Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Görmedüm ol mâh u mihr-ârâyı bir gün bir gice
‘Âlemi geşt eyledüm arayı bir gün bir gice
Fürkat-ı zülf ü ruhuyla dîde-i hûn-bârdan
Seyle virdüm ser-te-ser dünyâyı bir gün bir gice
Ey letâfet gülsitânınun güli bülbül-sıfat
N’eydi inletmek bu ben şeydâyı bir gün bir gice
Sâkiyâ tâb-ı ruh u zülf-i peyâmı şevkine
İçelüm câm-ı mey-i hamrâyı bir gün bir gice
Dünyede sürmek dilersen Şâhî cennet zevkini
Sîneye çek ol melek-sîmâyı bir gün bir gice

In English

1. I have not seen that one who adorns the moon and the sun for a single day and night; I have wandered the world one day and one night in search of her.

2. Through separation from her locks and cheek I have given the whole world over to the flood, one day and one night, from my eye that rains blood.

3. O rose of the garden of grace, what was the meaning of making this crazed lover, who is like a nightingale, lament one day and one night?

4. Cupbearer, for longing for the gleam of the cheek and the message of the locks, let us drink the cup of red wine one day and one night.

5. Şâhî, if you wish to enjoy the pleasure of paradise in this world, press that angel-faced one to your breast one day and one night.

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 redif (refrain) is "bir gün bir gice" (one day and one night), and the rhyme is the "-â" sound in the words "mihr-ârâ, ara, dünyâ, şeydâ, hamrâ, melek-sîmâ" together with the accusative suffix "-yı / -ı" added to it. In Kılıç's list of refrains the refrain of this ghazal appears as "gice". The first vowel of "arayı" (in order to search) in the second line of the opening couplet is short, so the rhyme loosens a little here. In the edition the folio mark [54b] stands at the end of the last couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The meaning of the refrain shifts a little in each couplet. In the opening couplet "bir gün bir gece" combines with a negative sentence and takes on the sense of "not even for a day, not even for a night": the lover has not been able to see the beloved for a single day, and he has wandered the whole world to find her. In the second couplet the same phrase is the measure of a hyperbole; in one day and one night the tears have drowned the world in a flood. In the fourth and fifth couplets, however, the refrain gives the duration of a wish: to drink for one day and one night, to press the beloved to one's breast for one day and one night.

The attribute "mihr-ârâ" in the opening couplet presents the beloved as a beauty who adorns even the sun; there is congruence of images (tenasüp) between moon and sun and the words day and night. The third couplet rests on the image of rose and nightingale. The beloved is the rose of the garden of beauty, and the lover resembles the nightingale lamenting because of her. The word "şeydâ" (crazed, infatuated) in the couplet is also, in divan poetry, the epithet of the nightingale infatuated with the rose; thus lover and nightingale are joined in a single word.

The phrase "zülf-i peyâm" in the fourth couplet is obscure. "Peyâm" means message; the phrase can be understood as "the message of the locks", but another word may have stood in its place. We have rendered it according to the reading of the edition. In the closing couplet the words paradise and angel form a congruence of images; one day and one night spent with the beloved are presented as the pleasure of paradise that can be lived in this world. The edition gives no information about the addressee of the ghazal or the time it was written.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 117, ghazal no. 147 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 54b); also p. 29 (refrains), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources