Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: fe‘ilātün / fe‘ilātün / fe‘ilātün / fe‘ilün
Mülk-i bī-nām u nīşānīde şeh-i ẕī-şānım
Üstüḫᵛān-pāre-i sī-merġuledir eyvānım
Ḳāhir-i ceyş-i murād u emel-i devrānım
Gerçi maġlūb-ı sipāh-ı ġam-ı bī-pāyānım
İdemem çarḫa müdārā bozamam ‘unvānım
Şimdi küskünlügümüz var felege sulṭānım
Seḥerī bād-ı ṣabā ḳaṣr-ı neşāṭ-ābādam
Şemme-i ḫāl-i rūḫ-ı ‘aşḳ mümessek-ḳahvem
Ḫademem sāye-i ervāḥ-ı muḳaddesdir hem
Naẓar-ı himmetimiñ cilvegehi bāġ-ı İrem
İdemem çarḫa müdārā bozamam ‘unvānım
Şimdi küskünlügümüz var felege sulṭānım
Bārgāhımda yelekli çavuşum ‘anḳādır
Devletim rükn-i ‘amel kārları ḫulyādır
Māşıṭa kākül-i ḫūr naḳş-kün-i ṭuġrādır
Bād eṭrāfa berīdān-ı ḥük(ü)m-fermādır
İdemem çarḫa müdārā bozamam ‘unvānım
Şimdi küskünlügümüz var felege sulṭānım
Ber-murād olmadan āḫir bu felekde eyvāh
Eylediñ şimdi murādāt-ı cihāndan ikrāh
Diye lā-ḥavle ve lā-ḳuvvete illā billāh
İdemem ṭoġrusı ben kimselere eyvallāh
İdemem çarḫa müdārā bozamam ‘unvānım
Şimdi küskünlügümüz var felege sulṭānım
Süfehā gülşen-i ‘izzetde muvaḳḳar görinür
Fużalā külḥan-ı miḥnetde muḥaḳḳar görinür
Būd nā-būd-ı cihān çeşmime kemter görinür
Şeh gedā ‘ind-i vaḳārımda ber-ā-ber görinür
İdemem çarḫa müdārā bozamam ‘unvānım
Şimdi küskünlügümüz var felege sulṭānım
Gūşe-i ‘uzleti ser-māye-i ‘izzet biliriz
Tūşe-i derd [ü] ġamı ḫᵛān-ı sa‘ādet biliriz
Ni‘met-i dehr-i denīyi ḳatı niḳmet biliriz
‘Āḳiliz mest degiliz rif‘ati ẕillet biliriz
İdemem çarḫa müdārā bozamam ‘unvānım
Şimdi küskünlügümüz var felege sulṭānım
Cevr-i a‘dā ile Vāżıḥ ṣaḳın olma ḳanzil
‘Av‘av-ı kelb-i ‘uḳūra ḳulaḳ aṣmaz ‘āḳil
Ḳader-i Ḥażret-i Ḫallāḳa hemān ol ḳā’il
Beni dirseñ budur işte sözümüz ve’l-ḥāṣıl
İdemem çarḫa müdārā bozamam ‘unvānım
Şimdi küskünlügümüz var felege sulṭānım
In English
1. I am the glorious king of a land without name or trace; my hall is a fragment of a bird's bone (we could not explain the edition's "sī-merġule" with certainty). I am the conqueror of the army of desire and hope, of the age itself; though I have been defeated by the endless army of grief. I cannot flatter the wheel of fate, I cannot spoil my title; now we are offended with fate, my sultan.
2. The morning breeze is my palace of joy; the scent of the mole on love's cheek is my musk-scented coffee. My servants are the shadow of holy spirits; the place where my aspiring gaze rests is the garden of Irem. I cannot flatter the wheel of fate, I cannot spoil my title; now we are offended with fate, my sultan.
3. In my court my plumed herald (çavuş) is the Anka bird; the pillars and affairs of my state are fancies. The comb of a houri's curl is the artist who draws my imperial monogram (tuğra); the winds are the couriers carrying my decrees around. I cannot flatter the wheel of fate, I cannot spoil my title; now we are offended with fate, my sultan.
4. Alas, without attaining your wish in this world, at last you have grown sick of the world's wishes. Say "there is no power and no strength save in God". Truly I cannot bow my head to anyone. I cannot flatter the wheel of fate, I cannot spoil my title; now we are offended with fate, my sultan.
5. Fools appear honoured in the rose garden of esteem; the learned appear despised in the furnace of hardship. The being and non-being of the world appear worthless in my eyes; king and beggar appear equal in the court of my dignity. I cannot flatter the wheel of fate, I cannot spoil my title; now we are offended with fate, my sultan.
6. We count the corner of solitude as the capital of honour; we count the provisions of pain and grief as the table of happiness. We count the bounty of this base world as harsh torment. We are sober, not drunk; we count elevation as abasement. I cannot flatter the wheel of fate, I cannot spoil my title; now we are offended with fate, my sultan.
7. O Vâzıh, beware of growing sullen at the cruelty of enemies; the wise man pays no heed to the barking of a vicious dog. Simply accept the decree of the Creator. If you ask me, this is our word, in short: I cannot flatter the wheel of fate, I cannot spoil my title; now we are offended with fate, my sultan.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Structure of the Poem
This is the fifth and last poem in the musammat section of the Dîvânçe. It has seven six-line stanzas in the remel pattern "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün". The first four lines of each stanza rhyme with one another; the last two, "İdemem çarḫa müdārā bozamam ‘unvānım / Şimdi küskünlügümüz var felege sulṭānım", are repeated unchanged in every stanza. The form looks like a müseddes whose refrain is a full couplet; the name is ours. The pen name appears in the last stanza.
Meaning and Figures of Speech
The speaker of the poem is the king of "a land without name or trace". The first three stanzas set up the court of this imaginary kingdom: its palace is the morning breeze, its servants the shadow of holy spirits, its herald the legendary Anka bird, the artist who draws its monogram the comb of a houri's curl, its couriers the winds. All the words of royal office (şeh, eyvān, ceyş, çavuş, ṭuġrā, fermān, berīd) are applied to the inner world of a man who has turned away from the world. In this way a comparison is drawn between the rule of worldly kings and the solitary kingdom of the contented. In the fifth and sixth stanzas the same idea is stated plainly: fools are honoured and the learned despised; solitude is counted as honour and the world's bounty as torment. In the last stanza the poet addresses himself, advising himself to ignore the words of enemies and to accept God's decree. The words "I cannot spoil my title" in the refrain say that the poet will not spend his honour on worldly office, while the address "my sultan" makes the refrain read like a reply to someone.
Historical Context
Özçakmak, drawing on her sources, relates that towards the end of his life Vâzıh lived in seclusion, that Sultan Mahmud II invited him to Istanbul to appoint him şeyhülislam, and that the poet declined, giving his answer in the two lines of this refrain. She bases this on the poem in the Dîvânçe, on the edition of the Amasya fatwas (Ayar and Özel 2011), on Topal's edition of the narrative of exile and on Osman Fevzi Olcay. No document is cited for the story, and the invitation to the office of şeyhülislam could not be confirmed from another source; we therefore record it as a tradition. The poem itself names no particular invitation. Still, in the mesnevi in which he tells the story of his exile Vâzıh says "Çekilüp vahdete dervîş oldum" (I withdrew into solitude and became a dervish), which shows the same state of mind as the disaffection and seclusion of this musammat. For the poet's dismissals and exile see the biography.
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. 1972-1973; Mustafa Vâzıh, Dîvânçe, Ankara University, Department of Manuscripts, Mustafa Con A 495/III, fol. 72a-72b). 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). 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, pp. 260-262.
Online sources
