Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mef’ûlü Fâ’ilâtü Mefâ’îlü Fâ’ilün
Cûş itdi bahr-i dilde mahabbet eserleri
Saldı kenâr-ı ‘ârıza eşküm dürerleri
Bin ‘acz ile cenâbına yârün yüzün sürüp
Ey merdümân dîdelerüm saç güherleri
Cân u gönül revân olalı çîn-i zülfüne
Nâm u nişân belürmedi batdı haberleri
İrişeli kulaguma peygam-ı vasl-ı dost
Mir’ât-ı dilde kalmadı fürkat kederleri
Yıkdı cihânı Şâhî figânum sadâları
Yakd’âsumânı âteş-i âhum şererleri
In English
1. In the sea of the heart the signs of love have surged and boiled; my tears have cast their pearls upon the shore of the cheek.
2. O people (in another reading: O pupils of my eyes), let my eyes, rubbing their face with a thousand humilities at the beloved's threshold, scatter jewels.
3. Since soul and heart went off into the curls of your locks, neither name nor trace of them has appeared; the news of them has sunk away.
4. Since the news of union with the friend reached my ear, no (rust of the) sorrows of separation has remained on the mirror of the heart.
5. Şâhî, the sounds of my lament have ruined the world; the sparks of the fire of my sighs have burned the heavens.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Structure of the Poem
The five-couplet ghazal is written in the "mef'ûlü fâ'ilâtü mefâ'îlü fâ'ilün" pattern. The rhyme is the "-er" sound in the words "eser, dürer, güher, haber, keder, şerer", and the redif (refrain) is the suffix "-leri", which marks the plural and the possessive. According to Kılıç's note, the reading "Yakd'âsumânı" in the last line is required by the metre; the two words "yakdı âsumânı" (burned the heavens) are read as joined. The pen name (mahlas) is used in the closing couplet in the form "Şâhî figânum" (Şâhî, my lament), together with a first-person possessive suffix; the poet both addresses himself and speaks in his own voice. In the edition the folio mark [56a] stands beside the number of the ghazal.
Meaning and Figures of Speech
The opening couplet begins with a seascape. The heart is a sea, love makes this sea surge, and the waves leave pearls on the "kenâr", that is, the shore of the cheek. The pearls are tears. The congruence of images (tenasüp) between bahr (sea), kenâr (shore) and dürer (pearls) likens the tears running down the cheek to the sea casting pearls on the shore. The second couplet makes use of the two meanings of the word "merdüm": the word means person, and it also means the pupil of the eye. The address "ey merdümân" can therefore be read as directed both to people and to the pupils of the eyes; the following "dîdelerüm" (my eyes) strengthens the second reading.
In the third couplet the word "çîn" means the curl of the locks, but it also recalls the land of China. Soul and heart have gone off into these curls as if to a distant country; no name or trace is left, and news of them has been cut off. In the fourth couplet the heart is a mirror that gathers rust like the old metal mirrors. The sorrow of separation forms this rust, and the news of union wipes it away. In divan poetry the heart is widely thought of as a mirror, together with the idea of its being polished and purified.
The closing couplet ends with a hyperbole: the sound of the lament ruins the world, the sparks of the sighs burn the sky. Thus the ghazal passes from the sea, the shore and the mirror of the opening couplets and ends with a blaze reaching from earth to heaven. The transition between the news of union in the fourth couplet and the blaze in the closing couplet seems abrupt; since the couplets of a ghazal are not expected to be bound together by a tight thread of subject, this is not unusual in divan poetry. 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 pp. 118-119, ghazal no. 151 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 56a); footnote 113 (the reading "Yakd'âsumânı"); also p. 29 (metres), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.
Online sources
