Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Akıtdı gözlerüm yaşını dûd-ı âteş-i hasret
Eritdi yüregüm yagın ne müşkil derd imiş fürkat
N’ola cânlar virürsem işügün yasdanmaga şâhâ
Gubâr-ı hâk-i pâyundur başuma efser-i gırret
Ben ol Leylâ firâkıyla düşüp dâmân-ı kûhsâra
Varup Mecnûn-sıfat dutsam vuhûş ile n’ola ülfet
Ne vardı çekmege âlâm-ı dehri derd-i mihrünle
Bular üzre gam-ı hecrün degülmişse eger serbest
Visâl-i yâre ey Şâhî hemân yok yire sa’y itdüm
Benüm hod hecr imiş evvel kalemde başuma kısmet

In English

1. The smoke of the fire of longing has made my eyes shed tears and melted the fat of my heart; what a hard pain separation is.

2. O king, what if I give lives to lean against your threshold; the dust of the earth beneath your feet is a shining (glorious) crown upon my head.

3. What if, through separation from that Leyla, I should fall to the skirts of the mountains and, like Mecnun, make friends with the wild beasts?

4. What would it have been to bear the pains of the world together with the pain of love, had only the grief of separation from you not come freely on top of them?

5. O Şâhî, I strove in vain for union with the beloved; it seems the pen of destiny wrote separation upon my head first of all.

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 and stands on folio 7b of the manuscript. There is no redif; the rhyme is formed by the "-et / -at" sound in the words "hasret, fürkat, gırret, ülfet, kısmet". The word "serbest" in rhyme position in the fourth couplet does not fit this pattern; it is not clear whether the edition's reading involves a problem of reading or of copying. This flaw in the rhyme is our own observation, and the text has not been altered. The meaning of the phrase "efser-i gırret" in the second couplet is also unclear; "efser" means crown, and we have rendered it on the assumption that "gırret" carries a sense such as shining or glorious. The pen name appears in the last couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Kılıç cites the opening and closing couplets of this ghazal as examples of the frequency of the words for estrangement and parting in Bayezid's poems (in the introduction the opening couplet reads "yaşım", in the text "yaşını"). In the opening couplet the smoke of the fire of longing stings the eye and makes it shed tears, and the same fire melts the fat of the heart. The relation between smoke and tears, fire and melting fat, forms a congruence of images (tenasüp) that also recalls the image of the candle; this observation is our own. The words at the end of the line, "ne müşkil derd imiş fürkat" (what a hard pain separation is), are notable because the same expression occurs in a stanza of Murabba 2 quoted by Kılıç in the introduction ("Helâk itdi beni hecrün ne müşkil derd imiş fürkat").

In the second couplet the beloved is addressed as "şâhâ" (O king); giving one's life to lean against the threshold and counting the dust of the feet as a crown is the language of servitude to a padishah adapted to love. The third couplet alludes to the story of Leyla and Mecnun. Mecnun, who fell to the deserts and mountains through separation from Leyla, making friends with the wild beasts is one of the well-known scenes of the story; the poet imagines himself in the same state.

The fourth couplet is obscure and can be read in two ways. In our reading the poet says that he could bear the pains of the world together with the pain of love for the beloved, but that the grief of separation added on top of these is unbearable. The last couplet treats the idea of destiny: the words "evvel kalemde" (first in the pen) point to what the pen of destiny wrote in pre-eternity. The failure of all effort towards union is attributed to separation standing in the first line of what was written on the poet's brow. The voice of the prince who cannot attain his desire, which Kılıç stresses in his introduction, is distinctly heard in this couplet.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book pp. 52-53, ghazal no. 12 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 7b); also pp. 30-31 (main theme; examples G.12/1 and 5) and p. 32 (Murabba 2/4), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources