Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Bizüm nekbetlerin çekdügümüz bu deñlü âfâḳuñ
Ṣorarsan aṣlını hep sû'-i aḫlâḳıdur İsḥâḳuñ

In English

1. If you ask the root of our suffering so many misfortunes of the world, it is all İshak's bad character.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Laying the Blame on İshak

The couplet closes a road story told by Âşık Çelebi. During his Arab campaign Selim I wanted companions to entertain him; the three men chosen, Nihâlî Ca'fer Çelebi of Bursa, judge of Galata, İshak Çelebi, professor at Üsküp, and "Kâdî Bozan, judge of Mihalıç", angered him by appearing before him and kissing his hand with their swords at their belts. According to the İshak Çelebi entry of the tezkire, İshak, resenting that Ca'fer had gone before him in kissing the sultan's hand, teased him with an obscene couplet, and Ca'fer answered in the same vein. When they then addressed one another with ribaldry and abuse in the conversation to which they were summoned, the sultan sent them back to their towns with small gifts. The Nihâlî entry relates that on the way back Kâdî Bozan, "ṣuçı İsḥâḳ'a yıḳup", laying the blame on İshak, recited this couplet and so relieved his feelings.

The couplet is therefore less an outburst of anger than a reproach that turns what happened into a joke. All the misfortunes coming from the "âfâḳ", the four corners of the world, are traced to the character of a single man; the exaggeration takes the seriousness out of the words. According to Âşık Çelebi the three friends had already set out teasing one another on the road; the couplet stands like the last link of this banter.

Rhyme and Wordplay

Both lines end with the same rhyme: "âfâḳuñ" and "İsḥâḳuñ". Since the word "aḫlâḳ" carries the same sound, the "-âḳ" sound is heard three times at the end of the second line. The whole wit of the couplet rests on this likeness of sound: when "âfâḳ", the horizons of the world, and "İsḥâḳ", a man's name, are fitted into the same mould, the troubles of the whole world are loaded onto one man's shoulders. The source does not say whether the couplet was taken from a ghazal or composed on the spot; the course of the narrative suggests the latter. On the metre the edition is silent; the lines recall the hezec pattern of four "mefâîlün", but several syllables would have to be forced, so nothing firm can be said.

Attribution

In Âşık Çelebi the couplet is recorded under the name of "Kâdî Bozan". Hüsameddin, reporting the same incident from Âşık Çelebi, calls the judge of Mihaliç "Molla Şemseddîn Bezen" and identifies him with Şemseddîn Ahmed Efendi of Amasya, companion of Şehzade Ahmed; he does not quote the couplet. Giving the couplet to Şemseddîn Ahmed on this page rests on the assumption that the two names refer to the same person. The relation between the two names, and Hüsameddin's giving the nickname elsewhere to the father, Bedreddîn Mahmûd Çelebi, are discussed on the Şemseddîn Ahmed Efendi (Molla Bezen) page.

Bibliography

Online sources