Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün / fe‘ilātün / fe‘ilātün / fe‘ilün

Ḥāfıẓ Aġa ki anıñ şöhreti Benderlidir
Yapdı Ḥaḳ yolına bu çeşmesi is̱bāt oldı
Hele bu ḫayr-ı cezīl ile o ṣāḥib-ḫayrıñ
Eb ü ecdādı daḫi sākin-i cennāt oldı
Fuḳarāya var idi nef‘-i kes̱īri şimdi
Ḥasenātına bu ḫayrı daḫi kerrāt oldı
Pek güzel mevḳi‘ine düşdi bu a‘lā çeşme
Ne güzel mūcidine mūcib-i da‘vāt oldı
Nūş içün besmele ile alıcaḳ bir ṭās ṣu
Oḳu tārīḫini Vāżıḥ eyü ḫayrāt oldı (1227)

In English

1. Hâfız Ağa, whose fame is "of Bender", built this fountain on the path of God; (his good deed) was established.

2. Through this great charity of that benefactor, his father and forefathers too became dwellers of the gardens of Paradise.

3. He was already of much benefit to the poor; now this charity too was added once more to his good deeds.

4. This lofty fountain fell in a very fine place; how well it became a cause of prayers for its builder.

5. When you take a cup of water to drink, with the basmala, O Vâzıh, read its chronogram: "It became a good charity."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Babaarslan records this poem as "chronogram for the fountain built by Benderli Hâfız Ağa (1227)"; the year 1227 corresponds to 1812. The poem has five couplets in the remel pattern "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün". The second lines end with the redif (refrain word) "oldı" and with the "-āt" rhyme of "is̱bāt, cennāt, kerrāt, da‘vāt, ḫayrāt"; apart from the first couplet, the first lines are free. This arrangement fits the kıt‘a form. 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. The date is given by the second half of the last line, "eyü ḫayrāt oldı" (it became a good charity).

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem follows the familiar order of fountain chronograms: first the builder's name and the statement that the charity was done on God's path, then the reward of this charity reaching the builder's ancestors, its benefit to the poor and the beauty of its site. The last couplet brings the reader to the fountain: whoever takes the cup with the basmala to drink will also read the chronogram. This shows that the chronogram was meant to stand in the fountain's inscription. In the fourth couplet the words "mevḳi‘ine düşdi" (fell in its place) describe the fountain's well-chosen site while recalling the idiom of "dropping" (düşürmek) a chronogram.

Historical Context

The poem does not say who Benderli Hâfız Ağa was or in which quarter of Amasya the fountain stood. The epithet "Benderli" shows that someone in the family came from Bender. Other Amasya men with the same epithet appear in Hüsameddin's work, for example the merchant Benderli Hacı Feyzullah Ağa, who rebuilt the Kocacık Mosque in 1230 (1814-15). Whether Hâfız Ağa was related to them is not known; the shared name only shows that men called Benderli were building charitable works in Amasya in those years.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources