Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilatün Fâ‘ilün

I

‘Īd-i vaṣlın ‘arż idüp çünkim götürdi şeh niḳâb
Nûra ġarḳ itdi cihânı ẓâhir oldı âfitâb
Bir şeh-i devrân-ı ‘âdildür cihân rûyında kim
‘Ādeti luṭf u mürüvvetdür ḳamu fi‘li ṣavâb
Sâyesinde ḫoş geçer ḫalḳ-ı cihân mîr ü gedâ
Devleti devrinde hergiz kimse çekmez ıżṭırâb
Ey sa‘âdet isteyen gel cân u dilden bende ol
Āsitânına yüz ur bulmaḳ dilerseñ fetḥ-i bâb
‘Adli mîzânına geldi keffe oldı mihr ü mâh
Luṭfı deryâsında oldı baḥr-ı ‘ummân bir ḥabâb
Devlet esbinde görüp çekdi ‘inânını zemîn
Geldi meydân-ı sa‘âdetde felek öpdi rikâb
Kimdür ol Sulṭân Aḥmed ibni Sulṭân Bâyezîd
Gicesi ḳadr olsun anuñ dâ’imâ gündüzi ‘îd

II

Salṭanat taḫt'üzre çıḳup yine şâh-ı muḥterem
Tâc-ı devlet urınup geydi seḫâ luṭf u kerem
Rûşen itdi gün cemâli pertevinden ‘âlemi
‘Arż idüp şeh ruḫlarını ḫoş cihâna ṣubḥ-dem
Çün ṭulû‘ itdi şeref burcında yine âfitâb
Her kişi medḥ itmege biñ cân u dilden açdı fem
Devleti devrinde bu ḫalḳ-ı cihân oldı feraḥ
Ni‘meti ḫânıyla ṭoldı ḳamu ‘âlemde ni‘am
Cân u dilden rûz-ı ‘îdinde gelüp bel baġladı
Ol hümâyûnuñ melekler ḫıdmetine dem-be-dem
Bir şehen-şâh-ı cihândur bî-naẓîr ü bî-bedel
Bir naẓar ḳılsañ ḳomaz cânda melâmet dilde ġam
Kimdür ol Sulṭân Aḥmed ibni Sulṭân Bâyezîd
Salṭanat taḫtında olsun ḥaşre dek ‘ömri mezîd

III

Ey şeh-i devrân hemîşe ḫalḳa mîr-i a‘ẓam ol
Ḥaşre dek her dem cihân rûyında şâh-ı ‘âlem ol
Bulduġınca nâm u şöhret Āl-i ‘Os̱mân ḫusrevâ
Ḳamusından ey şehen-şâh-ı zamân sen a‘lem ol
Irmasun Ḥaḳ üstümüzden ol hümâ-fer sâyeñi
Devlet ü rif‘atle bu ḫalḳ-ı cihâna maḥrem ol
Ṭurduġınca bu zemîn ü âsumân ey şehriyâr
Ẕevḳ u ‘işret sür cihân rûyında şâd u ḫurrem ol
Dostlaruñ her dem cihân rûyında olsun şâd-mân
Dâ’imâ düşmenlerüñ çeksün elem sen bî-ġam ol
Burc-ı iḳbâl ü şerefde bu semâ ṭurduḳça sen
Ey sa‘âdet âfitâbı devlet ile her dem ol
Kimdür ol Sulṭân Aḥmed ibni Sulṭân Bâyezîd
Gicesi ḳadr olsun anuñ dâ’imâ gündüzi ‘îd

IV

Geldügince ṣavm u ‘îd ey şâh-ı devrân her zamân
Ol serîr-i salṭanat taḫtında her dem şâd-mân
Sen sa‘âdet taḫt-gâhında muḳîm ol ḥaşre dek
Devletüñ devrinde ḫoş geçsün ḳamu pîr ü cüvân
‘Īd-i ḥüsnüñde görüp ḳaşuñ hilâlin ḫusrevâ
Ḫurrem olsun dâ’imâ sâyeñde bu ḫalḳ-ı cihân
Ṭurduġınca bu zemîn ü âsumân olduḳça ‘îd
Eylesün ol Ḥaḳ seni ḫalḳ-ı cihâna kâm-rân
Gelmesün cânâ cemâlüñ âfitâbına küsûf
İrmesün ‘ömrüñ dıraḫtı bergine bâd-ı ḫazân
Ḳıl du‘â Mihrî hemân ḳo sözi taṭvîl eyleme
Ol şehüñ medḥinde ‘âcizdür bilürsin her lisân
Kimdür ol Sulṭân Aḥmed ibni Sulṭân Bâyezîd
Gicesi ḳadr olsun anuñ dâ’imâ gündüzi ‘îd

In English

1. When the shah displayed the festival of union and lifted the veil from his face, the sun appeared and drowned the world in light. (The prince's showing his face to the people is likened to the sun rising on the morning of a festival.)

2. He is a just ruler of the age on the face of the earth; his habit is kindness and generosity, and all his acts are right.

3. In his shadow the people of the world, lord and beggar alike, pass their days well; in his reign no one ever suffers distress.

4. O you who seek happiness, come, be his servant with soul and heart; if you wish the door to open and your affairs to prosper, rub your face on his threshold. ("Fetḥ-i bâb" means the opening of a door; it also suggests the opening of affairs and conquest.)

5. The sun and the moon have become the two pans of the scales of his justice; in the sea of his generosity the ocean is no more than a bubble.

6. The earth, seeing him on the steed of good fortune, took hold of its rein; the heavens came to the field of felicity and kissed his stirrup. (Earth and heaven are shown as the ruler's servants; holding the rein and kissing the stirrup are signs of service and respect toward the great.)

7. Who is he? He is Sultan Ahmed, son of Sultan Bayezid. May his nights always be the Night of Power and his days always a festival.

8. The venerable shah has again ascended the throne of sovereignty; he has put on the crown of fortune and donned the robe of generosity, kindness and favour.

9. When the shah showed his cheeks beautifully to the world at dawn, he lit the universe with the radiance of his face like the sun.

10. When the sun rose again in the sign of honour, everyone opened his mouth to praise him with a thousand souls and hearts. (The sun means the prince; the "sign of honour" is, in old astrology, the sign in which a planet is at its strongest.)

11. In his reign the people of this world have attained joy; with the table of his bounty the whole world has been filled with blessings.

12. Even the angels, on the day of his festival, came with soul and heart and girded themselves unceasingly to serve that blessed one.

13. He is a king of kings of the world, without equal or peer; if he turns one glance, he leaves no reproach in the soul and no grief in the heart.

14. Who is he? He is Sultan Ahmed, son of Sultan Bayezid. May his life on the throne of sovereignty increase until the resurrection.

15. O shah of the age, be always the greatest bey over the people; until the resurrection be, at every moment, the shah of the world on the face of the earth.

16. O sovereign, as long as the House of Osman gains name and fame, O king of kings of the age, be the most learned of them all. ("A‘lem" means most knowing; the couplet also carries the wish that the prince be the foremost of the dynasty.)

17. May God never take from above us your shadow, which like the huma bird brings fortune; with good fortune and exaltation be close to the people of this world. (It was believed that the one on whom the shadow of the huma bird fell would become a ruler.)

18. O sovereign, as long as this earth and sky endure, spend your days in pleasure and festivity on the face of the earth, and be glad and cheerful.

19. May your friends always be happy on the face of the earth; may your enemies always suffer pain, and may you be free of sorrow.

20. O sun of happiness, as long as this sky stands in the sign of fortune and honour, be with good fortune at every moment.

21. Who is he? He is Sultan Ahmed, son of Sultan Bayezid. May his nights always be the Night of Power and his days always a festival.

22. O shah of the age, whenever the fast and the festival come, be always glad on that throne of sovereignty.

23. May you sit on the throne of happiness until the resurrection; may young and old all pass their days well in your reign.

24. O sovereign, on the festival of your beauty, seeing the crescent of your brow, may the people of this world always be glad in your shadow. (The festival begins with the sighting of the crescent moon; the brow too is likened to the crescent because of its shape.)

25. As long as this earth and sky endure and the festivals come, may God make you a ruler who has attained his desire and is happy, for the people of the world.

26. O beloved, may the sun of your beauty suffer no eclipse; may the autumn wind never touch the leaves of the tree of your life.

27. Mihrî, only pray, leave off speaking and do not prolong it; you know that every tongue is powerless in praising that shah.

28. Who is he? He is Sultan Ahmed, son of Sultan Bayezid. May his nights always be the Night of Power and his days always a festival.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The only terci‘-i bend in the divan consists of four stanzas of seven couplets each, twenty-eight couplets in all; its metre is the remel pattern "Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün". The terci‘-i bend is a verse form in which the stanzas, called hâne, are joined to one another by a linking couplet (vâsıta) that is repeated at the end of each stanza; if the linking couplet changes in every stanza, the poem is called a terkib-i bend. In this poem the first six couplets of each stanza rhyme like a ghazal and carry their own rhyme: the first stanza is built on the sounds "-âb" (niḳâb, âfitâb, ṣavâb, ıżṭırâb, bâb, ḥabâb, rikâb), the second on "-em" (muḥterem, kerem, ṣubḥ-dem, fem, ni‘am, ġam), the third on the redif "-em ol" (a‘ẓam ol, ‘âlem ol, maḥrem ol, ḫurrem ol), and the fourth on "-ân" (şâd-mân, cüvân, cihân, kâm-rân, ḫazân, lisân). The linking couplet "Kimdür ol Sulṭân Aḥmed ibni Sulṭân Bâyezîd / Gicesi ḳadr olsun anuñ dâ’imâ gündüzi ‘îd" is repeated unchanged at the end of the first, third and fourth stanzas. At the end of the second stanza the first line is kept and the second line changes to "Salṭanat taḫtında olsun ḥaşre dek ‘ömri mezîd"; the rhyme continues on the sound "-îd". The poem is found in the M (34b) and Ü (20a) manuscripts; its heading in the edition is "Velehû Fî Medḥihî Enâralllâhu Burhânehû" (Also by him, in praise of him; may God make his proof shine), while the M manuscript calls the poem "Ḳaṣîde-i Sâbi‘" (the seventh kaside).

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem carries the eulogy section of the kaside tradition into a stanzaic form. Mehmet Arslan too describes it as a terci‘-i bend "with the content of a kaside". The content of the stanzas follows a certain order: the first stanza deals with the ruler's justice and generosity, the second with his accession to the throne and the abundance of the state, the third with prayers addressed to him, and the fourth with a festival greeting and an ending in which the poet voices her own powerlessness. The couplet "Ḳıl du‘â Mihrî hemân ḳo sözi taṭvîl eyleme" in the last stanza is a counterpart of the pattern "do not prolong the speech, pray", often seen at the transition to the prayer section of kasides.

The imagery of the poem rests largely on the sun and the sky. In the first couplet the prince's showing his face is likened to the rising of the sun; in the ninth and tenth couplets the same simile continues with "the sun rising in the sign of honour"; in the twentieth couplet the prince is called "sa‘âdet âfitâbı" (the sun of happiness). Gülşen Kaya points to the line "‘Adli mîzânına geldi keffe oldı mihr ü mâh" in the fifth couplet as the one example in the divan where the sun is used, as the pan of a scale, to express justice. In the same couplet, the ocean being left a bubble before the sea of generosity is a clear example of hyperbole (mübalağa). In the sixth couplet the earth's holding the rein and the heaven's kissing of the stirrup is a personification that shows the universe as the ruler's servant.

The wish in the linking couplet, "Gicesi ḳadr olsun anuñ dâ’imâ gündüzi ‘îd", sets night against day, the Night of Power against the festival, and also hints at the occasion for which the poem was written. In the twenty-fourth couplet the comparison between the beloved's brow and the festival crescent addresses the prince at the same time as though he were a beauty; in the twenty-sixth couplet the address "cânâ" (O beloved) also shows the passage into the language of the ghazal. In the M manuscript this word reads "şâhâ" (O shah). The line "Ol şehüñ medḥinde ‘âcizdür bilürsin her lisân" in the last stanza is almost identical to the line "Sen şehüñ medḥinde ‘âciz her lisân" in Mihrî's tawhid mesnevi; the poet used the same turn of phrase in two poems, one addressed to God and one to the prince.

Historical Context

Whom the poem was written for is stated openly in the linking couplet: Sultan Ahmed, son of Sultan Bayezid. When his father Bayezid II ascended the throne in 1481 and left Amasya, Prince Ahmed became governor of this city in his place and stayed here until 1512, some thirty-one years. According to Mehmet Arslan, Ahmed, like his father, gathered poets, scholars and musicians around him; Mihrî too took part in the conversation circles at the palace in the time of both Bayezid II and Prince Ahmed, and strengthened her place in this circle by presenting her poems especially to Ahmed. Arslan notes that of the seventeen kasides in the divan, ten were presented to Ahmed, that almost all of them were written as greetings for Ramadan or Sacrifice festivals, and that this terci‘-i bend, too, was presented to the same prince as a festival greeting. Her contemporary Sehî Beg also records that Mihrî gave many kasides and ghazals to Sultan Ahmed.

The phrase "ṣavm u ‘îd" (fast and festival) in the poem, together with the mention of the Night of Power in the linking couplet, suggests that the greeting was written for the festival of Ramadan. Gülşen Kaya too notes that in the divan the Ramadan festival is mentioned with the phrases "ṣavm u ‘îd", "mâh-ı ṣıyâm" and "‘îd ayı", and the Sacrifice festival with the compound "‘îd-i aḍḥâ". In which year's festival the poem was presented is not known. In the poem the prince is called by the title "Sulṭân" and is wished a life on the throne of sovereignty until the resurrection; these wishes are part of the language of eulogy also seen in the divan's other festival kasides.

Bibliography

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