Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ṣarı Nā’ib-zāde Ḥāsim (?) Muṣṭafā-yı ehl-i fażl
Şi‘rde māhir idi yek-tā idi inşāda ḥayf
Şād-kām-ı neş’e-i cām-ı ḥayāt-ı dehr iken
Zer-külāh ‘ömrini virdi bu deverān bāde ḥayf
Yumulınca iki çeşmi didiler tārīḫini
Zerd-rūyī merg oldı Ṣarı Nā’ib-zāde ḥayf (1206)

In English

1. Sarı Nâibzâde Hâsim (?) Mustafa, a man of virtue, was a master of poetry and peerless in inşa (ornate prose); alas.

2. While he was content in the joy of the cup of worldly life, this turning age gave the life of that gold-capped man to the wind; alas.

3. When his two eyes closed they gave his chronogram thus: "Sarı Nâibzâde has put on the yellow pallor of death; alas."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

It is a three-couplet death chronogram in the remel pattern "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". Every couplet ends with the refrain word (redif) "ḥayf" (alas), and the rhyme is the sound "-āde" in "inşāda, bāde, zāde". Babaarslan records the poem as "chronogram for the death of Sarı Nâ'ib-zâde Mustafa (1206)"; the year 1206 corresponds to 1791-92. In the edition part of the dead man's name is read with a question mark as "Ḥāsim (?)". 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; here the chronogram is the whole of the last line.

Written as "زرد روی مرگ اولدی صاری نائب زاده حیف", the line gives "zerd" 211, "rūy" 216, "merg" 260, "oldı" 51, "Ṣarı" 301, "Nā'ib" 53 (without counting the hamza), "zāde" 17 and "ḥayf" 98; the total is 1207, one more than the edition's 1206. If "Ṣarı" is spelled without elif (صری) the result is exactly 1206; if "rūyī" or the hamza are counted separately the total grows. Nothing certain can be said without seeing the manuscript's spelling. The calculation is ours.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The whole point of the poem rests on the word "sarı" (yellow). The family name of the dead man is "Sarı Nâibzâde", while the chronogram line describes death through "zerd-rūyī" (yellowness of face). The pallor of the dead and the "yellow" in the family's name thus meet; Persian "zerd" and Turkish "sarı" are the same meaning in two languages. In the second couplet the word "bāde" is used in two senses: "bād-e" means to the wind, while "bāde" is wine. Read together with "cām" (cup) and "neş'e" (joy), the sense of wine is also heard in the couplet; this is a double entendre (tevriye). The epithet "zer-külāh" (gold-capped) suggests that the dead man was a person of wealth and standing. This analysis is ours.

Historical Context

Hüsameddin writes that Hasan Efendi, son of Ali of Amasya, deputy judge (nâib) of Amasya and later a judge, was known by the nickname "Sarı Nâib", and that his descendants were called the "Sarı Nâibzâdeler" in Amasya; Hasan Efendi's death falls around the year 1100 (1688-89). It is highly likely that the Mustafa of the poem was a member of this family. The couplet calls him a master of poetry and peerless in inşa; accordingly Mustafa was a poet and a prose stylist. His poems have not come down to us; as far as we know, his name and his poetry are mentioned only in this chronogram.

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: p. 1978; Mustafa Vâzıh, Dîvânçe, Ankara University, Department of Manuscripts, Mustafa Con A 495/III, fol. 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

Online sources