Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Câna kâr itdi bu gün yine nigâr ayrılugı
Ne katı müşkil imiş sevgili yâr ayrılugı
Kadümi iki büküp yüregümi yakdı benüm
Ol boyı serv-i revân lâle-’izâr ayrılugı
Âh kim şol leb-i la’lünle müselsel saçunun
Komadı cânda safâ dilde karâr ayrılugı
Rahm kıl hâlüme cevr itme ki anca beylügün
İtdi ben ‘âşıkunı zâr u nizâr ayrılugı
Düşürüp künc-i gam u hasrete derdâ vü dirîg
Agladur Şâhî-i dil-dâr u diyâr ayrılugı

In English

1. Today again the separation from the beloved has pierced my soul; how hard a thing is the separation from a dear beloved.

2. The separation from that swaying cypress of stature, that tulip-cheeked one, has bent my stature double and burned my heart.

3. Ah, the separation from that ruby lip and your chain-like hair has left no delight in the soul and no rest in the heart.

4. Have pity on my state, do not torment me; for the separation from your lordship (or from the lordship) has made me, your lover, so lamenting and wasted.

5. Alas and alack, the separation from beloved and homeland casts Şâhî into the corner of grief and longing and makes him weep.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The five-couplet ghazal is written in the "fe'ilâtün fe'ilâtün fe'ilâtün fe'ilün" pattern. The redif (refrain) is "ayrılugı" (the separation from), and the rhyme is the "-âr" sound in the words "nigâr, yâr, lâle-'izâr, karâr, nizâr, diyâr". Kılıç counts "ayrılugı" among the refrains of the divan. The refrain is a Turkish noun, and in every couplet it becomes the second element of a phrase stating from whom or what one has been separated. In the edition the folio mark [60b] stands beside the number of the ghazal; that is, the new leaf begins with this ghazal.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet states the whole subject of the ghazal: separation has again pierced the soul today, and how hard a thing it is to be parted from someone loved. The plainness of the second line sounds like a complaint taken from spoken language. In the second couplet the beloved's stature is likened to a cypress walking with a sway, and her cheek to a tulip. There is a contrast between the uprightness of the cypress and the lover's stature bent double. In the third couplet the attribute "müselsel" describes hair ringed like a chain; the chain at the same time recalls binding and captivity.

The phrase "beylügün ayrılugı" in the fourth couplet can be read in two ways. If the word is understood as "your lordship", the beloved is addressed as "my lord", and the separation is being far from her. If it is understood as "the separation from the lordship", the phrase describes separation from a beylik, that is, from a place one governs. In the closing couplet the phrase "dil-dâr u diyâr ayrılugı" (the separation from beloved and homeland) strengthens this second reading; the lover complains of being parted from his homeland as well as from the beloved.

Historical Context

Kılıç does not mention this ghazal. In a letter quoted by Kılıç, Bayezid, complaining of being sent from Kütahya to Amasya in 1558, tells his father, "beni yerimden yurdumdan ayırdınız" (you have parted me from my place and my home). That the words about separation from the beylik and the homeland in the ghazal may reflect such a change of post is our own reading. There are other separations in Bayezid's life as well; Kılıç notes that the prince regarded the places he went as exile, and his flight to Iran in 1559 was also a parting from a homeland. Which separation the ghazal describes and when it was written are not stated in the edition.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book pp. 124-125, ghazal no. 164 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 60b); also pp. 10-11 (the transfer to Amasya and the letter "you have parted me from my place and my home"), p. 13 (refuge in Iran), p. 29 (refrains) and p. 41 (exile), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources