Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilün

Ben ki evvel kul-ıdum sen şâha kul
Yine kıl kullıga sultânum kabûl
Yâ suçum bagışla yâhûd al serüm

In English

1. I who was formerly a servant to a shah such as you; my sultan, accept me again into your service.

2. Either forgive my fault or take my head.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The fragment we have consists of a couplet and a separate line surviving from a petition (arz-ı hâl) that Edirneli Nazmî presented to Prince Mustafa. An arz-ı hâl is a poem in which the poet describes his situation to a superior and makes a request of him; the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü notes that Nazmî's divan contains a mesnevi entitled "Arz-ı Hâl Be-Pâdişâh". The couplet is a mesnevi couplet in the metre "fâ’ilâtün fâ’ilâtün fâ’ilün", rhyming within itself (kul, kabûl). Recep Hasar quotes the fragment from page 3842 of the edition of the divan; the position of the second line in its couplet and its partner line are unknown. We were not able to reach the full petition.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the couplet the word "kul" (servant) is repeated three times and stresses the poet's devotion to the prince. The phrase "sen şâha kul" can be read as "servant to a shah such as you" or "servant to you, the shah"; both readings say that the poet had earlier been in the prince's service. The words of the separate line, "Yâ suçum bagışla yâhûd al serüm" (either forgive my fault or take my head), are the language, common in divan poetry, of a servant who submits himself entirely to his master's decision. They show that the poet had for some reason left the service and was determined to return.

Historical Context

Hasar regards this petition as important evidence for the relationship between the poet and the prince: here the poet writes that he had been in the prince's retinue and wishes to enter it again. According to Ziya Avşar, it is most plausible that this relationship was formed in the sanjak of Manisa. Since the prince moved from Manisa to Amasya in 1541, it is possible that the petition was written during the prince's Amasya years by his former servant from Manisa; this inference is our own. Nazmî's elegy for Prince Mustafa and the couplets from his qasida are separate articles in this category.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Edirneli Nazmî, Dîvân, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı (e-book), p. 3842 (as quoted in Hasar; we could not reach the e-book).

Academic studies

  • Recep Hasar, Türk Edebiyatı'nda Padişah ve Şehzade Mersiyeleri, MA thesis, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakıf Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, 2018, pp. 118-119. https://hdl.handle.net/11352/2746
  • Ziya Avşar, 16. yy Divan Edebiyatında Edirneli Nazmî ve Türkî-i Basit, PhD thesis, Gazi Üniversitesi, Ankara, 1998, p. 21 (as quoted in Hasar).

Books

Online sources