Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Her kaçan ‘arz eylesen sen ‘âleme ey mâh-ruh
Cânı yokdur göstere halk-ı cihâna mâh ruh
Togrılup gelse n’ola her dem dile mihr-i ruhun
Togrıdur şâhâne çün reftârda her gâh ruh
İhtiyâr elden gider tarf-ı külehden nâz ile
Her kaçan kim göstere ol dil-ber-i dil-hâh ruh
Yüzüne müştâkdum cânâ kudûmundan senün
Rû-be-rû gördüm sa’âdetden bi-hamdi’llâh ruh
Nat’-ı ruhsârında yârun beydak-ı hâl-i siyâh
Rûh-ı Şâhî üstüne ferzâne kıldı şâh ruh

In English

1. O moon-faced one, whenever you show your face to the world, the moon no longer dares to show its face to the people of the world.

2. What if the sun (the love) of your cheek should come straight to the heart at every moment; for in chess the rook (ruh) always moves straight, in kingly fashion.

3. Whenever that charmer whom the heart desires shows her face with coquetry from the edge of her cap, all self-control is lost.

4. O beloved, because of your coming I was longing for your face; praise be to God, by good fortune I saw your face face to face.

5. On the chessboard of the beloved's cheek the pawn of a black mole has skilfully made a move against Şâhî's soul (his rook) that threatens king and rook at once.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal of five couplets is written in the "fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilün" pattern. The redif is the word "ruh"; the rhyme is formed by the "-âh" sound in the words "mâh, gâh, dil-hâh, -llâh, şâh". The pen name appears in the last couplet. The two lines of the opening couplet end with "mâh-ruh" (moon-faced) and "mâh ruh" (the moon's face): two expressions identical in writing but different in meaning together form rhyme and redif. This is a use that may be called a perfect pun (cinas-ı tâm).

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The real skill of the ghazal rests on the two meanings of the word "ruh". In Persian "ruh" means both cheek or face and, in chess, the rook. Supporting this double meaning with other words related to chess, the poet turns the ghazal into a chess scene. In the second couplet the beloved's cheek is asked to come "straight" to the heart, and the reason given is that the rook always moves straight. Thus the couplet expresses both a lover's wish and the movement of the rook in chess; this double entendre (tevriye) is our own observation.

In the last couplet the language of chess is set out openly. "Nat'" is the chessboard, "beydak" the foot soldier (pawn), "şâh" the king, while "ferzâne" means wise, skilful and also evokes the words "ferz" and "ferzîn", which mean the vizier (queen) in chess. The Kubbealtı Lugatı, in its entry "beydak", gives as an example Fuzûlî's couplet "Şâhtır hüsn bisâtında bugün ol gül-ruh / Ey Fuzûlî men-i âvâre sürülmüş beydak"; the same dictionary, in its entry "ferzîn", quotes a couplet that uses "nat'" and "ferzâne" together. These examples show that the use of chess terms to describe beauty was a familiar path in divan poetry. In Şâhî's couplet the beloved's cheek is the chessboard and her black mole a pawn; this pawn makes a move against the poet's "rûh" (soul) that ends with "şâh ruh". In the line there are puns between "rûh" (soul) and "ruh" (rook), and between the pen name "Şâhî" and the piece "şâh" (king). That the words "şâh ruh" describe an attack on both king and rook in the same move is our own reading.

The third and fourth couplets treat the desire to see the beloved's face more than chess. There is a closeness of meaning between "rû-be-rû" (face to face) in the fourth couplet and "ruh" (face) in the redif. The poet's use of the word "kudûm" (arrival) suggests that he is speaking of the coming of someone whose face he had long been unable to see; but there is no information about who is meant.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book pp. 56-57, ghazal no. 20 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Books

Online sources