Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe’ilâtün Fe’ilâtün Fe’ilâtün Fe’ilün

Gark-ı hûn dâglarum sîne-i mahzûn üzre
Lâlelerdür sanasın meşhed-i Mecnûn üzre
Nâr-ı hasretle yanan bülbül-i dil ‘aks durur
Hâl sanman görinen ol ruh-ı gül-gûn üzre
Kaşun altında gözün fi’l-mesel ey âfet-i cân
Şol siyeh nokta durur kim yazılur nûn üzre
Seng-dillük nic’olur kim işidüp nâlemi yâr
Merhamet kılmadı ben hâli diger-gûn üzre
İki göz köpridür ey Şâhî gözüm üzre kaşum
Birisi rûd-ı Aras birisi Ceyhûn üzre

In English

1. The blood-soaked brands upon my grieving breast are, you would think, tulips blooming upon Mecnun's grave.

2. Do not take for a mole what is seen upon that rose-coloured cheek; it is the reflection of the heart's nightingale burning in the fire of longing.

3. O bane of the soul, your eye beneath your brow is, for example, that black dot that is written upon the letter nûn.

4. What hardness of heart, that the beloved, hearing my moan, showed no mercy while my state was so distressed.

5. Şâhî, my brows above my eyes are two-arched bridges; one over the river Aras, the other over the Oxus.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The five-couplet ghazal is written in the "fe'ilâtün fe'ilâtün fe'ilâtün fe'ilün" pattern. The redif is "üzre" (upon), and the rhyme is the "-ûn" sound in "mahzûn, Mecnûn, gül-gûn, nûn, diger-gûn, Ceyhûn". Kılıç notes that the redif "üzre" is used in two ghazals of the divan; the other is Ghazal 139. In the edition the folio mark [50a] stands after the last couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The redif "üzre" turns the ghazal into a series of images in which one thing stands upon another. In the opening couplet the bloody wounds on the breast are likened to tulips blooming upon Mecnun's grave. The red petals and black heart of the tulip are a familiar likeness of a burnt heart in divan poetry. In the second couplet the mole on the cheek is explained by fanciful aetiology (hüsn-i talil): it is not a mole but the reflection, fallen on the cheek, of the heart's nightingale burning in the fire of longing.

The third couplet is a comparison drawn from a letter. The Arabic letter "nûn" (ن) consists of a bowl-shaped curve with a dot above it. The poet likens the brow to the curve of the nûn and the eye beneath it to the dot of this letter. Comparisons made from the shapes of letters of this kind are images that the reader of divan poetry, raised in a culture of writing, recognises at once. The fourth couplet is a simple reproach directed at the beloved's hardness of heart; the word "diger-gûn" (changed, distressed) describes the decline of the lover's state.

The closing couplet carries the most original image of the ghazal. The poet likens his own brows to two bridges standing above his eyes. The phrase "iki göz köprü" describes a bridge with two arches; that the arch of a bridge is called "göz" (eye) gives the word a second sense. The eyes, in turn, are two rivers flowing with tears: one the Aras, the other the Ceyhun (Oxus). In the last letter Bayezid wrote to his father from Iran, quoted by Kılıç, the tears are mentioned with the same river: "gözlerüm pür-hûn ve yaşum Nîl ü Ceyhûn olmışdur" (my eyes are full of blood and my tears have become the Nile and the Oxus). This likeness shows that the image of the river lived in the poet's language. Whether there is a trace of the journey to the east in the choice of the names Aras and Ceyhun, however, cannot be understood from the text; this connection is only a conjecture of ours.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book pp. 111-112, ghazal no. 135 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 50a); also p. 14 (the phrase "yaşum Nîl ü Ceyhûn" in the last letter), p. 29 (refrains), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources