Previously Unknown Translation of “Davazdah-band-e Muhtasham” by Rafi
Murat GüneşMuhtasham Kashani was one of the poets of Iranian literature who lived during the Safavid era. He became famous for his tarkeeb-band poem about the Karbala incident and was given the title Shams-ush-Shuara for his success with this verse. The lament Muhtasham wrote in tarkeeb-band form is known as “Davazdah-band-e Muhtasham”. The lament brought great fame to its poet within its literary tradition, and its sphere of influence was recognized to extend beyond its own literary circle, being followed by Turkish poets as the subject of a poem modeled after another as well as translations. A poem modeled after another and translations for the lament Muhtasham wrote about the martyrdom of Hazrat Husayn can be observed to have increased mainly in the 19th century. For example, Musa Kazim Pasha, Othman Nevres, and Avni Beg of Yenisehir are names that worked on this lament in the 19th century in the context of translation and a poem modeled after another. This article discusses one translation of “Davazdah-band-e Muhtasham” that has not been previously mentioned in studies on the subject. A poet using the pseudonym of Rafi translated this dirge into Turkish, with one manuscript copy of the translated text having been identified. Although the text of this translation was published by Mirliva Safvet in Nilüfer, Bursa’s first literary magazine, only the first three bands were published. The aim of the study is to bring to light this previously unknown example of Muhtasham Kashani’s dirge in the history of Turkish literature and thus contribute to the Turkish lament literature.
Devâzdeh-bend-i Muhteşem’in Refî‘ Tarafından Yapılmış Bilinmeyen Tercümesi
Murat GüneşMuhteşem-i Kâşânî, İran edebiyatının Safevîler devrinde yaşamış şairlerindendir. Kerbela hadisesini konu alan terkîb-bendiyle ünlenmiş ve bu mersiyesindeki başarısından dolayı kendisine Şemsü’ş-Şu‘arâ unvanı verilmiştir. Muhteşem’in terkîb-bend nazım şekliyle kaleme aldığı mersiyesi on iki bentten müteşekkil olmasından dolayı Devâzdeh-bend-i Muhteşem adıyla da anılmaktadır. Mensubu bulunduğu edebiyat geleneği içinde şairine yaygın bir şöhret kazandıran mersiyenin tesir cihetinden tanınırlığı, yalnızca kendi muhitiyle sınırlı kalmamış ve Türk edebiyatı şairleri tarafından da nazire ve tercümelere konu edilmek suretiyle takip edilmiştir. Muhteşem’in, Hz. Hüseyin’in şehadeti konulu mersiyesi üzerinde gerçekleştirilen nazire ve tercümelerin ise daha çok XIX. yüzyılda arttığı gözlemlenmektedir. Örneğin Musa Kâzım Paşa, Osman Nevres ve Yenişehirli Avnî Bey söz konusu mersiyeyi XIX. yüzyılda tercüme ve nazire bağlamında takip eden isimlerin başında gelmektedir. Bu makalede Devâzdeh-bend-i Muhteşem’in gerek Muhteşem gerekse de Kerbela mersiyeleri konusunda gerçekleştirilmiş çalışmalarda bahsedilmeyen, Refî‘ mahlasını kullanan bir şair tarafından kaleme alınmış Türkçeye çevirisi ele alınmıştır. Bir yazması tespit edilen tercüme, Mîrlivâ Safvet tarafından Bursa’nın ilk edebiyat dergisi Nilüfer’de yayımlanmaya başlansa da bu teşebbüs yarım kalmış ve eski harflerle yalnızca ilk üç bendi neşredilebilmiştir. Çalışma ile Muhteşem-i Kâşânî’nin mersiyesinin Türk edebiyatı tarihinde bilinmeyen bir tercümesinin gün yüzüne çıkarılması ve böylelikle Türkçe mersiye literatürüne katkıda bulunulması hedeflenmiştir.
Muhtasham Kashani was one of the poets of Iranian literature in the Safavid era and became famous for his poem 12 bands about the martyrdom of Hadrat Husayn in Karbala. He was given the title of Shams-ush-Shuara for his success with this poem. The fame Muhtasham achieved with this lament was not limited to his own literary circle but also influenced the poets of Turkish literature. In the history of classical Turkish literature, Muhtasham’s name appears from the 16th century onwards. Some poets mention his name in their poems in the interest of boasting. Muhtasham’s lament about the Karbala incident is understood to have been observed by many poets in 19th-century Turkish literature. Names such as Musa Kazim Pasha, Othman Nevres, Avni Beg of Yenişehir, and Sakıb are some of the 19th-century poets known to have followed Muhtasham’s lament for Karbala. Some of these poets mentioned above translated “Davazdah-band-e Muhtasham” into Turkish, and others wrote a poem modeled after another based on Muhtasham’s lament. Muhtasham lived in the 16th century; this elegy seems to have been more widely followed in the 19th century of the history of Turkish literature. In the history of Turkish literature, the influence of Muhtaşem’s lament was not limited to the 19th century. Along with Sakıb, Musacalızadah Said, and Mehmed Rifat of Manastir, who all died in the early 20th century, Abdülbaqi Gölpinarli was also influenced by Muhtasham’s lament.
This study discusses a previously unknown Turkish translation of Muhtasham Kashani’s Karbala lament titled “Davazdah-band-e Muhtasham”. The translation under study was written in 1858, and the translator used the pseudonym Rafi and carried the identity of a poet. No information is found about a Rafi in his biographical sources or the translation. He mentions some information about this poem in the introduction to his translation. According to the information Rafi gave, he had been entrusted with the task of translating “Davazdah-band Muhtasham” into Turkish. However, the person who asked Rafi to translate this is unknown. Rafi did not treat this translation in accordance with the original form of the elegy. While “Davazdah-band Muhtasham” is a poem in the tarkeeb-band style, Rafi described his own translation as being in the form of takhmis poetry. In addition, the poetic meter of Muhtasham’s version had been chosen from the mudhari, while Rafi’s poem was chosen from the ramal bahr. Rafi did not name the poem he translated. Although the phrase “matamnama-e Karbala” appears in the short preface to the beginning of the poem, this cannot be definitively described as the title.
Rafi’s translation began to be published by Mirliva Safvet in 1307 hijri, but this attempt was not completed. Mirliva Safvet published the first three bands of Rafi’s translation in Nilüfer, which is considered to be the first literary magazine of Bursa. In this study, a manuscript of Rafi’s translation was identified. This manuscript is registered in the manuscript collection of the National Library (Ankara, Turkey). This manuscript was donated to the National Library by Sare Seniye Karabudak in 1964. The contents of the manuscript are mainly Sufi works. There is no information about the biography of Rafi, who wrote a successful translation of Muhtasham’s lament. In the main works prepared on the subject of the Karbala lamentations written in the history of Turkish literature, Rafi’s poem is not mentioned. This study aims to contribute to the field by examining an unknown Karbala lament in the history of Turkish literature.
