Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Heading: TĀRĪḪ-İ ḲUṢŪR-I YEGEN-ZĀDE

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

Cenāb-ı Mīr Yegen-zāde Ḥācī İbrāhīm
Şehīr-i şehr-i Amasya mis̱(i)l-i şöhret-i māh
Sözüñ ṣaḥīḥi o ẕāt āb-rūy-ı beldemdir
Odur cemāl-i ahālī vü mefḫarü’l-eşbāh
Şeh(i)rde ced-be-ced-i ḫānedāndır bunlar
Cemī‘isi daḫi ṣāḥib-nüfūẕ [u] ṣāḥib-cāh
Ḥayātdakilere ṭūl-i ‘ömr vire Allāh
Memātdakilere de raḥmetiyle ṭābe s̱erāh
O mīr-i muḥterem eylerdi dā’imā fikret
‘Ulüvv-i ẕātına çespān ber-maḳām-ı penāh
Peder ḳonaġına ḳıldı żamīme-i ber-cā
İki büyūt-ı mu‘allā-yı bī-mis̱āl ü şebāh
O beyte dinse sezādır maḳām-ı İbrāhīm
Ṣafāsı ‘ömre bedel ṣuyı zemzemü’l-eşfāh
Ne beytler ki biri birisinden a‘lādır
Görüp bunı derecāt-ı cināna ol āgāh
Bu beyt ḳaṣr-ı ‘Adendir ki taḥteha’l-enhār
Bu nehr nehr-i lebendür ki fe’şrebū bi’l-fāh
Nedir bu vüs‘-i feżā fe’nẓurāh yā aḥbāb
Nedir bu āb u hevā felteḳūlü māşallāh
Semāda uçmaḳ u ṣuda yürümek isterseñ
Gelüp bu ḳaṣr-ı mu‘allāya it anı gāh gāh
Żarīr-i çarḫı işitmek murād iderseñ eger
Oṭur bu ḳaṣra dolāblardan eyle istiknāh
Dolāb-ı āb degil pīşgāh-ı ḳaṣrında
İder cemī‘-i zamān çarḫ ḫiẕmet-i dergāh
‘Ale’l-ḫuṣūṣ feverān eyleyen o fevvāre
Benān-ı eşhedü en lā-ilāhe illa’llāh
Bahār yaġmurı ẓann eyleme reşāşeleri
Bu göklere müteṣā‘id o yirde żay‘-ı siyāh
Ya s̱evb-i mā’ī geyüp dil-berān-ı raḳḳāṣān
Bu sāḥada ider anlar ruḳūṣ ‘alā ḳadem āh
Bu ḳaṣr ṣāḥibi olan o mīr-i muḥteremi
Maṣūn eyleye Mevlā bi-ḥürmeti levlāh
Ne işleri ṭutar olsa mu‘īn ola tevfīḳ
Ne yerlere gider olsa Ḫıż(ı)r ola hem-rāh
Du‘āsı birle bu Vāżıḥ didi buña tārīḫ
Buyur bu ḳaṣra ṣafā ḳıl ‘aleyke ‘avni’llāh (1245)

In English

1. His Excellency Mîr Yegenzâde Hacı İbrâhim is the famous man of the city of Amasya, as renowned as the moon.

2. In truth that man is the honour of my town; he is the beauty of its people and the pride of its notables.

3. In the city they are a house descending from father to grandfather; all of them too are men of influence and standing.

4. May God give the living long life; and may the earth of the dead be sweet with His mercy.

5. That honoured lord always thought of building a place of refuge worthy of his lofty rank (the couplet is not entirely clear).

6. To his father's mansion, in a fitting place, he added two lofty houses without equal or likeness.

7. If that house is called the Station of Abraham, it is fitting; its delight is worth a lifetime, its water is zamzam for the lips.

8. What houses, each loftier than the other; whoever sees this learns of the degrees of Paradise.

9. This house is the palace of the Garden of Eden "beneath which rivers flow"; this river is the river of milk, of which it is said "drink with the mouth".

10. What is this spaciousness of the place, "look at it, O friends"; what are this water and air, "you should say: mâşallah".

11. If you wish to fly in the sky and walk on water, come to this lofty pavilion and do so now and then.

12. If you wish to hear the creaking of the wheel of heaven, sit in this pavilion and listen to the water wheels.

13. Those before the pavilion are not water wheels; the wheel of heaven itself serves this threshold at all times.

14. Above all that leaping fountain is like the forefinger raised in "I bear witness that there is no god but God".

15. Do not take its spray for spring rain; (it is) rising to these skies, like a dark light (?) in that place (the couplet is not entirely clear).

16. Or dancing beauties dressed in water-coloured robes dance on their feet in this courtyard, ah.

17. May the Lord protect that honoured lord, owner of this pavilion, for the sake of the one of "levlâk" (the Prophet).

18. Whatever work he undertakes, may God's success be his helper; wherever he goes, may Khidr be his companion.

19. With his prayer this Vâzıh gave it a chronogram: "Come, enjoy this pavilion, God's help be upon you."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Its heading in the manuscript is "Tārīḫ-i ḳuṣūr-ı Yegen-zāde": the chronogram of the Yegenzâde pavilions. Babaarslan records it as "chronogram for the two pavilions built by Yegenzâde Hacı İbrahim (1245)"; the year 1245 corresponds to 1829-30. This nineteen-couplet piece is one of the longest chronogram poems in the Dîvânçe (the longest is the twenty-one-couplet Chronogram 12) and is written in the müctess pattern "mefā‘ilün fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün". The second lines rhyme on words ending in "-āh" such as "māh, eşbāh, cāh, s̱erāh, penāh"; the first lines are free. This arrangement fits the kıt‘a form. The date is given by the last line. In the ninth and tenth couplets, Qur'anic and devotional phrases set in italics in the edition ("taḥtehā'l-enhār", "fe'şrebū", "fe'nẓurāh", "felteḳūlü māşallāh") are worked into the lines.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem falls into three parts. The first four couplets praise Hacı İbrâhim Bey, who built the pavilions, and his family: they are an influential house descending from father to grandfather in the city. The fifth and sixth couplets describe the building: the bey has added two new houses to his father's mansion. From the seventh to the sixteenth couplet these houses are compared to Paradise. In the seventh couplet, since the owner is called İbrâhim, the house is compared to the Station of Abraham at the Kaaba; this play on the name is the main conceit of the couplet. In the ninth couplet the pavilion is compared to the palace of the Garden of Eden, described in the Qur'an as having "rivers flowing beneath it", and the river before it to the river of milk in Paradise. From the eleventh couplet onward the pavilion's tie to water comes to the fore: in it one seems to fly in the sky and walk on water; the creaking of the water wheels before it resembles the sound of the turning heavens; the fountain rises to the sky like the forefinger raised in the profession of faith; the splashing water dances like dancers dressed in water-coloured robes. The last three couplets are prayers for the bey.

The meaning of some couplets (5 and 15) is not entirely clear; our rendering keeps to the plain sense of the words and marks the uncertain places.

Historical Context

The poem offers a valuable picture of mansion life on the riverside in Amasya. The "dolāblar" of the twelfth and thirteenth couplets are water wheels that lift water from the river; the pavilion was a building overlooking the river, with water wheels turning in front of it and a fountain. The poem does not say on which bank of the city the pavilion stood. The Yegenzâdes were one of the old notable families of Amasya. Hüsameddin writes that the family descended from Yeğen Ali Bey, who lived in the mid-seventeenth century, and that its best-known members were the vizier Ömer Paşa and the notable İbrahim Âsım Bey. Whether the "Mîr Yegenzâde Hacı İbrâhim" of the poem is the same man as Hüsameddin's İbrahim Âsım Bey could not be determined. For Vâzıh's chronogram on the water work of another bey of the same family see Chronogram 6.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

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