Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün
Binā-yı dehr olaldan naḳş-yāb-ı ṣūret-i inşā
Daḫı ṭarḥ olmamışdur böyle bir ḳaṣr-ı feraḥ-efzā
Nice cāy-ı feraḥ-efzā ki bu ḥüsn(ü) bu revnaḳla
Olur ḥasret-keşi saṭḥ-ı zemīnüñ ṭārem-i mīnā
Nice ṭarḥ-ı dil-āşūb-ı ṣafā-baḫşā-yı ḫāṭır kim
Naẓīrin düşde daḫı görmemişdür dīde-i dünyā
Te‘ala’llāh feraḥ-ābāda bu aḥsen binā ile
Olur bāġ-ı irem teşbīhi bir ta‘bīr-i kec-ma‘nā
Ṣafā-yı ṣūreti hem-reng-i ḫūbān-ı perī-çehre
Hevā-yı dil-keşi hem-neş’e-i keyfiyyet-i ṣahbā
Ġubārın sürmeāsā ger götürseydi ṣabā ḫūra
Yaḳup bād-ı ṣabāya virdi rıḍvān āferīn-bādā
Güşāde çeşm-i ehl-i dil gibi nūrānī revzenler
İderler her ṭaraf baḥr ile berk-i revnaḳın icrā
Bu ḥüsn-i dil-pesend ile firāz-ı ḥavż-ı ṣāf üzre
Kenār-ı baḥrde bir ḫūb sāḥil-ḫānedür gūyā
Sezādur dinse bu deryāçeveş ḥavża nezāretle
Leb-i deryāda durmış seyri der bir dil-ber-i ra‘nā
Te‘āla’llāh bu pākīze-binā kim oldı bünyādı
Ḳarīn-i iḫtirā‘-ı Ḫazret-i destūr-ı bī-hem-tā
O destūr-ı hümāyūn-baḫt-ı devlet kim bi-ḥamdi’llāh
Vücūdı oldı bu ıḳlīme rāḥat māye-i ‘uẓmā
Vezīr-i mekremet-perver ‘Ali Paşa-yı nīk-aḫter
Ferīdūn-şān u Dārā-fer-i felek-ḳadr melek-sīmā
Sa‘ādetle mekīn idüp Ḫudā bu cāy-ı vālāda
Binā-yı devlet ü iḳbālin ide ḥaşre dek ber-cā
Görüp ṭarḥuñ didi taḥsīn ile tārīḫini Ṣāḥib
Zihī pākīze-kāşāne sezāvār-ı ‘Ali Paşa
In English
1. Since the building of the world was raised and its form of creation was adorned, no such joy-giving pavilion has been designed.
2. There are many joy-giving places, but with this beauty and this splendour the azure dome of the sky comes to long for the face of the earth.
3. There are many designs that stir the heart and delight the mind, but the eye of the world has not seen its like even in a dream.
4. How exalted is God; with this most beautiful building, to liken Ferahâbâd to the garden of Iram would be a crooked expression.
5. The delight of its appearance has the colour of fairy-faced beauties; its heart-winning air has the elation that wine brings.
6. Had the morning breeze carried its dust to the houris as kohl, Ridvan (the keeper of paradise) would have caught the breeze and said "bravo". (The meaning of this couplet is not fully clear.)
7. Its luminous windows, like the open eyes of the people of the heart, make the lightning of splendour flash everywhere together with the sea.
8. With this heart-pleasing beauty, above the clear pool, it is as if it were a fine waterside mansion on the seashore.
9. It would be fitting to call it a graceful beloved who stands on the seashore gazing at this sea-like pool.
10. How exalted is God; this pure building, whose founding came about through the invention of His Excellency the peerless vizier.
11. That vizier of the state with an auspicious fortune, whose being, praise be to God, has become the greatest leaven of ease for this land.
12. The generosity-fostering vizier Ali Pasha of the good star, with the glory of Fereydun and the splendour of Darius, of heavenly worth and angelic face.
13. May God settle him in felicity in this lofty place and keep the building of his fortune and prosperity standing until the Day of Gathering.
14. On seeing its design, Sâhib spoke its date with admiration: "How fine a pure mansion, worthy of Ali Pasha."
Literary and Historical Commentary
In the fourth couplet Sâhib rejects the most ready-made comparison of divan poetry: to liken Ferahâbâd to the garden of Iram would be "kec-ma‘nā", a crooked expression. The praise is thus built on the inadequacy of comparison. Ferahâbâd, named in the previous chronogram, is mentioned again here, and the vizier again comes forward as the designer of the building: in the tenth couplet the building is said to have been founded through the "invention" (iḫtirā‘) of the peerless vizier. The heading says only "the aforementioned vizier"; the twelfth couplet gives the name plainly: Ali Pasha.
Water is at the centre of the poem. The pavilion rises above a clear pool and in the eighth couplet is likened to a waterside mansion (yalı) on the seashore; in the ninth couplet the pavilion gazing at the pool is a graceful beloved standing on the shore and looking at the water. In the seventh couplet the open windows are likened to the wakeful eyes of the people of the heart and flash like lightning with the reflection of the water. That a poet who spent most of his life in Istanbul likens a pool pavilion in Urfa to a yalı gives the poem a colour from his own world.
The last line is the chronogram (tarih): "Zihī pākīze-kāşāne sezāvār-ı ‘Ali Paşa." When we reckon it by abjad (ebced) with the usual spelling, the line gives the value 1133 (1720-1721); the same number comes from the second line of the chronogram for the Ferahâbâd Palace. Topal does not give the calculation and the result depends on the manuscript's spelling, but the fact that the two chronograms point to the same year suggests that the pavilion was part of the Ferahâbâd buildings. The metre is the hezec pattern with four "mefā‘īlün" feet; the text is on folio 9a of the Ali Emîrî manuscript and does not appear in the other two copies.
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. 72-73, tarih 5 "Tārīḫ-i Vezīr-i Müşārün-ileyh" (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 9a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014
Online sources
