Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef’ûlü Mefâ’îlü Mefâ’îlü Fe’ûlün

Ölince eger âteş-i hicrâna yanam ben
Hâşâ ki begüm dünyede senden usanam ben
Şol râh-ı mahabbetde çeküp bâr-ı belânı
Sabr eyleyen ey yâr-ı cefâkâr benem ben
Sevdâ vü gam-ı Leylî-i zülfüne düşelden
Mecnûn gibi âşüfte dil-âvâre benem ben
Bu hüsn-i dil-âvîz ile gülzâr-ı hasende
Dirsen yaraşur serv-kad ü gül-dehenem ben
Vasf itmede Şâhî leb-i cânânı cihânda
Tûtî gibi nâzük ü şîrîn-sühânem ben

In English

1. Even if I burn in the fire of separation until I die, my lord, God forbid that I should ever grow weary of you in this world.

2. O cruel beloved, it is I, I, who carry the burden of affliction on that road of love and endure it.

3. Ever since I fell into the passion and sorrow of your Leylâ-like locks, it is I, I, who am distraught and wandering of heart like Mecnun.

4. With this heart-catching beauty, in the rose garden of the fair, it would suit me if I said, "I am the cypress-statured, the rose-mouthed one."

5. Şâhî, it is I, I, who in praising the beloved's lip in this world am delicate and sweet of speech like the parrot.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The five-couplet ghazal is written in the "mef'ûlü mefâ'îlü mefâ'îlü fe'ûlün" pattern. The redif is "ben" (I). The rhyme scheme is not strict: in the opening couplet "yanam" rhymes with "usanam", while in the second and third couplets the same word "benem" (I am) stands twice in the rhyme position, followed by "gül-dehenem" and "şîrîn-sühânem". The only shared sound is the syllable "-nem/-nam". Kılıç counts the redif "ben" among the refrains of the divan. In the edition the folio mark [45b] stands after the first line.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem is a ghazal of the "self" in which the lover introduces himself. The phrase "benem ben" (it is I, I) loads a new attribute onto the lover in every couplet: the one willing to burn in the fire of separation, the one who carries the burden of affliction and endures, the one distraught like Mecnun, the one who speaks sweetly like a parrot. In the third couplet the compound "Leylî-i zülf" likens the locks to Leylâ. Since the name Leylâ is related to night in Arabic, it creates a link of sound and sense between black hair and Leylâ; the lover becomes the Mecnun who falls into the passion of these locks. This is a known pairing in divan poetry.

The fourth couplet is surprising. Here the lover takes for himself the attributes that belong to the beloved: he says it would suit him to declare, in the garden of the fair, "I am the cypress-statured, the rose-mouthed one". The couplet can be understood in two ways. In the first reading the lover has become so united with the beloved's beauty that he can speak her attributes in his own name. In the second reading the couplet playfully swaps the roles of beloved and lover in divan poetry. The text does not show for certain which is meant.

The closing couplet uses the simile of the "tûtî" (parrot). In divan poetry the parrot is the bird that speaks and eats sugar; this link between sweet speech and sugar also sweetens the words of the poet who praises the beloved's lip. Kılıç quotes this couplet among the few couplets in which Şâhî speaks of his own poetry and notes that these praises are ordinary and unexaggerated. In the introduction the couplet is cited as "G120/5"; its number in the text is 121. In the quotation in the introduction the word appears as "şîrîn-sühanem", in the text as "şîrîn-sühânem". The metre requires a short vowel in this syllable; the length mark in the text may be a typesetting difference. 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 p. 105, ghazal no. 121 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 45b); also p. 29 (refrains), p. 42 (quotation of the fifth couplet under the reference "G120/5" among the couplets in which the poet praises his own poetry), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources