Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilün

Hâsıl-ı ‘ömrün iken ol hâna çün kıldun cefâ
Da‘vet itdi hân peder diyü umup geldi safâ
Bir iş itdün ana kim söylendi tâ Kâfdan Kâfa
İy şeh-i bî-şefka n’itdi sana Sultân Mustafâ
Anı bu halk-ı cihân severdi dil ü cân ile
Kamusın kul kılmış idi lutf ile ihsân ile
Hüsn ile hem-tâ idi ol Yûsuf-ı Ken‘ân ile
İy şeh-i bî-şefka n’itdi sana Sultân Mustafâ
Cümle ‘âlem reşk iderken merdüm-i âzâdene
Zehr-i kâtil katasın kendü elünle bâdene
Nice kıydun şâh-ı ‘âlem ol güzel şehzâdene
İy şeh-i bî-şefka n’itdi sana Sultân Mustafâ
Hak’ Ta'âlâ Hazreti kaynatmadı mı kanunı
Kend’elünle alasın cism ü bedenden cânunı
Kayd u bend idüp boğasın ol güzel mihmânunı
İy şeh-i bî-şefka n’itdi sana Sultân Mustafâ
Yakdı ‘âlem bağrını derd ile anun fürkati
Yandılar dutuşdılar mâtem dutunup key katı
Yok mıdı iy şâh-ı ‘âlem sende ata şefkati
İy şeh-i bî-şefka n’itdi sana Sultân Mustafâ
Âl ile anı getürüp hışm ile kıldun şehîd
Ana kısmet eylemiş Rabbüm makâm-ı müctehid
Gicesi Kadr oldı anun gündüzi ‘îd-i sa‘îd
İy şeh-i bî-şefka n’itdi sana Sultân Mustafâ
Kaddümi katl eylesen şâhâ eger Mansûr gibi
Ol bana mi‘râc olur Mûsî-i ‘İmr-i tûr gibi
Yazıla akan kanum yire ene’l-hak hû gibi
İy şeh-i bî-şefka n’itdi sana Sultân Mustafâ
Mustafâyı Mustafâ ile görürsen n’idesin
Yüzüne bakmaz ise sen kime feryâd idesin
Bir gün ola dünyeden sen dahı hasret gidesin
İy şeh-i bî-şefka n’itdi sana Sultân Mustafâ
Bu Nisâyî derdmend feryâd idüp kan ağladı
Derd-i hasretden anun cismindeki cân ağladı
Yidi kat gökde melekler yirde insân ağladı
İy şeh-i bî-şefka n’itdi sana Sultân Mustafâ

In English

1. Though that khan was the fruit of your life, you dealt him cruelty; he came hoping for joy, saying "my father the khan has summoned me". You did such a thing to him that it was talked of from Qaf to Qaf, from one end of the world to the other. O pitiless shah, what did Sultan Mustafa do to you?

2. The people of this world loved him with heart and soul; he had made everyone his servant through kindness and bounty. In beauty he was the equal of Joseph of Canaan. O pitiless shah, what did Sultan Mustafa do to you?

3. While the whole world envied that free and noble man of yours, that you should pour deadly poison into his cup with your own hand. O king of the world, how could you kill that fair prince of yours. O pitiless shah, what did Sultan Mustafa do to you?

4. Did God Most High not make your blood boil (did no father's feeling stir in you), that you should take his life from his body with your own hand, that you should bind and chain and strangle that fair guest of yours. O pitiless shah, what did Sultan Mustafa do to you?

5. Separation from him burned the breast of the world; people burned, caught fire and kept a heavy mourning. O king of the world, had you no father's compassion. O pitiless shah, what did Sultan Mustafa do to you?

6. You brought him by a ruse and made him a martyr in your wrath; my Lord has granted him the station of a mujtahid. His night became the Night of Power, his day a happy feast. O pitiless shah, what did Sultan Mustafa do to you?

7. O shah, if you kill me like Mansur, it will be an ascension for me like that of Moses son of Imran on Mount Sinai. My flowing blood will write "Hû" on the ground like Mansur's "Ene'l-Hak" (I am the Truth) (in these lines it is the prince himself who speaks). O pitiless shah, what did Sultan Mustafa do to you?

8. If you see Mustafa (the prince) together with Mustafa (the Prophet Muhammad), what will you do; if he does not look you in the face, to whom will you cry out. A day will come when you too will leave this world in longing. O pitiless shah, what did Sultan Mustafa do to you?

9. This grieving Nisâyî cried out and wept blood; the soul in her body wept from the pain of longing. The angels in the seven heavens and the people on earth wept. O pitiless shah, what did Sultan Mustafa do to you?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a murabba of nine stanzas. Each stanza has four lines; the first three rhyme with one another, and the fourth is repeated as the refrain "İy şeh-i bî-şefka n’itdi sana Sultân Mustafâ" (O pitiless shah, what did Sultan Mustafa do to you). The metre is the "fâ’ilâtün fâ’ilâtün fâ’ilâtün fâ’ilün" pattern. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last stanza in the phrase "Bu Nisâyî derdmend"; the same stanza is also the last stanza of the poet's second elegy. The text is the reading given in Mehmed Çavuşoğlu's article "Şehzade Mustafa Mersiyeleri", published in 1981-1982, and is reproduced here as quoted in Hasar's thesis. We were not able to consult Çavuşoğlu's article directly.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

From beginning to end the elegy is a reproach addressed to the sultan; the question in the refrain is asked anew in every stanza, and the poem becomes an interrogation. The poet says that the prince came joyfully to the imperial tent, saying "my father has summoned me", and that his father had him killed by his own hand. In the third and fourth stanzas the words "kendi elünle" (with your own hand) occur twice; the images of the poisoned cup and the guest who is bound and strangled bring fatherhood and murder together in a single sentence. The question in the fifth stanza, "had you no father's compassion", is the barest sentence in the poem. Recep Hasar counts Nisâyî's reproach of the sultan among the harshest examples in the elegies for Prince Mustafa, and Mehmed Çavuşoğlu notes that Sâmî and Nisâyî openly condemn the sultan.

In the sixth and seventh stanzas death is interpreted as martyrdom. The prince's night becomes the Night of Power, his day a feast. In the seventh stanza the speaker suddenly becomes the prince himself: "Kaddümi katl eylesen şâhâ eger Mansûr gibi". Mansur is Hallâc-ı Mansûr, who in the Sufi tradition was executed for saying "Ene'l-Hak" (I am the Truth); according to legend his flowing blood wrote the name of God on the ground. Through this allusion the poet turns an unjust execution into a divine ascent, and in the same couplet mentions Moses, who spoke with God on Mount Sinai. In the eighth stanza the phrase "Mustafâyı Mustafâ ile görürsen" rests on double meaning (tevriye): the prince and the Prophet bear the same name, and the sultan is threatened with the Prophet turning his face away in the hereafter. The phrase that appears in the source as "Mûsî-i ‘İmr-i tûr" combines the names "Mûsâ-yı ‘İmrân" (Moses son of Imran) and "Tûr" (Sinai); this reading is our own.

Historical Context

There is no information about Nisâyî's life in the biographical anthologies. From the pen name and the feeling of the elegies, Çavuşoğlu proposes that she was a woman poet; the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü adopts this view. The same scholar, noting that the second elegy dwells on the grief of the prince's mother Mahidevran Sultan and recalls the sultan's younger days, thinks that the poet may have been an elderly person from the circle of the prince or of his mother. The images of "your own hand" and of poison in the poem reflect the anger of a mother or a close relative rather than the historical detail of the event; the prince was strangled, not poisoned. What is known of the poet's life is described in the biographical article in this category, and the other elegies in our article Elegies for Prince Mustafa.

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