Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilün

Gerçi irdi göklere feryâdum ey cânum benüm
Lîk te’sîr itmedi sana bu efgânum benüm
Şem’-i ‘ışka yanmağa pervâne-veş şâm u seher
Bezm-i hüsne gelmişem şem’-i şebistânum benüm
Aglayup gözyaşların döksem ‘aceb görmen beni
Oldı çün dünyâ gibi bir bî-vefâ cânum benüm
Zulmuni hadden geçürdün kalmadı hîç tâkatüm
Dâd idersen vaktidür devletlü sultânum benüm
Ayrılaldan sen güneş yüzlü kamer ruhsârdan
Yaş yirine kan akıdur çeşm-i giryânum benüm
Tîr-i cevrüni uraldan bu dil-i mecrûhuma
Gitdi sabr u tâkatüm kalmadı fermânum benüm
Kıssa-i Ferhâd u Mecnûn bir kurı efsânedür
Söylenen dillerde şimdi oldı destânum benüm
Gülşen-i hüsnine karşu Şâhiyâ âh itme kim
Âha döymez key sakın ol verd-i handânum benüm

In English

1. O my soul, it is true that my cry has reached the skies; but this lament of mine has had no effect on you.

2. O candle of my night chamber, I have come to the feast of beauty to burn evening and morning like a moth in the candle of love.

3. If I weep and shed my tears, do not reproach me; for my soul (my beloved) has become someone as faithless as the world.

4. You have carried your tyranny beyond all bounds, I have no strength left; O my fortunate sultan, if you are to do justice, now is the time.

5. Ever since I was parted from you, sun-faced and moon-cheeked one, my weeping eye has shed blood instead of tears.

6. Ever since you shot the arrow of cruelty into this wounded heart of mine, my patience and strength have gone; I no longer have command even over myself.

7. The tale of Ferhâd and Mecnûn is an empty fable; the legend now told on every tongue is mine.

8. O Şâhî, do not sigh before the rose garden of his beauty; beware, that smiling rose of mine cannot bear a sigh.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The eight-couplet ghazal is written in the "fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilün" pattern. The redif (refrain word) is "benüm" (my, of mine), and the rhyme is the "-ân" sound in "cân, efgân, şebistân, cân, sultân, giryân, fermân, destân, handân" followed by the suffix "-um". The rhyme word "cânum" is used twice, in the opening and third couplets. Kılıç counts the ghazal among the ten with the redif "benüm"; in footnote 73 it appears as "101", because in this part of the edition the numbers in the introduction are one less than those of the text. In the edition the folio mark 38b stands at the end of the sixth couplet. After the mark 37b, the mark 38a does not appear in the edition; this folio mark was probably omitted in typesetting. This is an observation of ours, made by comparison with the PDF image.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet begins with a cry that reaches the skies but does not reach the beloved. A cry reaching the sky also occurs in the line "Âh kim irdi göge feryâd ile âhum benüm" (alas, my sigh has reached the sky with my cry) of murabba 17, which Kılıç quotes in his introduction. The second couplet sets up the image of the candle and the moth: the lover is the moth that has come to the feast of beauty to burn in the candle of love; the beloved is the candle that lights his night chamber. In the third couplet the beloved ("cân", soul) is described as faithless like the world; in divan poetry the faithlessness of the world is a ready comparison for the faithlessness of the beloved.

The fourth couplet ends in almost the same way as the fourth couplet of ghazal 101, which immediately precedes it in the edition: there it says "'Adl idersen", here "Dâd idersen" (if you are to do justice). Tyranny exceeding all bounds and the expectation of justice from the sultan draw on the familiar likeness between the beloved and the ruler. The words "kalmadı fermânum" (no command is left to me) in the sixth couplet say that the lover cannot even command his own will; the sense of "fermân" as an imperial decree also comes to mind. In the seventh couplet the poet regards the stories of Ferhâd and Mecnûn as "an empty legend" and says that it is now his own legend that passes from tongue to tongue. This is a boast (tefahür) in which he measures himself against the great lovers. In the closing couplet it is imagined that the rose would wither from the heat of the sigh; to avoid hurting the beloved, the lover must hold back even his sighs.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 96, ghazal no. 102 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 38b); also p. 29 (footnote 73: ghazals with the redif "benüm"), p. 36 (fifth stanza of murabba 17) and pp. 95-96 (ghazal 101), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources