Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ’îlün Mefâ’îlün Mefâ’îlün Mefâ’îlün

Gönül mihr ü vefâ umma güzeller bî-vefâdur heb
Dil-i ‘uşşâka rahm itmez sitemger pür-cefâdur heb
Ser-â-ser sînem üstinde görinen sanma mûlardur
Kemân ebrûlarundan irişen tîr-i belâdur heb
Cihân içinde ger hûrşîd u ger mâh u ger encümdür
Habîbüm pertev-i mihr-i ruhunla rûşenâdur heb
Seg-i kûyun işigünde rakîbe n’ola rahm itse
Bir av iti gibi hayli zemândur âşinâdur heb
Yazılan eşk-i hûn-âbumla Şâhî levh-i çihremde
Başumdan derd-i cânân ile geçen mâ-cerâdur heb

In English

1. O heart, do not hope for love and faithfulness, all beauties are faithless; they take no pity on the hearts of lovers, all are tyrants full of cruelty.

2. Do not take what appears all over my breast for hairs; all of them are the arrows of calamity shot from bow-shaped brows.

3. My beloved, whatever there is in the world, sun, moon or stars, all are lit by the light of the sun of your cheek.

4. What if the dog of your street takes pity on the rival at your threshold; like hounds of the chase, they have all long been acquainted.

5. Şâhî, all that is written with my bloody tears on the tablet of my face is the tale of what befell me through the pain of the beloved.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal of five couplets is written in the "mefâ'îlün mefâ'îlün mefâ'îlün mefâ'îlün" pattern of the hezec family. The redif is "-dur heb"; in old Turkish "heb" means "hep" (all, wholly), and Kılıç counts this word among the redifs of the divan. The rhyme is the "-â" sound in the words "vefâ, cefâ, belâ, rûşenâ, âşinâ, mâ-cerâ". The pen name appears in the last couplet. As Kılıç states, most of the redifs in the divan are Turkish words, which is a feature of sixteenth-century poetry; the redif "heb" is a plain example of this.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet begins with a general verdict on the faithlessness of beauties. The word "heb" in the redif reinforces this generalisation in each couplet: all beauties are faithless, all the arrows are calamity, all the lights come from the beloved's cheek. In the second couplet the poet asks that what appears on the lover's breast should not be taken for hairs (mû); they are arrows shot from the beloved's bow-shaped brows. The likening of the brow to a bow and of the lashes and glance to arrows is among the well-known similes of divan poetry; the comparison of the hairs of the breast to arrows is a playful application of this theme. In the third couplet the sun, moon and stars take their light from the beloved's cheek. Here too the word "mihr" carries the senses of both sun and love; a hüsn-i ta'lil (fanciful aetiology) can be sensed in this couplet.

In the fourth couplet the dog at the beloved's door and the rival are placed side by side. The poet does not find it strange that the dog should take pity on the rival, for the two, like hounds of the chase, have long known each other. This is a mocking comparison that puts the rival on the same level as the dog; the reading is our own. In the last couplet the lover's pale face is likened to a tablet and his bloody tears to ink. The bloody tears flowing over the face are the writing of a tale lived through the pain of the beloved. This congruence of images, built with the words "levh" (tablet) and "yazılan" (what is written), resembles the relation between tears and writing seen in other ghazals of Bayezid as well (e.g. G.5/6). The ghazal contains nothing that points to a person or an event; it is not known to whom or when it was written.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book pp. 51-52, ghazal no. 10 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225); also p. 29 (redifs and metres), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources