Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Tâ ezel hilkatde mihrün dilde cânumdur benüm
Nâm-ı pâkün rûz u şeb vird-i zebânumdur benüm
Vasf-ı hâlüm nâmede surh ile yazdum sanma kim
Gözden akan hasret-i la’lünle kanumdur benüm
Gülsitân-ı hüsn içinde ol benüm çok sevdügüm
Bir semen-ber lâle-had serv-i revânumdur benüm
Yâ gibi tîr-i firâkıyla kadüm dal eyleyen
Ol cefâ vü cevri çok kaşı kemânumdur benüm
Öldüren Şâhî beni derd-i firâk-ı hecr ile
Ol sitem-ger bî-vefâ şâh-ı cihânumdur benüm

In English

1. Since pre-eternity, since creation, your love has been my very soul within my heart; your pure name is the litany that never leaves my tongue, day and night.

2. Do not think that I wrote the account of my state in the letter with red ink; it is my blood flowing from my eyes in longing for your lip.

3. In the rose garden of beauty, he whom I love so much is my jasmine-breasted, tulip-cheeked, swaying cypress.

4. He who has bent my stature like a bow with the arrow of separation and made it a "dal" (a bent branch, or the letter dâl) is my bow-browed beloved, so full of cruelty and torment.

5. Şâhî, he who kills me with the pain of separation is that tyrannical, faithless shah of the world of mine.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The five-couplet ghazal is written in the "fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilün" pattern. The redif (refrain word) is "-umdur benüm" (is my ...), and the rhyme is the "-ân" sound in "cân, zebân, kan, revân, kemân, cihân". Since the Turkish word "kan" (blood) in the second couplet has no long vowel, the rhyme there holds only in sound. Kılıç counts the ghazal among the ten with the redif "benüm"; in footnote 73 it appears as "104", 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 39b stands at the end of the second couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet says that love has been in the heart since pre-eternity, since the moment of creation. That the beloved's name is "vird-i zebân" day and night means that it is repeated without pause, like a religious litany (zikr). This way of tying the source of love to pre-eternity is the common expression in divan poetry of love being regarded as a destiny that comes from the creation of man.

The second couplet is an example of poetic aetiology (hüsn-i ta'lîl). The red writing in the letter comes not from ink but from the blood flowing from the eyes in longing for the beloved's lip. "Surh" in the line means red; the poet explains the colour of the writing through the image of tears turning to blood. The image of a letter dyed with bloody tears also appears in the second couplet of ghazal 93 in the edition. In the third couplet the beloved becomes a garden of jasmine, tulip and cypress.

The fourth couplet builds a congruence of images (tenasüp) between bow, arrow and brow. The arrow of separation has bent the lover's stature; the words "dal eyleyen" can be read both as making it like a bent branch and as likening it to the letter dâl, which is written curved. In divan poetry a doubled-up stature is often likened to this letter. Since the beloved's brow is also a bow (kemân), the one who shoots the arrow and the bow are the same person. In the last couplet the beloved is called "şâh-ı cihân" (shah of the world) and accused of being tyrannical and faithless. This address is also used for the beloved in divan poetry. The mention of a letter in the ghazal and the naming of the addressee as shah of the world may bring to mind a reading directed at the father, but the poem contains no clear clue to support it; this possibility is our reading.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book pp. 97-98, ghazal no. 105 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 39b); also p. 29 (footnote 73: ghazals with the redif "benüm") and pp. 91-92 (ghazal 93), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources