Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

İy felek feryâd elünden pür cefâsın pür cefâ
Kimse mesrûr olmadı senden sürüp zevk u sefâ
Ne musibetdür yine bu itdügün iy bî-vefâ
Kanı ol şehzâdeler şehbâzı Sultân Mustafâ
Neyledün iy çarh-ı zâlim ne’yledün kan eyledün
Yıkdun ol genc-i cihân mülkini virân eyledün
Cümle âlem halkınun işini efgân eyledün
Kanı ol şehzâdeler şehbâzı Sultân Mustafâ
Ol müşerref eyleyen hüsniyle Osmân illerin
Seyr ider tâbût ile şimdi Karaman illerin
Firkat ile yıkdı hep Rumla Horasan illerin
Kanı ol şehzâdeler şehbâzı Sultân Mustafâ
Acısın ol nev-civâna cümle insan ağlasun
Şâh-ı İslâm oğlına kâfir müselman ağlasun
Andugınca âh idüp Sultân Süleyman aglasun
Kanı ol şehzadeler şehbâzı Sultân Mustafâ
Çünki pervâz itdi bu cân kafesinden ol hümâ
Cennet-i Firdevse buldı ol makâm-ı müntehâ
Oldı hem-dem sâye-i şehîd-i Kerbelâ
Kanı ol şehzâdeler şehbâzı Sultân Mustafâ
İtmek içün anda bâg-ı cennetün seyrânını
Bile aldı kullarından şâhını keyvânını
Kodı gitdi fâni mülkin tahtını eyvânını
Kanı ol şehzâdeler şehbâzı Sultân Mustafâ
İy Selîm ol gerçi teslîm-i fermân eyledi
Pâdişâhun yolına cânını kurbân eyledi
Derdi ile halk-ı âlem âh u efgân eyledi
Kanı ol şehzâdeler şehbâzı Sultân Mustafâ

In English

1. O heavens, a cry against your hand; you are cruelty through and through, full of cruelty. No one has ever rejoiced through you or known pleasure and delight. O faithless one, what calamity is this that you have wrought again? Where is he, the falcon among princes, Sultan Mustafa?

2. O tyrant sky, what have you done, what have you done, you have shed blood. You have ruined and laid waste the realm of that treasure of the world (genc: treasure; also "young man"). You have turned the business of all the world's people into sighs and lament. Where is he, the falcon among princes, Sultan Mustafa?

3. He who honoured the lands of the Ottomans with his beauty now travels the lands of Karaman in a coffin. His loss has laid waste the lands of Rum and Khorasan alike. Where is he, the falcon among princes, Sultan Mustafa?

4. Let all mankind grieve and weep for that young man; let unbeliever and Muslim alike weep for the son of the sultan of Islam. Let Sultan Süleyman sigh and weep whenever he remembers him. Where is he, the falcon among princes, Sultan Mustafa?

5. When that huma bird flew from this cage of the body, it found the last and highest station in the paradise of Firdevs. It became a companion in the shade of the martyr of Karbala. Where is he, the falcon among princes, Sultan Mustafa?

6. To go walking in the garden of paradise there, he took with him from among his servants his falcon and his Keyvan (Saturn; that is, the highest of them). He left behind his transient realm, his throne and his palace. Where is he, the falcon among princes, Sultan Mustafa?

7. O Selîmî, he did indeed submit to the decree; he sacrificed his life on the sultan's path. Through grief for him all the people of the world sighed and lamented. Where is he, the falcon among princes, Sultan Mustafa?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a murabba of seven stanzas; each stanza has four lines, and the fourth line, "Kanı ol şehzâdeler şehbâzı Sultân Mustafâ", is repeated in every stanza as a refrain. The lines are written in the "fâ’ilâtün fâ’ilâtün fâ’ilâtün fâ’ilün" pattern of aruz (quantitative metre). In a murabba the first three lines of each stanza rhyme among themselves, while the refrain ties the whole poem together: "cefâ, sefâ, bî-vefâ" in the first stanza, "kan eyledün, virân eyledün, efgân eyledün" in the second and the redif (refrain word) "illerin" in the third are examples of this scheme. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last stanza in the address "İy Selîm". Recep Hasar notes that among the elegies for sultans and princes, all those in murabba form were written for Prince Mustafa; Selîmî's poem is one of this small group. The third line of the fifth stanza ("Oldı hem-dem sâye-i şehîd-i Kerbelâ") appears to be one syllable short for the metre; the text is given as published, and this observation is our own.

Mustafa İsen published the text in 1984 from a poetry anthology among the Ali Emîrî manuscripts in the Millet Library. The transcription given here is the text Hasar quotes from İsen in his thesis; we were not able to consult İsen's article directly.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem opens with a reproach addressed to the heavens, and the heavens remain the target of reproach throughout; neither the sultan nor any vizier is blamed. The image of the "şehbâz" (falcon) in the refrain likens the prince to the noblest of hunting birds and joins the image of the huma bird in the fifth stanza: the soul is a cage, and death is that bird flying out of the cage to alight in paradise. The phrase "genc-i cihân" in the second stanza can be read in two ways; "genc" means treasure, but it also evokes the word "genç" (young). The ruined realm of a treasure and the realm of a young prince merge in a single phrase. In the third stanza the prince travelling the lands of Karaman in a coffin is a clear reference to his death in the army camp near Konya Ereğlisi; Hasar also quotes this couplet as an example of a poem that records the prince's killing in Karaman. In the same stanza, naming Rum and Khorasan together is a hyperbole that spreads the mourning from Anatolia to Iran.

The weeping of unbeliever and Muslim together in the fourth stanza is one of the shared expressions of the elegies for Prince Mustafa; the same phrase occurs in the elegies of Hasbî, Müdâmî and Sirâcî. The wish that Sultan Süleyman should weep whenever he remembers him is a measured sentence that lays a regret upon the sultan without accusing him. In the fifth stanza the prince is placed in the shade of Hüseyin, the martyr of Karbala; Hasar records the likening of the prince to the martyrs of Karbala as an image shared by the elegies of Selîmî, Kâdirî and Rahmî. In the last stanza the pen name and the word "teslîm" (submission) echo each other in sound: addressing Selîm, the poet says that the prince submitted to the sultan's decree. The phrasing carries the idea found in most of the elegies, that the prince did not rebel against his father but gave his life on his father's path.

Historical Context

On the basis of its style, Mustafa İsen considers Selîmî one of the soldier poets who, like Taşlıcalı Yahya, were with the army at the time of the event and put what they had witnessed into verse while it was still fresh. The language of the poem supports this view: the diction is plain, the images are few and familiar, and the reproach is directed at the heavens. In the sixth stanza the prince takes some of his servants with him as he goes to paradise, which recalls the information quoted by Semra Güler that the prince's master of the horse and his standard-bearer were also killed after him; the poem does not say this openly, and the connection is our own reading. What is known of the poet's life and identity is discussed in the biographical article in this category, and the other elegies in our article Elegies for Prince Mustafa.

Bibliography

Academic studies

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