Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Heading: TAḪMĪS-İ VĀŻIḤ BE-ĠAZEL-İ ŞEHĪD MİḲDĀD PAŞA-ZĀDE ŞEHĪD ḤASAN BEG

Metre: mefā‘īlün / mefā‘īlün / mefā‘īlün / mefā‘īlün

O Yūsuf-ṣūreti māh-ile mīzān-ı ḫıred çekmiş
Ḫayāl-i ḥabl-i zülfi bār-ı rücḥānına şed şekmiş
Cihān ‘aşḳına bir ṣahbā-yı yā Hū-yı meded çekmiş
Gönül āġūş-ı ümmīde bugün bir serv-ḳad çekmiş
Ḥayāt-ı cāvidānī üstine bir ṣarf-ı med çekmiş
Amān ol ġamzeler ḫūnī amān ol dīdeler ḳātil
Ser-ā-pā cān alıcılar mükemmel anda ve’l-ḥāṣıl
Derūn-ı ‘āşıḳ-ı bī-çāreler aḥvāli pek müşkil
O çeşm-i şīr-i mestiñ ġamzesinden ḫavf iderken dil
Beni öldürmege ebrūları seyf-i esed çekmiş
Gürūh-ı pür-şükūh-ı ‘āşıḳān-ıla ider ḥarbi
Derūnından nişān-ı dīn ü īmānı idüp selbī
Hemān ḫūn-ḫᵛārlıḳdır maḳṣadı yoḳdur göñül celbi
Ḫarāb itmek murādıyla o kāfir kişver-i ḳalbi
Sitem ceyşini iḳlīm-i fitenden lā-yu‘ad çekmiş
Fiġānım itdi bī-rāḥat ḳamu a‘lāyı ednāyı
Gece gündüz bu sūz-ı ‘aşḳ-ıla aġlayı aġlayı
Bu çeşmim yaşı ile ṭoldururdum ḫāk-i pehnāyı
Sirişkim seyline ben ġarḳ iderdim ümm-i dünyāyı
Velākin ṣaff-ı müjgānım Sikendervārī sed çekmiş
Viṣāl-i devletinden olmuş-idim ben anıñ āyis
Bi-ḥamdillāh bugün ḳıldı ḳadem-rencīde-i meclis
Ola Vāżıḥ der-i devlet-me’ābında hemān cāris
Alınca hāle-i āgūşa ol māhı bu şeb Fāris
Feleklerde melekler ḥāline baḳmış ḥased çekmiş

In English

1. That Joseph-faced one has weighed reason on the scale together with the moon; the fancy of the rope of his lock has tied the load of his superiority (the line can be read in two ways). For love of the world he has drawn a wine of "Yâ Hû, help". Today the heart has drawn a cypress-statured one into the embrace of hope; (that stature) has drawn a lengthening sign (medd) over eternal life.

2. Mercy, those glances are bloody; mercy, those eyes are killers. In short, from head to foot they are perfect takers of souls. The inner state of the helpless lovers is very hard. While the heart feared the glance of that drunken lion's eye, the eyebrows drew the sword of the lion (of Ali) to kill me.

3. He wars with the majestic company of lovers, tearing the badge of faith and religion out of their hearts. His only aim is shedding blood, not winning hearts. With the wish to lay waste the country of the heart, that infidel has drawn countless armies of cruelty from the clime of strife.

4. My lament robbed everyone, high and low, of rest. Night and day, weeping and weeping with this burning of love, I would fill the wide earth with the tears of my eyes; I would drown the mother of the world in the flood of my tears. But the row of my eyelashes has drawn a dam like Alexander's wall.

5. I had given up hope of the fortune of union with him. Praise be to God, today he took the trouble of setting foot in the gathering. May Vâzıh be ever a guard at that gate, the refuge of fortune. Tonight, when Fâris took that moon into the halo of his embrace, the angels in the heavens looked at his state and were envious.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Its heading in the manuscript is "Taḫmīs-i Vāżıḥ be-Ġazel-i Şehīd Miḳdād Paşa-zāde Şehīd Ḥasan Beg": Vâzıh's tahmis of a ghazal by Hasan Bey, the martyred son of the martyred Mikdâd Paşa. It has five five-line stanzas in the hezec pattern "mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün". The last two lines of each stanza come from Hasan Bey's ghazal. The redif (refrain word) of the ghazal is "çekmiş" (has drawn), and its rhyme is the "-ed" of "med, esed, lā-yu‘ad, sed, ḥased". Babaarslan notes that in place of the word "ḥarbi" in the third stanza the manuscript first had "cengi", which was then struck out and corrected; the autograph copy preserves the poet's own correction.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Hasan Bey's opening couplet rests on a fine conceit: the beloved's tall stature is compared to a "medd" sign drawn over the words "eternal life". In Arabic script the medd is a slanting stroke placed over the letter alif to show that the sound is lengthened; the beloved's stature likewise lengthens eternal life. In the second stanza the eyebrows are called "seyf-i esed", the lion's sword; given Ali's title "Esedullah" (Lion of God), the phrase points to his sword Zülfikâr. The fourth stanza says that the poet's tears would drown the world, but that his eyelashes hold back the flood like the wall said to have been built by Alexander. Throughout the stanza words of war (ḥarb, ceyş, iḳlīm, kişver, ḫarāb) present the beloved's cruelty as a conquest.

The last stanza contains the final couplet of Hasan Bey's ghazal. In a tahmis the couplet bearing the original poet's pen name normally comes in the last stanza. The word "Fāris" in this couplet means "horseman"; it may also have been Hasan Bey's pen name. This is a conjecture and could not be confirmed from another source.

Historical Context

Hasan Bey is a known figure in the history of Amasya. Hüsameddin writes that in the years when Tayyâr Mahmûd Paşa of Canik held Amasya, Mikdâd Paşazâde Hasan Bey was sent as deputy governor (mütesellim) of Amasya at the age of eighteen, and chose a teacher and companions from among the city's scholars. The same work speaks of Hasan Bey's harsh rule and of his later execution. According to Hüsameddin, Vâzıh himself had become mufti of Amasya in 1214 (1799) as a favourite of Tayyâr Paşa. The fact that the heading calls both father and son "şehîd" (martyr) shows that the tahmis, or at least its heading, was written after Hasan Bey's death. The poem can be read as a literary trace of Vâzıh's closeness to this circle; this interpretation is ours.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

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