Perspectives of Diwan Poets on Social Environment (15th Century)
Mehmet Fatih ÇavuşIt is a known fact that poets cannot be considered separately from the environment they are in, that relations are established between artists and various circles, and that this situation is reflected in art pieces. Additionally, these relationships can be seen in various forms and tighter in diwan literature. On the other hand, diwan poets made evaluations and detections on environment through their poems. However, as Harun Tolasa stated, the relationship poets establish with their environment is an arts-based relationship. Poets’ evaluations allow us to learn about the environment while the identification of the environment’s praise and critiques about the poet, identification of the personal artistic traits of poets, an artist’s criticism of their era/environment and revealing the impacts of the artist on their contemporaries are important in terms of providing materials for literature history. However, evaluations on the perceptions of the environment on poetry and poets are limited to what poets see or think. Poets of the 15th century included statements of complaint and grievances, satisfaction and gratitude in artworks such as eulogies, odes, and mesnevi. In our study, departing from these statements of poets, a general description of the environment of poetry and poet in the 15th century is provided. In addition, characteristics of people and types that constitute this environment, the perceptions of the environment on the poet and poetry, the intended audience, other artists, the impact of poets on the environment, and expectations from the readers are also addressed.
Divan Şairlerinin Çevreye Dair Görüşleri (15. Yüzyıl)
Mehmet Fatih ÇavuşŞairlerin içinde bulunduğu çevreden ayrı düşünülemeyeceği, sanatkâr ile çeşitli çevreler arasında birtakım ilişkilerin kurulduğu ve bu durumun eserlerde bazı yansımalara neden olduğu bilinen bir gerçektir. Üstelik bu ilişkiler divan edebiyatında daha sıkı ve değişik şekillerde görülebilmektedir. Diğer taraftan divan şairleri, şiirleri aracılığıyla çevreye dair tespit ve değerlendirmeler de yapmışlardır. Ancak Harun Tolasa’nın da ifadesiyle şairlerin çevreyle kurduğu bu ilişki sanata dayalı bir ilişkidir. Şairlerin bu değerlendirmeleri, çevreye dair birtakım bilgiler edinmemizi sağlarken aynı zamanda çevrenin şaire dönük beğeni ve eleştirilerinin tespiti, şairlerin kendi sanatçı kişilik özelliklerinin belirlenmesi, bir sanatçının çağını/çevresini eleştirmesi ve çağdaşları üzerindeki tesirinin ortaya konması, edebiyat tarihine malzeme sağlaması bakımından önem arz etmektedir. Ancak çevrenin şiir ve şaire bakışı hakkındaki değerlendirmeler, yine şairin gördükleri ya da düşündükleriyle sınırlıdır. XV. yüzyıl şairleri de kendi sosyal ve kültürel çevrelerine dair gerek şikâyet ve yakınma, gerek memnuniyet ve şükran gayesiyle oluşturdukları ifadelere kaside, gazel ve mesnevi vb. türü eserlerde yer vermişlerdir. Çalışmamızda şairlerin bu ifadelerinden yola çıkarak XV. yüzyılda şiir ve şair çevresinin genel görünümü ortaya çıkarılmış; bu çevreyi oluşturan kişi ve tiplerin özelliklerine, çevrenin şaire ve şiire bakışına, hedef kitleye, diğer sanatkârlara, şairin çevre üzerindeki etkilerine ve okuyucudan beklentilerine değinilmiştir.
It is a known fact that poets cannot be considered separately from the environment they are in, that relations are established between artists and various circles, and that this situation is reflected in art pieces. Additionally, these relationships can be seen in various tighter forms in diwan literature. On the other hand, diwan poets made evaluations and detections on the environment through their poems. However, as Harun Tolasa stated, the relationship poets establish with their environment is an arts-based relationship. Poets’ evaluations allow us to learn about the environment while the identification of environment’s praise and critiques about the poet, identification of the personal artistic traits of poets, an artist’s criticism of their era/environment and revealing the impacts of the artist on their contemporaries are important in terms of providing materials for literature history. However, evaluations on the perceptions of the environment on poetry and poets are limited to what poets see or think. Poets of the 15th century included statements of complaints and grievances, satisfaction and gratitude in artworks such as eulogies, odes, and mesnevi. In our study, departing from these statements of poets, a general description of the poetry and the poet’s environment in the 15th century is provided. Additionally, characteristics of people and types that constitute this environment, the perceptions of the environment on the poet and their poetry, the intended audience, other artists, the impact of poets on the environment, and expectations from the readers are also addressed. Admiration and appreciation of poets’ own poems, writing poems that are desired and wanted, the impact of the poem and poets are considered as an important measure in terms of their talent. Being admired, being in demand is a common desire of every artist in any period. Therefore, poets have stated similar thoughts on how the environment approached them and their poems, and their poems are in demand, admired and complemented. These evaluations emphasize the superiority of the poet and their work. Additionally, the fact that poems and poets are complimented shows that the environment understands and appreciates poetry. The impact of poems or poets on environment is also evaluated. These impacts are stated as a gain for readers, listeners, and the environment in general. Poems, according to poets’ statements, would be able to eliminate troubles in soul, cheer up readers, provide relief, make them lose themselves and even fall in love, cause tears, provide a muse, make people poets of eulogy or silence them completely, make them incapable, emit beautiful smells by adorning the universe, make them forget about other poems and poets and cause jealousy. Most of the time, poets did not hesitate to express their expectations of the environment and their readers clearly with words spoken with the purpose of warning or advise or complain. Improvement of poets and creating valuable artwork is only possible through encouragement and incentives from the environment because what causes poets to write poems is the convenience provided by power, wealth, that statesmen have, and generousity. Thus, poets expect people to listen to and even memorize their words with sincerity, to understand the value of words and elegance, to approach it as truth, to be able to distinguish between what s valuable and vile, to be well-informed and have taste, to be mature and humorous, to desire poetry and to put efforts in pursuing poetry. If a reader circle or respondent cannot be found, poetry will not be appreciated and as a result, the poet would regret and first lose their motivation and then their creativity and finally will löse their interest in writing poems. On the other hand, those who do not understand art, who do not appreciate beauty, who cannot distinguish the valuable from the vile, those who are enemies of poetry are ambiguous people that poets complain about. Poets took caution and avoided presenting poems to this type of people. Poets shared their opinions on the artistic environment in their pieces through various means and purposes. First, famous masters of words from Iran such as Sa‘dî, Firdevsî, Nizâmî, Selmân, Kâtibî, Kemâl-i İsfahânî and Câmî, and secondly a group including Necâtî, Şeyhî, Ahmet Paşa, Ahmedî and Cem Sultan were mentioned in poems. This way, poets expressed their admiration and appreciation and felt closer to these names and even considered them as masters by following their path and thus were influenced by them. In some examples, poets of 15th century claimed that their poems or poetry skills are superior to others and they stated they left them behind and even asserted that these famous poets are jealous of them. Or, they stated that certain poets of their time are incompetent, that they did not like them and critized them. Frequent appeal of poets to their environment and readership shows that environment is of crucial importance to them. As a result of this approach of poets, it is possible to access admiration and criticism of the environment towards poetry and poets as well as information related to this environment.