Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Gel cefâ vü cevri ko bana felek şimdengirü
Bî-vefâsın bakmayam sana felek şimdengirü
Niçe bir zulm u sitem geh geh vefâ vü mihr ile
Bu belâ-keş cânumı ana felek şimdengirü
Gûy-veş çevgân-ı gam önünce ser-gerdân idüm
Başumı gel salma her yana felek şimdengirü
Asl-ı pâkümden bu yüzden olıcak bana cefâ
Bî-vefâsın diyemem sana felek şimdengirü
Zehr-i kahr-ı yâr ile Şâhî helâk olup gider
Lutf idüp insâf vir ana felek şimdengirü

In English

1. Come, O sky, from now on leave off torment and oppression against me; you are faithless, from now on let me not look at you.

2. How long, O sky, tyranny and cruelty? From now on remember this affliction-bearing soul of mine now and then with faithfulness and affection.

3. Like a ball before the polo stick of sorrow I was spinning and dizzy; come, O sky, from now on do not toss my head in every direction.

4. Since torment comes to me in this way from my own pure lineage, O sky, from now on I cannot call you faithless.

5. Şâhî is perishing with the poison of the beloved's wrath; O sky, from now on be gracious and grant him fairness.

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 "felek şimdengirü" (O sky, from now on), and the rhyme is the "-ana" sound in the words "bana, sana, ana, yana". The rhyme words repeat: "sana" is used in the first and fourth couplets, "ana" in the second and fifth. Kılıç counts the redif "şimdengirü" among the refrains of the divan. In the edition there is no folio mark within the text of this ghazal.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The addressee of the ghazal is the sky (felek); the beloved is mentioned only in the closing couplet, through her wrath. In divan poetry the felek is the celestial wheel that governs what befalls man, changes fortune as it turns, and is most often accused of faithlessness. At the end of every couplet, saying "felek şimdengirü", the poet tells the sky a wish or a decision for what is to come.

In the third couplet a comparison from the game of çevgân is used. Çevgân is the game in which riders drive a ball with crook-ended sticks, that is, polo. The lover's head is like a ball tossed before the polo stick of sorrow; the attribute "ser-gerdân" (dizzy, bewildered) describes both the spinning of the ball and the lover's daze. The word "ana" in the second line of the second couplet can be understood in two ways: as "an", the optative form of the verb "anmak" (to remember), or in the sense of "ona" (to it/him). The translation takes the first as its basis; this reading is ours.

The most striking couplet of the ghazal is the fourth. The poet, who turns away from the sky in the opening couplet saying "you are faithless", takes the same word back in the fourth couplet: since torment comes from his own "asl-ı pâk" (pure lineage, noble family), he cannot call the sky faithless. The blame is thus taken from heaven and laid on the poet's own lineage. Kılıç notes that Bayezid's struggle with his father Süleyman and his elder brother Selim, and the hardships he suffered, are reflected in his poems. It is natural that the expression "asl-ı pâk" in the mouth of a prince should suggest the Ottoman dynasty, that is, the father and the brother; but Kılıç does not mention this ghazal, and this reading is ours. In the closing couplet the source of pain is again shown to be the beloved's wrath, and only fairness is asked of the sky.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 110, ghazal no. 131 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225); also p. 29 (refrains), p. 31 (the reflection of his life story in the poems), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources