Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün
Āṣaf-ı Cem-ḥaşem Ḥasan Paşa
Kim odur Ḳahramān-ı vaḳt ü zemen
Bermekī-ḫaṣlet ü Nerīmān-zūr
Cāmi‘ her ḫaṣā’il-i aḥsen
Eyledi fetḥ-i kūh-ı Sencārı
Kim odur ḳavm-i Sācile mesken
Ḳırdı ol ḳavm-i mel‘anet-es̱eri
Eyledi serlerin nice ḫırmen
İtdigi ḍarb-ı tīġi ol ḳavme
Ḫasma ne Ṭūs itdi ne Bījen
Ol Tehemten-şükūh kim duramaz
Ḥamlesine Ferāsiyāb şen
Beñzemez rezm-i Rüstemānesine
Ceng-i Gūdarz-Gīv-i ḫasm-efgen
Bīm-i şemşīri ḫaṣmı zāl eyler
Olsa İsfendiyār Rūyın-ten
Ḳorḳusundan dönerdi pīrāne
Olsa Sührāb-ı nev-civān düşmen
Görse dirdi el arḳası yerde
Zūr-ı bāzū-yı nicesin Behmen
Sāḳınurdı sümūm-ı ḫaşmetden
Görse Sām urmasun deyū Ḳārun
Tīġ-i ḫun-rīz yine işāretdür
Vaṣf-ı ye’s-i şedīd ile āhın
Kām-baḫşā zihī keremkārā
Emīn-sāz-ı dehr-i nā-me’men
Nice yıldur ki eyledi maḥrūm
Keremüñden beni bu çarḫ-ı fiten
Dergehüñden egerçi kim dūrum
Līk kesmem ümmīdümi senden
Destüm irmezse daḫı dāmenüñe
Benden al senden āṣafā dāmen
Beni itme ḫacīl ümmīdümden
Ḳuluñı itme mübtelā-yı miḥen
Mā-ı mevṣūl çeşm-i giryāna
Ṣıla ister bu ḫāṭır-ı aḥzen
Saña şāyān velī-ni‘metlik
Bendelikdür ẓuhūr iden benden
Yeter ey Ṣāḥib eyledüñ taṣdī‘
İt du‘āsıyla böyle ḫatm-i süḫan
İde bu fetḥ gibi ‘ālemde
Her işin Ḥazret-i kerīm āhūsen (?)
Fikr-i tārīḫ idince bu fetḥe
Bī-riyā bu kemīne ‘abd-ı kühen
Luṭf-ı Rabb-ı Aḥad idüp imdād
Didi tārīḫini ġazā-i Ḥasan
In English
1. Hasan Pasha, an Âsaf (a vizier) with the retinue of Jam, who is the Kahraman (hero) of his time and age.
2. Generous in nature like the Barmakids, strong as Nariman, he gathers in himself all the finest qualities.
3. He conquered the mountain of Sinjar, which is the dwelling of the Sâcile people.
4. He crushed that host marked by damnation; he heaped up their heads in many a harvest pile.
5. Neither Tus nor Bizhan struck the enemy the sword blow he struck that host.
6. He has the majesty of Tahamtan (Rustam), whose charge not even Afrasiyab can withstand with good cheer.
7. The battle of Gudarz and Giv, overthrowers of enemies, does not resemble his Rustam-like warfare.
8. Were his enemy the bronze-bodied Esfandiyar, the fear of his sword would turn him into (white-haired) Zal.
9. Were his enemy the young hero Sohrab, he would turn into an old man from fear of him.
10. Were Bahman to see the strength of his arm, he would say, "How many has he brought down on their backs!"
11. Qaran would beware the poisonous wind of his wrath; were Sam to see him, he would say, "Let him not strike (me)".
12. His bloodshedding sword is again a sign of iron being called "great might". (For the edition's reading "ye’s" see the commentary.)
13. How fine a granter of wishes, how fine a doer of kindness, who makes the unsafe world safe!
14. For many years this wheel of strife (the sky) has deprived me of your kindness.
15. Though I am far from your court, I do not cut off my hope in you.
16. Even if my hand does not reach your skirt, O Âsaf, (I) will not let go of the skirt. (The couplet is obscure; the meaning is conjectural.)
17. Do not shame me in my hope; do not let your servant fall into troubles.
18. Like the "mâ-yı mevsûl" (the water) of the weeping eye, this most sorrowful heart too wants a "sıla" (reunion).
19. What befits you is to be a benefactor; what appears from me is servitude.
20. Enough, O Sâhib, you have wearied (the pasha); end your words thus with a prayer for him:
21. May His Majesty the Generous (God) make all his affairs in the world excellent like this conquest. (The edition reads the last word of the line with a question mark.)
22. As this most humble old servant, without pretence, was thinking of a chronogram for this conquest,
23. The grace of the One Lord came to help and spoke its date: "Gazâ-i Hasan" (Hasan's holy war).
Literary and Historical Commentary
The chronogram (tarih) section of the divan opens with the Sinjar campaign that closes the kaside section; the same victory of Hasan Pasha is celebrated this time in a shorter metre and as a chronogram poem. The words "ġazā-i Ḥasan" in the last line, when read by the abjad (ebced) reckoning without writing out the izafet "i", give the year 1126 (1714); this is the same number obtained from the last line of the Sinjar kaside. Topal does not calculate the value of either chronogram; that the numbers agree strengthens the impression that the two poems were written for the same conquest, but the calculation cannot be confirmed without seeing the manuscript's spelling.
The body of the poem is a portrait gallery of the heroes of the Shahnameh. Rustam (Tahamtan), Afrasiyab, Gudarz, Giv, Tus, Bizhan, Esfandiyar, Sohrab, Bahman, Sam and Qaran follow one another, and each is diminished beside Hasan Pasha. The diminishing is often done through wordplay: in the eighth couplet the bronze-bodied Esfandiyar, in fear of the sword, turns into Zal, who in the Shahnameh was born white-haired, that is, into an old man; in the ninth couplet the young Sohrab ages from fear. Topal cites the third couplet of this chronogram as an example of how Sâhib scatters the names of peoples and mountains through his chronograms, and mentions the Sâcile people who made Sinjar their dwelling.
In the twelfth couplet the edition reads "ye’s-i şedīd" (severe despair). Since the couplet speaks of a bloodshedding sword and of "āhın", that is, iron, it is quite possible that the phrase "be’sün şedîd" (great might), said of iron in the sura al-Hadid, is meant; in Arabic script the difference between the two words is a single dot. This is our suggestion; the edition makes no note on the matter.
After the praise the poet turns to his own state and says that for years the sky has kept him from the pasha's generosity. The eighteenth couplet turns a term of grammar into feeling: in Arabic grammar the "mâ-yı mevsûl" (the relative pronoun "mâ") needs a "sıla", a relative clause that completes its meaning. Since "mâ" means water in Persian, the water of the weeping eye and the sorrowful heart want the same thing, "sıla", that is, reunion. In the twentieth couplet the poet tells himself "enough" and ties his words to a prayer. Binding every couplet with the sound "-en" in the short "fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün" pattern of the hafif metre, this chronogram is recorded in only one of the divan's three manuscripts, the Ali Emîrî copy in the Millet Library.
Bibliography
- Meral Topal, Pîrî-zâde Mehmed Sâhib Hayatı, Edebî Kişiliği, Eserleri ve Divanı'nın Tenkitli Metni, MA thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2004, pp. 60-62, tarih 1 "Tārīḫ-i fetḥ-i Sencār u medḥ-i Ḥasan Paşa" (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 5b); also p. 21 (couplet 3). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014
Online sources
