Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

‘Âşık oldum bir görüşde ol gözi mestâneye
Zülfini zencîr kıldum bu dil-i dîvâneye
Çeşm-i gammâzun gamından yüregüm pür-hûn olup
La’l-i nâbun hasretiyle düşmişem peymâneye
Hasret-i câm-ı mey-i la’l-i lebünle ey sanem
Ger düşersem tan mıdur meyhâneden meyhâneye
Âteş-i şevk-i ruhunla giceler tâ subha dek
Bâl u per yakmagı ta’lîm eylerem pervâneye
Reşk idüp Şâhî gönül nice perîşân olmasun
Zülfine el vurmağa virdi icâzet şâneye

In English

1. I fell in love at one glance with that one of the languid, drunken eyes; I made her locks a chain for this mad heart of mine.

2. From the grief caused by your tale-bearing eye my heart has filled with blood; through longing for your lip of pure ruby I have fallen into the cup.

3. O idol, if through longing for the cup of the ruby wine of your lip I fall from tavern to tavern, is that any wonder?

4. Through longing for the fire of your cheek I teach the moth, all night until morning, how to burn its wings.

5. Şâhî, how should the heart not be distraught with jealousy? (The beloved) has given the comb leave to lay its hand on her locks.

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 rhyme is the "-âne" sound in the words "mestâne, dîvâne, peymâne, meyhâne, pervâne, şâne"; the dative suffix "-ye" attached to them stands in the place of the redif (refrain). All the rhyme words come from the vocabulary of love and the drinking gathering: the drunken eye, the mad heart, the cup, the tavern, the moth and the comb. This is the metre used most often in the divan. In the edition the folio mark [53b] stands after the second couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal begins by describing love at first sight; the phrase "bir görüşde" (at one glance) stresses that love began with a single look, and the rest of the ghazal sets out the consequences of that first look. The beloved's eye is "mestâne", that is, it gazes languidly as if drunk; the lover's heart is "dîvâne" (mad). In divan poetry madmen were put in chains; the poet, too, makes the beloved's locks a chain for his mad heart. That the locks are both curling and ringed makes the comparison with a chain easy. In the second and third couplets the likeness of colour between lip and wine is worked out. "La'l-i nâb" (pure ruby) recalls both the redness of the lip and the colour of wine. For this reason the lover falls into the cup, and from there from tavern to tavern. The attribute "gammâz" (tale-bearing) expresses that the eye reveals, through its glances, the secrets of the heart.

The fourth couplet gives a new turn to the image of candle and moth. The moth is the insect that rushes to the candle's light and burns its wings. The poet has burned so much that it is he who teaches the moth this work. Burning through the night until morning also recalls the time a candle takes to burn down.

The closing couplet carries the finest conceit of the ghazal. The comb is the only thing that may touch the beloved's locks; the beloved has given it this permission. That the heart becomes "perîşân" (distraught) with jealousy also recalls the disorder of hair being combed. Thus the word describes both the state of the lover and the hair of the beloved, and the couplet closes with a tevriye (double entendre). The lover is bound to the locks as if by a chain, while the comb touches them freely; this contrast between the opening and the closing couplets frames the ghazal. To whom and when the ghazal was written is unknown.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 116, ghazal no. 145 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 53b); also p. 29 (metres), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources