Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Kabûl itdüm ben ol yâri vefâsı olsun olmasun
Çevürmem yüz cenâbından cefâsı olsun olmasun
Dimişler ‘ışk deryâdur düşen andan halâs olmaz
Ana dil zevrakın saldum hatâsı olsun olmasun
Yüri pendi ko ey vâ’iz eger bâl u belâ yilse
Ben ol şîrîn-lebi sevdüm belâsı olsun olmasun
Etıbbâ dir imiş Kânûn içinde ‘ışka dermân yok
Ben anı ihtiyâr itdüm devâsı olsun olmasun
Bahâr eyyâmı gül devri el ur câm-ı meye Şâhî
Gerekse sûfî-i şehrün safâsı olsun olmasun

In English

1. I have accepted that beloved, whether she is faithful or not; I will not turn my face from her presence, whether she is cruel or not.

2. They say love is a sea, and whoever falls into it is never saved; I have launched the boat of my heart upon it, whether it is perilous or not.

3. O preacher, go, leave your counsel; even if honey and affliction rain down on me, I have loved that sweet-lipped one, whether she brings affliction or not.

4. The physicians say, it seems, that in the Canon there is no cure for love; I have chosen it, whether it has a remedy or not.

5. Şâhî, these are the days of spring, the season of the rose; reach for the cup of wine, whether the town's Sufi is pleased or not.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The five-couplet ghazal is written in the "mefâ'îlün mefâ'îlün mefâ'îlün mefâ'îlün" pattern. The redif is "olsun olmasun" (whether it is or not), and the rhyme is the "-âsı" sound in "vefâsı, cefâsı, hatâsı, belâsı, devâsı, safâsı". Kılıç counts the redif "olmasun" among the refrains of the divan. In the edition the folio mark [47b] stands at the beginning of the ghazal.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is a poem of resolve in which the lover says he accepts love with all its consequences. The redif "olsun olmasun" rejects a possibility in every couplet: the beloved's faithfulness, the danger of the sea of love, the beloved's affliction, the cure of love and the Sufi's approval do not change the lover's decision. The redif thus turns into an expression of indifference and defiance.

In the second couplet love is likened to a sea and the heart to a boat ("zevrak") launched upon it. The word "hatâ" carries here the senses of both error and danger. In the third couplet the preacher is the type who counsels the lover and tries to turn him from his path; the lover does not listen to him. The phrase "bâl u belâ yilse" in the first line of this couplet is obscure; it can be understood as "even if both honey and affliction rain down", but the meaning of the verb "yilmek" here is not certain. This reading is ours.

In the fourth couplet the word "Kânûn" is typeset with a capital letter and refers to Avicenna's famous medical book el-Kānûn fi't-tıb (the Canon of Medicine). This work was regarded as the greatest encyclopedic work of Islamic medicine and was studied for centuries in East and West. The poet reports that physicians say there is no medicine for love even in this book, and says that he has chosen love nonetheless. The shared form of the book's title and the word "kanun" (law) gives the couplet a second echo. Since Bayezid's father was called "Kanuni" (the Lawgiver), one may ask whether there is a play on the name here; but there is no other sign in the text to support this, and the possibility is only a conjecture of ours.

The closing couplet uses the familiar opposition in divan poetry between the rind (the free-spirited drinker) and the Sufi. Spring and the season of the rose are the time of revelry; whether the town's Sufi is pleased or not is no reason to keep the poet from reaching for the cup. This ending shows most plainly the indifference carried by the redif.

Bibliography

Online sources