Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef’ûlü Mefâ’îlü Mefâ’îlü Fe’ûlün

Şâhâ sarılup şevk ile kanlu kefenümle
İrsem tapuna yüz süre bîmâr tenümle
Gussanla neler çekdügüm ey şâh-ı cihânum
Nâmem diyemez ben diyebilsem dehenümle
Ya’kûb-ı dilün gözlerin ey Yûsuf-ı cânum
Rahm eyle hemân di açayın pîrehenümle
Bir kerre göre dir misin ey bülbül-i hoş-gûy
Gönlin açayın gül gibi şîrîn sühanumla
Şâhî irişürdi dil-i mecrûhuma tîmâr
Bir ân enîs olsa eger yâr benümle

In English

1. My shah, if I could wrap myself eagerly in my bloody shroud and reach your presence with my sick body, rubbing my face (on your threshold).

2. O shah of my world, my letter cannot tell what I have suffered through grief for you; if only I could say it with my own mouth.

3. O Joseph of my soul, have pity on the eyes of the heart's Jacob; only say, "Let me open them with my shirt," and it is enough.

4. O sweet-voiced nightingale, will you say, "Let me see him once"? Then I shall open his heart like a rose with my sweet speech. The couplet can be read in two ways: the nightingale is sent to the beloved as a messenger, or the lover asks the nightingale to speak on his behalf.

5. If the beloved were my companion for a single moment, Şâhî, (that grace) would bring healing to my wounded heart.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The five-couplet ghazal is written in the "mef'ûlü mefâ'îlü mefâ'îlü fe'ûlün" pattern. The rhyme is the "-en" sound in the words "kefen, ten, dehen, pîrehen, sühan, ben"; the suffixes "-ümle / -umla" (with my) that follow serve as the redif (refrain). Because of vowel harmony, "sühanumla" in the fourth couplet differs from the others. The pen name (mahlas) stands at the beginning of the last couplet as a form of address. In the edition the folio mark [53a] stands beside the number of the ghazal; that is, the new leaf begins with this ghazal.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet describes the lover wrapping himself in a bloody shroud and coming with his sick body to rub his face on the beloved's threshold. Coming in a shroud is the picture of a submission that has accepted death from the outset. The second couplet sets speech against writing: the letter is not enough to tell the pain endured; the lover thinks he can only tell his trouble face to face, with his own mouth. The third couplet rests on the best-known scene of the story of Joseph. When the shirt of the prophet Joseph was laid on the face of his father Jacob, Jacob's eyes were opened. Here the poet likens his heart to Jacob and the beloved to Joseph, and he expects only a word from him: that he should say "let me open them with my shirt" will be enough to open the eyes of the heart.

In the fourth couplet the nightingale enters. The familiar relation between rose and nightingale turns here into a system of messages; the idiom "gönlini açmak" (to open someone's heart, to cheer him) recalls both the gladdening of the heart and the bud opening into a rose. "Tîmâr" in the last couplet means the care of a wound. That the same word also meant a fief (dirlik) in the Ottoman state is of interest in a prince's poem; but there is no other word in the couplet to support this second meaning, and this possibility is only our own reading.

Historical Context

Kılıç does not mention this ghazal among the poems addressed to the father. The addresses "Şâhâ" (my shah) and "şâh-ı cihânum" (shah of my world), the inadequacy of the letter and the comparison of Joseph and Jacob bring the ghazal close to the poems he lists. According to Kılıç, Bayezid wrote many letters to his father, and most of them went unanswered. That this ghazal may have been written in the same mood is our own reading; the edition does not state when it was written or to whom.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book pp. 115-116, ghazal no. 144 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 53a); also p. 32 (the son waiting for a letter from his father), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources