Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefʿûlü fâʿilâtü mefâʿîlü fâʿilün (metre identified by us)

Çün tâcir-i ḫazân irişüp çözdi bârını
Dökdi zerini aldı o bâġuñ bahârını
Sûsen çün irdi ḥâlet-i nezʿe ʿAlî-ṣıfat
Baḥr-i fenâya ṣaldı revân Ẕü’l-feḳârını
Cünd-i şitâ hirâsi ile cûy-ı seng-dil
Yapmaġa başlamışdı demürden ḥiṣârını
Gördüm ki yirde berg-i ḫazândan biri yatur
Rıfʿatde ol geçürmiş iken rûzgârını
Düşmiş türâba rûyını zehr eylemişdi zerd
ʿIşḳ eylemişdi niteki ʿâşıḳ ʿiẕârını
Ol bergi dil bugün ele aldı hediyyevâr
Kim ber-güẕâr ide göricek rûy-ı yârini
Yaʿnî yüzin eline alup dil irişdi kim
Ol kân-ı luṭfa ʿarż ide ol ber-güẕârını
Gitdi irince varlıcaġum ḫâk-i pâyuña
Döndüm şu ṭâlibe vire iksîre varını
Maḥbûs ḳalmasun ḳafes-i faḳr u fâḳada
Ḳurtar bu bâġ-ı midḥatüñüñ gel hezârını
Bir çeşmi beste şâhîne döndi ḳapuñda dil
Ṣal dest-i luṭf ile kim ala ol şikârını
Sürme ḳapuñda kuḥl-ı Ṣıfâhâna virmeyen
Ehl-i naẓarları ol ayaġuñ ġubârını

In English

1. When the merchant of autumn arrived and unloaded his pack, he poured out his gold and bought the spring of that garden (the yellow leaves fell like gold coins).

2. When the iris came to its death throes, like Ali it cast its Zülfikâr (its sword-like leaf) into the sea of oblivion.

3. For fear of the army of winter the stone-hearted stream had begun to build its fortress of iron (its wall of ice).

4. I saw one of the autumn leaves lying on the ground, though it had passed its days on high (at the tip of the bough).

5. It had fallen face down on the earth, and poison had turned it yellow, just as love yellows the lover's cheek.

6. Today the heart took that leaf in its hand like a gift, to make it a keepsake (bergüzar) when it sees the beloved's face.

7. That is, the heart, taking its own (leaf-yellow) face in its hand, came to present that keepsake to the mine of grace.

8. My substance was spent before I reached the dust of your feet; I have become like the seeker who gives all he has for the elixir.

9. Let him not stay imprisoned in this cage of poverty and want; come, free this nightingale of the garden of your praise.

10. At your door the heart has become a hooded falcon; stretch out the hand of grace so that it too may take its prey.

11. Do not drive (sürme) from your door the men of discernment who would not trade the dust of your feet for the kohl of Isfahan.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Petition out of Autumn

Âşık Çelebi records this kaside as the "ḫazâniyye", the autumn kaside, that Sülûkî composed when he came to him in Rumelia. The eleven surviving couplets show two parts of the poem: first autumn is described, then the poet turns to a man of grace, a patron, and speaks of his poverty. To whom the kaside was presented is not stated outright; Âşık Çelebi's words "geldükde didügi", which he recited on coming, suggest that the poem may have been offered to the anthologist himself. No record settles the point.

Golden Leaves and a Keepsake

The descriptive part opens with a scene of trade. Autumn is a merchant; he unloads his pack, pours out his gold and buys the garden's spring. The likening of the yellowing, falling leaves to gold coins sets the colour of the whole kaside. The iris's sword-shaped leaves become Ali's sword Zülfikâr, and the stream beginning to freeze becomes a castle building a fortress of iron against the army of winter. Then the poet comes close to a single leaf lying on the ground: it once lived on high, now it has fallen face down on the earth, yellowed like a lover's cheek yellowed by love. From here comes the turn of the poem. "Berg" is Persian for leaf, and it chimes with "ber-güẕâr", a keepsake. The heart presents the yellow leaf, that is, its own yellowed face, to the patron as a keepsake.

In the last couplets the request is put plainly. The poet has become like the seeker of alchemy who spends all he has on the elixir; the dust of the patron's feet is that elixir. He asks that the nightingale in the cage of poverty be freed, and that the hooded falcon at the door be allowed to take its prey. In the closing couplet the word "sürme" means both "do not drive away" and kohl, the powder drawn on the eyes; the kohl of Isfahan was the most prized. Âşık Çelebi's picture of Sülûkî as a poet who barely made a living as a scribe agrees with the complaint of poverty in the kaside. The poet's years of poverty in Rumelia are touched on in his biography as well, Sülûkî Mehmed Çelebi (Memî Çelebizâde).

Bibliography

Online sources