Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Bu gün bir meh-likâ gördüm bu şehr-i ‘âlem-ârâda
Ararsan misli bulınmaz Semerkand u Buhârâda
Düşüp meyhâne küncine begüm mest ü harâb olduk
Görelden leblerün aksin mey-i câm-ı musaffâda
Didüm ey derde dermânum seni pehlûya çeksem bir
Gülüp didi o ‘Îsâ-dem ol olmaz iki dünyâda
Gönül murgını sayd itdi çeküp dâm-ı cefâsına
‘Acâyib sihr var ancak bu zülf-i ‘anber-âsâda
Gözi hançer çeküp bir yanadan kaşı kemân çekmiş
Nic’itsün n’eylesün bî-çâre Şâhî kaldı arada

In English

1. Today in this world-adorning city I saw one with a face like the moon; if you searched, her like would be found neither in Samarkand nor in Bukhara.

2. My lord, ever since we saw the reflection of your lips in the wine of the pure, clear cup, we have fallen into the corner of the tavern, drunk and ruined.

3. I said, "O cure of my pain, if I could once draw you to my side"; that one with the breath of Jesus laughed and said, "That cannot be in either world."

4. She has drawn the bird of the heart into the snare of cruelty and caught it; there is a strange magic in these ambergris-like locks.

5. On one side her eye has drawn a dagger, her brow has bent a bow; what can helpless Şâhî do, what can he do? He is caught in between.

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. At the end of every couplet stands the locative suffix "-da"; the rhyme lies in the "-â" sound before this suffix: "'âlem-ârâda, Buhârâda, musaffâda, dünyâda, 'anber-âsâda, arada". The short vowel of "arada" in the last couplet loosens the rhyme slightly. In the edition there is no folio mark within the text of this ghazal.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens with the account of an encounter: "today" and "in this city" the poet has seen one with a face like the moon. Which city is meant by the expression "bu şehr-i 'âlem-ârâ" (this world-adorning city) cannot be understood from the text; the edition gives no information on this either. Samarkand and Bukhara are distant cities of the East mentioned in divan poetry for their wealth and beauty; that the beloved's like is not found even there is a hyperbole expressing the incomparability of her beauty.

In the second couplet the reflection of the beloved's lip appears in the pure wine. The likeness of colour between the red lip and the red wine casts the lover into the corner of the tavern. The line uses the plural "olduk" (we became); the lover describes himself within the company of a gathering.

The third couplet is a short conversation. The lover addresses the beloved as "the cure of my pain" and says that he would like to draw her to his side once. The beloved, for her part, is called "'Îsâ-dem" (with the breath of Jesus). It is believed that Jesus raised the dead with his breath; in divan poetry the beloved's lip and speech are therefore likened to the breath of Jesus. The subtlety of the couplet lies in the fact that the owner of the breath that raises the dead laughingly refuses to be a cure for the lover's pain: "that cannot be in either world".

In the fourth couplet the locks are a snare and the heart a bird that falls into that snare; the attribute "'anber-âsâ" (like ambergris) describes both the scent and the dark colour of the locks. The closing couplet ends with a scene of battle. The eye has drawn a dagger, the brow has bent a bow; the poet is caught between two weapons. The idiom "arada kalmak" (to be caught in between) expresses helplessness with a plain phrase of everyday speech, and this idiom also carries the rhyme.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 114, ghazal no. 140 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources