Original Text

Metre: Mefâ’ilün Fe’ilâtün Mefâ’ilün Fe’ilün

Stanza I

Meded meded bu cihânun yıkıldı bir yanı
Ecel celâlîleri aldı Mustafâ Hânı
Tolındı mihr-i cemâli bozıldı dîvânı
Vebâle koydılar âl ile Âl-i ‘Osmânı
Geçerler idi geçende o merd-i meydânı
Felek o cânibe döndürdi şâh-ı devrânı
Yalancınun kurı bühtânı bugz-ı pinhânı
Akıtdı yaşumuzı yakdı nâr-ı hicrânı
Cinâyet itmedi cânî gibi anun cânı
Boğıldı seyl-i belâya tağıldı erkânı
N’olaydı görmeye idi bu mâcerâyı gözüm
Yazuklar ana revâ görmedi bu râyı gözüm

Stanza II

Tonandı ağlar ile nûrdan menâra dönüp
Küşâde-hâtır idi şevk ile nehâra dönüp
Görindi halka dırâht-ı şükûfedâra dönüp
Yüridi kulları yanınca lâlezâra dönüp
Tururdı hiddet ile şâh-ı cihân nâra dönüp
Otağı haymeleri karlu kûhsâra dönüp
Müzeyyen idi bedenlerle ak hisâra dönüp
El öpmege yüridi mihr-i bî-karâra dönüp
Tutıldı gelmedi çünkim o mâh-pâre dönüp
Görenler ağladılar ebr-i nev-bahâra dönüp
Bir ejdehâ-yı dü-serdür bu hayme-i dünyâ
Dehânına düşen olur hemîşe nâ-peydâ

Stanza III

O bedr-i kâmil ü ol âşinâ-yı bahr-ı ‘ulûm
Fenâya vardı telef itdi anı tâli’-i şûm
Dögindi kaldı hemân dag-ı hasret ile nücûm
Köyindi şâm-ı firâkında toldı yaş ile Rûm
Kara geyürdi Karamana gussa itdi hücûm
O mâhı ince hayâl ile kıldılar ma‘dûm
Tolandı gerdenine hâle gibi mâr-ı semûm
Rıza-yı Hak ne ise râzî oldı ol merhûm
Hatâsı gayr-ı mu‘ayyen günâhı nâ-ma‘lûm
Zihî sa‘îd ü şehîd ü zihî şeh-i mazlûm
Yıkıldı yir yüzine aslına rücû‘ itdi
Sa‘âdet ile hemân kurb-ı hazrete gitdi

Stanza IV

Getürdi arkasını yire Zâl-i devr-i zamân
Vücûdına sitem-i Rüstem ile irdi ziyân
Dökildi gözyaşı yılduzları çoğaldı figân
Dem-i memâtı kıyâmet güninden oldı nişân
Girîv ü nâle vü zâr ile toldı kevn ü mekân
Akar su gibi müdâm aglamakda pîr ü cüvân
Vücûd iline akın saldı akdı eşk-i revân
Eyâ serîr-i sa‘âdetde pâdişâh-ı cihân
O cân-ı âdemiyân oldı hâk ile yeksân
Diri kala ne revâdur fesâd iden şeytân
Nesîm-i subh gibi yirde koma âhumuzı
Hakâret eylediler nesl-i pâdişâhumuzı

Stanza V

Bir iki egri fesâd ehli nitekim şemşîr
Bir iki nâme-i tezvîri kıldı katline tîr
Gelür ezelde mukadder olan kalîl ü kesîr
Hezâr kayserün oldı leyâl-i ‘ömri kasîr
Eceldür âdeme derbend-i teng ü târ-ı ‘aşîr
Zarûrîdür bu ki ugrar ana cuvân ile pîr
Yirinî zîr-i zemîn eyledi o mihr-i münîr
Yirini gitdi cihândan niteki merd-i fakîr
Bu vâkı‘a olımaz halka kâbil-i ta‘bîr
Ki Erdişîr-i vilâyetde ola ‘âdet-i şîr
Bunun gibi işi kim gördi kim işitdi ‘aceb
Ki oglına kıya bir server-i Ömer-meşreb

Stanza VI

Ferîd-i ‘âlem idi ‘âlim idi a‘lem idi
Muhammed ümmetine mevti mevt-i ‘âlem idi
Ziyâde mâtem idi hayl-i emr-i mu‘zam idi
Salâh u zühdi kavî i‘tikâdı muhkem idi
Meşâyih ile musâhib ricâle hem-dem idi
Kerâmet ile kerîmü’l-hisâl âdem idi
Nücûm gibi cihân-dîde vü mükerrem idi
Vücûdı muhteşem ü şevketi muazzam idi
Tevâzu‘ ile selâmında hod müsellem idi
Aceb o bedr-i tamâmun ne ‘âdeti kem idi
Hayflar oldı ana iftirâ ile gitdi
Huzûr-ı Hakka du‘â vü senâ ile gitdi

Stanza VII

Sipihrün âyinesinde görindi rûy-ı fenâ
Kodı bu kesret-i dünyâyı kıldı ‘azm-i bekâ
Garîbler gibi gitdi o yollara tenhâ
Çekildi ‘âlem-i bâlâya hemçü murg-ı hümâ
Hakîkaten sebeb-i rif‘at oldı düşman ana
Nasîbi olmasa tan mı bu cîfe-i dünyâ
Hayât-ı bâkîye irişdi rûhı iy Yahyâ
Şefîkı rûh-ı Muhammed refîkı zât-ı Hudâ
Enîsi gâyib erenler celîsi ehl-i safâ
Ziyâde ide yaşum gibi rahmetin Mevla
İlâhî cennet-i Firdevs ana turağ olsun
Nizâm-ı ‘âlem olan pâdişâh sağ olsun

In English

Stanza I

1. Help, help, one side of this world has collapsed; the celâlîs of death (its highway brigands) have seized Mustafa Han and carried him off.

2. The sun of his beauty has set, his court is scattered; they have brought the House of Osman under the burden of sin by trickery.

3. Whenever the name of that hero of the battlefield came up, they spoke against him; and fate turned the sovereign of the age to that side (the side of the slanderers).

4. The liar's empty slander and hidden hatred made our tears flow and lit the fire of separation.

5. His soul committed no crime like a criminal; yet he drowned in the flood of calamity, and his household (the dignitaries around him) was scattered.

6. Would that my eye had never seen what happened; shame upon it, my eye did not find this verdict fitting for him.

Stanza II

7. He dressed in white and became a minaret of light; his heart was at ease, bright as daylight with joy.

8. To the people he appeared like a tree in blossom; his servants walked at his side, turned into a garden of tulips.

9. The sovereign of the world, meanwhile, stood waiting, turned to fire with rage; the tents of his imperial pavilion looked like snowy mountains.

10. The pavilion was like a white fortress adorned with crenellated towers; the prince walked forward to kiss the hand like the never-resting sun.

11. That piece of the moon was eclipsed and did not come back; those who saw it wept like the clouds of early spring.

12. This tent of the world is a two-headed dragon; whoever falls into its mouth vanishes for ever.

Stanza III

13. That prince, mature as the full moon and at home in the sea of learning, passed into non-being; an ill-omened fortune destroyed him.

14. The stars beat their breasts and were left with the wound of longing for him; the land of Rûm (Anatolia) burned in the evening of separation and filled with tears.

15. Grief attacked Karaman and dressed it in black; they did away with that moon by subtle deceit.

16. A venomous snake wound round his neck like the halo round the moon (an image of the bowstring); the late prince accepted whatever was God's will.

17. His fault is undetermined, his sin unknown; what a blessed martyr, what a wronged prince.

18. He fell to the face of the earth and returned to his origin (the earth he was made from); in bliss he went at once into the nearness of God.

Stanza IV

19. The Zâl of time brought his back to the ground; through the cruelty of Rüstem harm came to his body. (Zâl and Rüstem are the father and son heroes of the Shahnameh; in the couplet the names also point to persons involved in the event.)

20. The stars of tears fell, the lament grew; the hour of his death became a sign of the Day of Judgement.

21. All existence and every place filled with weeping, moaning and wailing; young and old weep without end like running water.

22. Flowing tears raided the land of the body; O sovereign of the world, seated on the throne of felicity,

23. he who was the soul of mankind has become one with the dust; is it right that the devil who sowed discord should stay alive?

24. Do not leave our sighs on the ground like the morning breeze; they have held the line of our padishah in contempt.

Stanza V

25. One or two mischief-makers, crooked as swords, made one or two forged letters into arrows for his death.

26. Whatever was ordained in pre-eternity, little or much, comes to pass; the nights of life of many thousands of Caesars were short.

27. Death is a narrow and dark pass for man; it is inevitable that young and old alike should come to it.

28. That shining sun made his place beneath the earth; he left the world regretfully, like a poor man. (The opening of the second line can also be understood as "he left his place and went".)

29. This event (or this dream) cannot be interpreted for the people: that the Erdişîr of the realm should have the habit of the lion. (Read as an allusion to the belief that the lion may kill its own cub.)

30. A wonder: who has ever seen or heard of such a thing, that a ruler of Omar's disposition should take the life of his own son?

Stanza VI

31. He was unique in the world, a scholar, the most learned of the learned; for the community of Muhammad his death was the death of the world.

32. It was a great mourning, an immense calamity; his piety and asceticism were strong, his faith firm.

33. He conversed with sheikhs and kept the company of statesmen; he was a man of noble character through generosity and grace.

34. Like the stars he had seen the world and was held in honour; his person was imposing, his majesty great.

35. His humble manner of greeting was known to all; a wonder, which of that full moon's habits was lacking?

36. Alas for him, he went through slander; he went into God's presence with prayer and praise.

Stanza VII

37. In the mirror of the heavens the face of non-being appeared; he left this crowded world and set out for eternity.

38. Like strangers he went down those roads all alone; like the huma bird he withdrew to the world above.

39. In truth the enemy became the cause of his exaltation; if this carrion world was not his portion, is that any wonder?

40. O Yahya, his soul has reached everlasting life; his compassionate friend is the soul of Muhammad, his companion the very being of God.

41. His intimates are the hidden saints, his companions the people of serenity; may the Lord multiply His mercy upon him like my tears.

42. O God, let the Paradise of Firdevs be his resting place; long live the padishah who is the order of the world.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The elegy is a terkib-i bend (a stanzaic poem whose stanzas are linked by couplets with a separate rhyme) of seven stanzas, written in the aruz (quantitative metre) pattern "mefâ’ilün fe’ilâtün mefâ’ilün fe’ilün". In this form the main body of each stanza is called the "hane" and the linking couplet the "vasıta beyti". In Yahya's poem every hane consists of five couplets (beyit), and with the linking couplet that follows each stanza reaches six couplets. The poem thus has forty-two couplets, or eighty-four lines. A striking feature of the hanes is that all ten lines end in the same rhyme: "-ânı" in the first stanza, "-âra dönüp" in the second, "-ûm" in the third, "-ân" in the fourth, "-îr" in the fifth, "-em idi" in the sixth and "-â" in the seventh run through to the end of the stanza. The linking couplets rhyme within themselves, and each stands like a short verdict closing its stanza: the regret with the refrain word (redif) "gözüm", the two-headed dragon, the prince's return to God, the plea addressed to the padishah, astonishment at the ruler "of Omar's disposition", the departure through slander, and the final prayer. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the fourth couplet of the seventh stanza in the address "iy Yahyâ".

The order of the stanzas follows a narrative line. The first stanza gives the news and the verdict: one side of the world has collapsed, the prince has fallen victim to slander. The second describes the scene of the death, from the prince's walk to the imperial pavilion in white clothes to his failure to return. The third treats the death itself and its echo, the fourth the person responsible and the reproach addressed to the padishah, the fifth the tension between the inevitability of death and the incomprehensibility of the event. The sixth stanza is a portrait of the prince; the seventh brings the exaltation of the soul and the prayer. The customary parts of the elegy genre (the transience of the world, mourning, praise, description of the event, prayer) are present here too, but the description of the event has been moved to the beginning of the poem and spread over two stanzas. This arrangement sets Yahya's elegy apart from the other examples; Hasar too counts him, together with Fünûnî and Mu'înî, among the poets who narrate the event from beginning to end.

On the Text

The text given here is the transcription that Recep Hasar, in his 2018 thesis, took from Mehmed Çavuşoğlu's book Yahya Bey ve Dîvânından Örnekler (1983); the order of stanzas and couplets in Hasar's arrangement has been kept exactly. This transcription contains all forty-two couplets, with no illegible or missing lines. Only the mark for the letter ayn in the thesis transcription has been written in the form ‘. In three places Hasar gives the manuscript reading in a footnote: the first line of the third couplet of the second stanza appears in the manuscript in the order "Tururdı şâh-ı cihân hiddet ile nâra dönüp"; the reading "hattına" is noted for the second couplet of the third stanza; and in the second couplet of the fifth stanza the manuscript has "ola libâs-ı ömri" in place of "leyâl-i ‘ömri". We could not consult directly the critical edition of the divan that Çavuşoğlu published in 1977, and so were unable to compare the text against that edition.

Another complete reading of the poem is found in Ahmet Atilla Şentürk's book Yahya Beğ'in Şehzade Mustafa Mersiyesi yahut Kanunî Hicviyesi (2009), and it is quoted couplet by couplet in Semra Güler's thesis. The number of stanzas and couplets is the same in both readings, and the order does not change; the differences remain at the level of words. In Şentürk's text the second couplet of the second stanza reads "Yürürdi kulları önince", the second couplet of the third stanza "Göyündi şâm-ı firâkından", the fifth couplet of the same stanza "Zihî şehîd sa‘îd ü", the first line of the fourth stanza "Zâl-i devr ü zemân", and the pen-name couplet in the last stanza "ey Yahyâ". The most marked divergence is in the linking couplet of the third stanza: Hasar reads "Yıkıldı yir yüzine aslına rücû‘ itdi", Şentürk "Yüz urdı hâke o meh aslına rücû itdi". In the fifth stanza "târ-ı ‘aşîr" appears in Şentürk as "târ-ı ‘asîr" (difficult), and "Erdişîr-i vilâyet" as "Erdişîr-i velâyet". The small spelling differences in the couplets quoted in our article on the elegies for Prince Mustafa derive from the divergence between these two readings. In the English rendering, where the meaning remains uncertain, we have drawn on Şentürk's translation as quoted by Güler.

One further detail should be noted. According to what Yahya told Gelibolulu Âlî, he wrote the poem without putting his pen name in it. In the text of the divan, however, the pen name appears in the last stanza. According to Çavuşoğlu's finding, Yahya arranged his divan three times and each time made some changes to his poems; it is therefore possible that the pen name was added later, when the poem was taken into the divan. This inference is ours; we found no statement to this effect in the sources.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The imagery of the poem is built on the heavenly bodies. The prince is the sun in his beauty (mihr-i cemâl), the never-resting sun in his walk (mihr-i bî-karâr), the full moon in his maturity (bedr-i kâmil, bedr-i tamâm), and in his death an eclipsed piece of the moon (mâh-pâre). These similes, frequently used in divan poetry for the face of the beloved, here become the language of a death announcement. The image of the eclipse conveys both death and the cutting off of light by another body coming in between; the poem names plainly what cuts off the light: slander, deceit, forged letters. According to Güler, the full-moon simile also recalls the age of maturity of a prince approaching forty. In the fourth couplet of the third stanza the moon image reaches its most shocking form: the halo round the moon turns into the venomous snake wound round the prince's neck. The comparison of the bowstring to a snake is also found in Mu'înî's elegy; Hasar records this shared image separately.

The second stanza, by ending all its lines with the sound "-âra dönüp" ("turning into"), builds a chain of transformations. The prince turns into a minaret of light, into daylight, into a tree in blossom, into the sun; his servants turn into a garden of tulips, the padishah into fire, the tents of the pavilion into snowy mountains, the pavilion itself into a white fortress. At the end of the stanza the same word now expresses not coming back: "Tutıldı gelmedi çünkim o mâh-pâre dönüp". The meaning of the refrain word is thus reversed within the stanza. The "ağ" in the phrase "Tonandı ağlar ile" is the old Turkish pronunciation of "ak" (white); Güler and Şentürk understand the line as "he dressed himself in white garments". The colour scheme of the stanza is also striking: the prince's white clothes, the tents like snowy mountains and the white fortress stand on one side, the padishah turned to fire and the servants turned into a tulip garden on the other. Güler, recalling that the imperial pavilion was red in the reign of Kanuni, thinks that the poet connects the colour of the pavilion with the padishah's anger. The two-headed dragon of the linking couplet also evokes the door of the tent, opening like a mouth and swallowing whoever enters; this last interpretation is ours.

Wordplay is the vehicle that carries the poem's heavy verdicts. In the second couplet of the first stanza "âl", meaning trickery, is set beside "Âl-i ‘Osmân", the House of Osman, and the similarity of sound between the two words gathers into a single phrase the idea that the dynasty was led into sin by trickery. In the fifth couplet the words "cinâyet" (crime), "cânî" (criminal) and "cân" (soul) sound as if derived from the same root; the poet expresses through this closeness the killing of an innocent soul as though it were a criminal. The phrase "akın saldı akdı" in the fourth couplet of the fourth stanza compares the flow of tears to the attack of a raiding (akıncı) troop while leaning the sounds of the two words against each other; it is an image drawn from the soldier poet's own world. In the fourth couplet of the fifth stanza the word "Yirini" is repeated at the head of the two lines with two different meanings: in the first "his place", in the second "regretfully, with remorse". This device, called cinas (paronomasia) in classical rhetoric, unites in the same word the prince's descent beneath the earth and his remorseful departure from the world.

The names Zâl and Rüstem in the fourth stanza are the most debated place in the poem from the point of view of tevriye (double entendre). In its near sense the couplet recalls the two heroes of the Shahnameh; in its far sense it points to Zal Mahmud Ağa, who threw the prince to the ground and strangled him, and to the grand vizier Rüstem Pasha. This reading, which Güler quotes from Şentürk, rests on the couplet naming the culprit openly while appearing to speak of an Iranian epic. In the same stanza the line "Diri kala ne revâdur fesâd iden şeytân" becomes a question demanding the punishment of the person so named; Hasar interprets this line as the poet's demand for revenge. In the last two couplets of the fifth stanza the target shifts to the padishah himself. In the phrase "Erdişîr-i vilâyet" appears the name Erdişîr, which according to Güler means "sacred ruler" in Pahlavi, and a sound relation is established between the "şîr" (lion) at the end of the word and the "âdet-i şîr" (the habit of the lion) at the end of the line. Şentürk sees in this couplet an allusion to the belief that lions sometimes kill their own cubs. The epithet "Ömer-meşreb" wounds the ruler, likened to the Caliph Omar who was known for his justice, with that very comparison through his killing of his son; Şentürk argues that there is also a hint here at the tradition that Omar buried his child in the pre-Islamic period.

The sixth stanza is a portrait built in the past tense with the refrain word "idi" (was), and it is the only section in which anger gives way to praise. The prince is drawn as a scholar, a man of asceticism and piety, who conversed with sheikhs, kept company with statesmen, imposing and humble. The phrase "mevti mevt-i ‘âlem idi" in the first couplet recalls the common Arabic saying meaning "the death of a scholar is the death of the world"; this connection is ours. Hasar quotes the whole stanza as a good example of how the elegies present the prince as worthy of the throne. The question at the end of the stanza, "which of that full moon's habits was lacking", turns the portrait into a defence. In the linking couplet the lines "iftirâ ile gitdi" and "du‘â vü senâ ile gitdi" end with the same refrain; the poet sets the cause of the death beside the departure of the soul.

In the seventh stanza the tone changes. The face of non-being appears in the mirror of the heavens, and the prince leaves the crowd of the world and withdraws to the world above like the huma bird. The huma is the bird of divan poetry believed to bring sovereignty to the one on whom its shadow falls; here it is used as the symbol of a soul that does not incline towards the world. In the thought of the third couplet, the enemy has caused the prince's exaltation, and the carrion of the world was not his portion. The interpretation of the death as martyrdom is a common motif in the elegies. The last line of the poem, however, is the most interpreted place in the whole elegy: "Nizâm-ı ‘âlem olan pâdişâh sağ olsun." How the line should be understood and how Şentürk interprets this prayer are discussed in our article on the elegies for Prince Mustafa. Here we add only this: "nizâm-ı âlem" (the order of the world) is the name of the justification that legitimised the killing of princes, and according to Güler, Rüstem Pasha, after the elegy, asked the padishah that Yahya too be put to death "for the order of the world", which Kanuni did not permit. That the poem mentions this justification in its last line within a formula of prayer may not be a coincidence; this reading is ours.

Historical Context

The subject of the elegy is the strangling in October 1553, in his father's pavilion at the army camp near Konya Ereğlisi, of Prince Mustafa, who had been sanjak governor of Amasya from 1541 to 1553. Taşlıcalı Yahya was with the army at the time, and the poem soon passed from hand to hand among the soldiers. The date of the poem's composition, the story of its spread as told by Gelibolulu Âlî, Rüstem Pasha's attitude towards the poet after he became grand vizier again, and Yahya's dispatch to Zvornik are told in detail, together with the other eighteen elegies, in our article Elegies for Prince Mustafa. Here the focus is on the events that left their trace in the couplets of the poem itself.

The poem coincides at many points with the scene described by the historical sources. Güler notes that the report that the prince went to his father's pavilion in white clothes to show his innocence agrees with the first couplet of the second stanza. According to the same researcher, the words "tağıldı erkânı" (his household was scattered) in the fifth couplet of the first stanza refer to the killing, after the prince's death, of his master of the horse and his standard-bearer, who were waiting outside; Hasar too connects this line with the dispersal of the prince's retinue and the seizure of his property. The mention of Karaman in the third stanza indicates the region where the event took place. The "bir iki nâme-i tezvîr" (one or two forged letters) in the first couplet of the fifth stanza is read as a reference to the letters that Rüstem Pasha is alleged to have had forged to create the impression that the prince had come to an understanding with the shah of Iran. Güler thinks that the expression "geçerler idi" in the third couplet of the first stanza refers to those who spoke against the prince in the padishah's presence, and that the word "liar" in the fourth couplet refers to Rüstem Pasha.

Yahya's relationship with the prince did not rest on a bond of patronage. Hasar notes that although the poet wrote an elegy for Prince Mehmed, he presented no kaside (qasida) to Mustafa; Yahya had rather been under the patronage of Rüstem Pasha and had been appointed trustee of certain endowments at Eyüp. That the harshest words of the elegy are directed at this former patron is therefore remarkable. According to what Güler quotes from Şentürk, when Rüstem Pasha died in 1561 Yahya wrote an elegy for him too, but in this poem he satirised the pasha by saying that the news of Rüstem's death had grieved him for a long time and that he feared this joyful news might prove false. Güler attributes the fact that Yahya, in later years, received no response although he described his material hardship and asked for help in kasides presented to the padishah, to Kanuni's anger at the heavy accusations in the elegy.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmed Çavuşoğlu, Yahya Bey ve Dîvânından Örnekler, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı, 1983, pp. 96-106 (as quoted in Hasar).
  • Mehmed Çavuşoğlu (ed.), Yahya Bey, Dîvân (Tenkitli Basım), İstanbul: İstanbul Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Yayınları, 1977 (citation as given in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi; the edition could not be consulted directly).

Academic studies

Books

  • Ahmet Atilla Şentürk, Yahya Beğ'in Şehzade Mustafa Mersiyesi yahut Kanunî Hicviyesi, İstanbul: Timaş Yayınları, 2009 (as quoted in Güler).

Online sources