Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Zīnet-i pīşāna lāyıḳ zerr-i meskūk-i ḫayāl
Maḥzen-i fikrin ararken bende-i Vāżıḥ gedāy
Geldi üçler müjde-i tārīḫ-i mevlūdın didi
Ḳoydı Nūḥ Beg keştī-i dünyāya bismillāh pāy (1210)

In English

1. While the beggar servant Vâzıh was searching the treasury of his thought for a gold coin minted of imagination, fit to adorn a brow,

2. The Three came and spoke the glad tidings of the date of birth: "Nûh Bey has set foot on the ship of the world with the bismillah."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

It is a two-couplet birth chronogram in the remel pattern "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". Babaarslan records it as "chronogram for the birth of Nuh Beg (1210)"; the year 1210 corresponds to 1795-96. The rhyme falls between "gedāy" and "pāy". 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 this poem the chronogram is the whole of the last line, but one further number is added to the count.

Written as "قویدی نوح بگ کشتی دنیایه بسم الله پای", it gives "ḳoydı" 130, "Nūḥ" 64, "Beg" 22, "keştī" 730, "dünyāya" 80, "bismillāh" 168 and "pāy" 13; the total is 1207. To reach the edition's 1210, three must be added. The words "Geldi üçler" (the Three came) in the first line make up this shortfall: when the "Three" who announce the chronogram come and join the line, 3 is added to 1207 and 1210 is obtained. Adding or subtracting a number to the chronogram line in this way is called ta‘miye. The calculation and the ta‘miye reading are ours.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the first couplet the poet likens the search for a chronogram to a search for treasure: he calls himself "gedā" (beggar), and what he seeks is a gold coin minted of imagination that will adorn a brow. Likening the chronogram, as a precious phrase, to a gold coin adds a graceful metaphor to the couplet. In the second couplet the word "üçler" is used in two senses. In Sufism "the Three" (Üçler) is the name of one group of the hidden saints who bring help from the unseen (ricâlü'l-gayb); here they come as messengers. The same word also enters the count as a number.

In the chronogram line there is a congruence (tenasüp) between "Nûh" (Noah), the child's name, and "keştī" (ship): the world is likened to a ship that the newborn boards. The word "bismillāh" also recalls the words Noah speaks in the Qur'an when boarding the ark, "In the name of God be its course and its mooring" (Hûd 11:41); this is an allusion (telmih). The analysis is ours.

Historical Context

Who Nûh Bey was, whose son he was and where he was born are not stated in the poem. Babaarslan and Özçakmak give no information about him either. We found no record of this child born in 1210 in Hüsameddin's records of Amasya; whether the birth took place in Amasya is also unknown.

Bibliography

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. 74b). 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