Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Gün yüzünle Mısr-ı hüsnün Yûsuf-ı Ken’ânı sen
Hâtem-i la’lünle hûbânun Süleymân Hânı sen
Âsumân-ı rif’atün mihr-i cihân-ârâsısın
Çarh-ı hüsnün ey hümâ-tal’at meh-i tâbânı sen
Sanma sensüz bendenün şâhâ hayâtı vardur
Görinen fersûde kâlibdür beden sen cânı sen
Ey tabîb-i cân ben öldüm bana emsem eyle kim
Şerbet-i la’lünle haste gönlümün dermânı sen
Niçe ârâm eylesün Şâhî cemâlünden cüdâ
Dil-rübâsı dil-pezîri dil-beri cânânı sen

In English

1. With your sun-bright face you are the Joseph of Canaan in the Egypt of beauty; with the seal of your ruby lip you are the Süleyman Han of the fair.

2. You are the world-adorning sun of the sky of eminence; O you whose face brings fortune like the hümâ bird, you are the shining moon of the sphere of beauty.

3. O shah, do not think your servant has any life without you; what is seen is a worn-out mould, that is the body, and you are the soul.

4. O physician of the soul, I have died; give me a remedy; with the sherbet of your ruby lip you are the cure of my sick heart.

5. How can Şâhî find rest apart from your beauty? You are the one who steals his heart, the one his heart accepts, his charmer and his beloved.

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 is "sen" (you), and the rhyme is the "-ânı" sound in "Ken'ânı, Hânı, tâbânı, cânı, dermânı, cânânı". Kılıç counts the redif "sen" among the refrains of the divan. In the edition the folio mark [46a] stands after the fourth couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is a praise that sets the beloved at the centre of a grand comparison in every couplet. The opening couplet alludes to two prophetic stories. The prophet Joseph, famed in Egypt for his beauty, is tied to the beloved's "sun face"; the prophet Solomon, who is said to have ruled jinn and birds by his seal, is tied to the "hâtem" (seal, signet ring) of the ruby lip. The likening of the lip to a seal is well known in divan poetry: it is a small, red seal whose command is obeyed. In the second couplet the sun, the moon and the hümâ bird form a congruence of celestial images (tenasüp); it was believed that the person on whom the shadow of the hümâ fell would gain fortune and rule.

The third couplet is the plainest and most heartfelt point of the ghazal: the body is nothing but a worn-out mould, and the soul that keeps it alive is the beloved. In the fourth couplet the beloved is the physician and her lip the sherbet. The phrase "emsem eyle" in this couplet is obscure; from the context it is understood that a remedy, a medicine is being asked for, and the word may be thought to relate to "em" (medicine). This reading is ours. In the closing couplet the words "dil-rübâ, dil-pezîr, dil-ber, cânân" are listed one after another; the threefold repetition of "dil" (heart) and this listing give the line the rhythm of an enumeration.

The phrase "Süleymân Hân" in the opening couplet draws attention. In divan poetry Solomon is a name much used for its link to the seal and the ruby; yet this name is also the name of the poet's father, Sultan Süleyman the Lawgiver, and in the third couplet the addressee is plainly called "şâhâ" (O shah). Kılıç does not mention this ghazal among the poems addressed to the father. The possibility that the ghazal can also be read as a praise directed at Süleyman, and that the name carries a double entendre (tevriye) here, is our reading. According to Kılıç, Şâhî openly praises his father in the closing couplet of another ghazal as "Şark u garbun serveri Sultân Süleymân Hân" (Sultan Süleyman Han, the lord of East and West); that the same name is placed here in a comparison about beauty is therefore of interest.

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. 122 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 46a); also p. 29 (refrains), p. 36 (the couplet praising Süleyman), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources