Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün

Ḥabbeẕā Ḫaṭṭī Muṣṭafa Çelebi
Ya‘ni ol ḫoş-maḳāl (u) nādire-gū
Ḫaṭṭ-ı ruḫsārına virüp ruḫṣat
Çekdi şehr-i melāḥate bārū
Nice ḫaṭṭ bāl-i şāh-bāz-ı cemāl
Mevce-i āb-rū-yı vech-i nigū
Cevher-i cān-ı sinān tīġ-i ecel
Leşker-i bī-amān ġāret-cū
Çehre-i āfitābı dutdı ġubār
İdicek raḫş-ı ġamzesi tekpū
Açdı mülk-i Rumı kişver-i Çin
Müşg-rīz oldı nāfe-i āhū
Ġazel-i ḫaṭṭ-ı maṭla‘ın oldı
Mıṣra‘-ı çār ile o çār-ebrū
Fikr-i tārihine düşüp yārān
Kimi sünbül didi kimi şeb-bū
Cem‘ idüp ḫāṭır-ı perīşānın
Ṣāḥib-i ḫastada çü ḫāme-i mū
Didi tebrīk birle tārīḫin
Perdedār oldı Ka‘beveş gül-rū

In English

1. How fine is Hattî Mustafa Çelebi; that is, that man of pleasing speech who tells rare witticisms.

2. Giving leave to the down on his cheek, he has drawn a rampart around the city of beauty.

3. (That) down is like the wing of the royal falcon of beauty; it is the wave of the lustre of a fair face.

4. (Those hairs are) the steel of the spear that pierces the soul, of the sword of death; a merciless army seeking plunder. (The connection of the couplet is unclear; the rendering is an attempt.)

5. When the horse of his glance galloped, dust covered the face of the sun.

6. The land of China (the dark hairs) has conquered the realm of Rum (the fair face); the musk pod of the gazelle has begun to scatter musk.

7. The opening couplet of the ghazal of his down has become, with its four lines, that "four-browed" (youth).

8. Friends set about thinking of its date; some said "hyacinth", some "night-scented stock".

9. Ailing Sâhib, gathering his scattered thoughts like a hair brush,

10. Spoke its date with congratulations: "The rose-faced one has taken a veil like the Kaaba."

Literary and Historical Commentary

This chronogram (tarih) celebrates neither a building nor an appointment but the first appearance of beard and moustache on the face of a young friend. In divan poetry this down, called "ḫaṭṭ", also marks the beginning of the end of youthful beauty; Sâhib describes it as the siege of a city. The hairs draw a rampart around the city of beauty, go out to plunder like a merciless army, and cover the sun-like face in dust. In the sixth couplet the dark hairs are the land of China and the fair face is the realm of Rum, and China conquers Rum. Topal cites this couplet as an example of Sâhib's use of country names and reads it as saying that Hattî Efendi passed through the lands of Rum and China; taken as a whole, the couplet uses the country names as figures for the hairs covering the face.

The heading is printed in the edition as "Tārīḫü'l-Ḫayye Ḫaṭṭī Efendi". The subject of the poem suggests that the word in the heading should be read "liḥye" (beard); in Arabic script the two words are easily confused. This is our suggestion and cannot be confirmed without seeing the manuscript. The sound shared by "Hattî", the pen name of the man being praised, and "ḫaṭṭ", meaning down, also carries the whole play of the poem. In a ghazal couplet quoted by Topal, Sâhib says "Pey-rev oldum Hattî'ye" (I became a follower of Hattî), naming him as a poet he regarded as a guide in poetry.

The seventh couplet plays with a poetic term: the first appearance of the hairs is the matla, the opening couplet, of a ghazal; this four-line opening becomes the "çâr-ebrû" youth who, counting his new moustache, has four eyebrows on his face. In the eighth couplet the friends, looking for a chronogram, liken the hairs to hyacinth and to the night-scented stock. The last line gives the date: "Perdedār oldı Ka‘beveş gül-rū" (the rose-faced one has taken a veil like the Kaaba). This comparison between the covering of the Kaaba and the hairs that enclose the face, when reckoned by abjad (ebced) with the usual spelling, gives the value 1126 (1714); Topal's edition leaves the sum unstated. The short hafif metre carries the poem, which stands on folio 11a of the Ali Emîrî manuscript.

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. 81-82, tarih 9 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 11a); also p. 3 (ghazal 114, couplet 8) and p. 20 (couplet 6). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources