Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe’ilâtün Fe’ilâtün Fe’ilâtün Fe’ilün

Çâre-ger ister isen avlayıgör yâr etegin
Bakma nâmûsa sakın alma ele ‘âr etegin
Ger dilersen ki gönül zülfine ber-dâr olasın
Koma Mansûr-sıfat zülf-i siyeh-kâr etegin
Yâr agyâr ile yâr oldı diyü gam yeme dil
Her zemân hâr tutageldi çü gülzâr etegin
Vasluna çâre olursa vireyin cânı didüm
Ol perî hışma gelüp tut dedi nâ-çâr etegin
Şâhî cânânı ki uyur bulasın bûseye çek
Uyanup hışma gelürse koma inkâr etegin

In English

1. If you seek a remedy, try to catch hold of the beloved's skirt; pay no heed to honour, and beware of taking up the skirt of shame.

2. O heart, if you wish to be hanged in the beloved's locks, then like Mansûr do not let go of the skirt of those black-deeded locks.

3. O heart, do not grieve that the beloved has made friends with strangers; the thorn has always held the skirt of the rose garden.

4. I said, "If there is a way to union with you, let me give my life"; that fairy grew angry and said, "Then hold the skirt of helplessness."

5. Şâhî, if you find the beloved asleep, draw her to you for a kiss; if she wakes and grows angry, do not let go of the skirt of denial.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The five-couplet ghazal is written in the "fe'ilâtün fe'ilâtün fe'ilâtün fe'ilün" pattern. The redif is "etegin" (the skirt of), and the rhyme is the "-âr" sound in "yâr, 'âr, siyeh-kâr, gülzâr, nâ-çâr, inkâr". Kılıç counts the redif "etegin" among the refrains of the divan. In the edition the folio mark [44b] stands after the second couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The whole play of the poem is built on the word "etek" (skirt). "To cling to someone's skirt" means to take refuge with him, to ask something of him; the poet ties this idiom to something different in every couplet: the skirt of the beloved, the skirt of shame, the skirt of the locks, the skirt of the rose garden, the skirt of helplessness and the skirt of denial. A single redif thus turns into a chain of metaphors that changes from couplet to couplet.

The second couplet contains an allusion to Hallâc-ı Mansûr. Mansûr was hanged on the gallows; in divan poetry the long, curling locks of the beloved are also imagined as the rope or gallows on which the lover is hanged. "Ber-dâr olmak" (to be hanged) and "zülf-i siyeh-kâr" (locks that do black deeds) merge with this image: if the heart dares to be hanged like Mansûr, it must not let go of the skirt of the locks. The third couplet uses the motif of the rose and the thorn. The presence of rivals beside the beloved is likened to the thorn that always stands at the foot of the rose; this is a consolation offered to the lover so that he will not grieve.

The last two couplets move to a more playful tone. In the fourth couplet the lover says he is ready to give his life, and the beloved replies angrily, "then hold the skirt of helplessness"; in other words, nothing but helplessness will be left in the lover's hands. In the closing couplet the poet advises himself to kiss the beloved if he finds her asleep, and not to give up denying it if she wakes and grows angry. This ending, close to spoken language, is the lightest and most everyday use of the redif "etek".

When Kılıç lists the couplets that describe Bayezid's coming to the Karaman region in 1559 to fight Selim, he quotes the line "Yâr agyâr ile yâr oldı diyü gam yime dil". This line is the first line of the third couplet of this ghazal; in the introduction, however, it is combined with the line "Niceye dek geziser bu haste Yunan illerin" and given under the reference "G119/3". The second line belongs to Ghazal 120. The quotation seems to mix lines from two different ghazals; this observation is ours, and the text has not been altered.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book pp. 103-104, ghazal no. 118 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 44b); also p. 29 (refrains), p. 41 (quotation of the first line of the third couplet under the reference "G119/3"), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.
  • Süleyman Uludağ, "Hallâc-ı Mansûr", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 15, Istanbul 1997, pp. 377-381. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/hallac-i-mansur

Online sources