Mustafa Vâzıh, Dîvânçe, Ankara University, Department of Manuscripts, Mustafa Con A 495/III, fols. 73b-74a). https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/akaded/article/993264
  • Giyasi Babaarslan, "Amasyalı Vâzıh ve Dîvânçesi", Akademik Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi, 5(4), 2021, pp. 1924-1930 (life and description of the Dîvânçe; chronograms: pp. 1929-1930). https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/akaded/article/993264
  • Fatma Özçakmak, "Mustafa Vâzıh Efendi ve Dîvânçe'si", Kesit Akademi Dergisi, 7(26), 2021, pp. 255-278, p. 275.

Online sources