Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Gel tabîbâ ko müdâvâyı bana em sem ile
Yârem ol yâre degül kim onula merhem ile
Hâr-ı hicrân komadı gülşen-i vuslatda dirîg
‘Andelîb-i dili hem-dem ola ol gül-fem ile
Dem-be-dem hasret-i ruhsârı ile aglamadan
Gark-ı hûn-âb ideyin yiryüzini dîdem ile
Ol zemân kim ruhı mir’âtına nâzırdı gözüm
Cem gibi vâkıf idüm ‘âleme câm-ı Cem ile
Hazretünden bu gönül ey şeh-i gerdûn-cenâb
Eşk-i çeşmümle umar merhameti yâ nem ile
Çâre kılmazsan eger derd-i dile pörsiş ile (?)
Ölürem pister-i hasretde tabîbüm gam ile
Cân bedende vü beden sıhhat ü râhatda idi
Şâhî ol demde ki hem-demdi o ‘Îsâ-dem ile

In English

1. Come, O physician, leave off treating me with remedy and poison; my wound is not a wound that heals with ointment.

2. Alas, the thorn of separation has not allowed the nightingale of the heart, in the rose garden of union, to be the companion of that rose-mouthed one.

3. Through weeping without pause in longing for her cheek, let me drown the face of the earth in bloody waters with my eyes.

4. At the time when my eye gazed into the mirror of her cheek, I was, like Cem (Jamshid), aware of the whole world through the cup of Cem.

5. O shah with the majesty of the heavens, this heart hopes for mercy from your presence through the tears of my eyes, or through (their) moisture.

6. If you do not find a remedy for the heart's pain by asking after it, O my physician, I shall die of grief on the bed of longing.

7. Şâhî, at the moment when he was the companion of that one with the breath of Jesus, the soul was in the body and the body in health and ease.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The seven-couplet ghazal is written in the "fe'ilâtün fe'ilâtün fe'ilâtün fe'ilün" pattern. The redif (refrain word) is "ile" (with), and the rhyme is the "-em" sound in the words "sem, merhem, gül-fem, dîdem, Cem, nem, gam, 'Îsâ-dem". Kılıç counts "ile" among the refrains of the divan. In the edition the first line of the sixth couplet is given with the mark "(?)"; the editor is not certain of the reading "pörsiş". The text has not been altered. The folio mark [54a] stands after the fifth couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is built within the frame, common in divan poetry, of the physician and the lovesick patient. In the opening couplet the words "em" (remedy) and "sem" (poison) stand side by side; the treatment the physician knows is of no use to the lover. The word "yâre" in the second line means "wound", but it also calls up the word "yâr" (beloved); this play on sounds lets it be sensed that the wound comes from the beloved. In the second couplet the trio of rose, nightingale and thorn expresses separation: the thorn prevents the nightingale from approaching the rose-mouthed beloved. In the third couplet the tears multiply until they drown the face of the earth in bloody waters; bloody tears are a familiar hyperbole in divan poetry expressing the violence of separation.

The fourth couplet alludes to the cup of Cem. In Persian legend it was believed that the whole world could be seen in the cup of the king Jamshid. The poet likens the beloved's cheek to a mirror; in the days when he gazed upon that face, he too, like Cem, saw the whole world. Mirror and cup are joined as two shining surfaces that show the world.

In the last couplet the words "hem-dem" (companion, confidant) and "'Îsâ-dem" (with the breath of Jesus) lean on each other in sound. It is believed that Jesus raised the dead with his breath; the beloved's lip and speech are therefore likened to the breath of Jesus. Thus the physician of the ghazal's opening gives way at the end to the true physician: what heals the lover is the nearness of the beloved, and neither remedy nor ointment. In the fifth couplet mercy is asked of a ruler with the address "ey şeh-i gerdûn-cenâb" (O shah with the majesty of the heavens). This address brings the ghazal close to the poems Kılıç thinks were written to the father, but Kılıç does not mention this ghazal, and nothing can be said about its addressee.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book pp. 116-117, ghazal no. 146 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 54a); also p. 29 (refrains) and p. 43 (the meaning of the mark "(?)"), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources