Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Hizmetünde gice gündüz peyk-veş cânum gezer
Hasretünden subha dek çeşmüm ciger kanın ezer
Pûte-i ihlâs-ı ‘ışkunda yanaldan bu gönül
Sâf u pâk olmış durur şâha yolunda hemçü zer
Göreli şîrîn-zebânum bu gözüm ruhsârunı
Cân u ser terk eyleyüp Ferhâd-veş kıldı güzer
Niçe yüz bin bend ile baglar dil-i sad-pâremi
Her kaçan kim nâz ile ol mâh-rû zülfin çözer
Ehl-i nazm içre n’ola kadri olursa Şâhînün
Kim me’ânî sakfını o dürr-i nazm ile bezer

In English

1. Night and day my soul goes about in your service like a courier; from longing for you my eye wrings out the blood of my liver until dawn.

2. Since this heart has burned in the crucible of the sincerity of love for you, O king, it has become pure and clean like gold on your path.

3. O sweet-tongued one (Şirin of speech), since this eye of mine saw your cheek, like Ferhad it has abandoned soul and head and passed away.

4. Whenever that moon-faced one coquettishly loosens her locks, she binds my heart, torn into a hundred pieces, with many a hundred thousand bonds.

5. What if Şâhî is esteemed among the poets; for he adorns the ceiling of meanings with the pearl of his verse.

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. There is no redif; the rhyme is formed by the "-zer" sound in the words "gezer, ezer, zer, güzer, çözer, bezer". The pen name appears in the last couplet. Kılıç quotes the last couplet of this ghazal under the reference "G24/5" as an example of the few couplets in which the poet praises his own poetry; the number in the introduction is one greater than the number in the text, and the quoted couplet is the closing couplet of the twenty-third ghazal in the text.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet the soul is likened to a "peyk", a royal courier, going about in service night and day. Service, the courier and the address "şâh" (king) in the second couplet describe love within the order of a court. In the second line the sleepless eye "wringing out" the blood of the liver rests on the idea that tears are blood pressed from the liver. The second couplet builds a simile taken from the refining of gold: gold is purified by being melted in the crucible (pûte), and the heart too has become pure and clean by burning in the crucible of the sincerity of love. There is a clear congruence of images (tenasüp) between crucible, burning and gold.

In the third couplet the beloved is addressed as "şîrîn-zebân" (sweet-tongued). The word "şîrîn" means sweet and also recalls the heroine of the story of Ferhad and Şirin; the mention of Ferhad's name in the line makes this double entendre (tevriye) clear. Like Ferhad, who pierced the mountain for Şirin and finally gave his life, the lover's eye too has given up soul and head on seeing the beloved's cheek. In the fourth couplet there is a contrast between "çözer" (loosens) and "baglar" (binds): whenever the beloved loosens her locks, she binds the lover's heart with a hundred thousand bonds. The relation between the curls of the locks and the multitude of bonds rests on the theme of hair as a snare that holds hearts.

The last couplet is a piece of self-praise (fahriye). The poet finds it natural that he should be esteemed among the poets, since he adorns the ceiling of meanings with his pearl-like verses. The likening of poetry to pearls and of the couplet to a building is a familiar comparison in divan poetry. Kılıç notes that Şâhî had a modest nature that did not praise itself, and that such praises are ordinary and unexaggerated. No conclusion that the ghazal was written to a particular person follows from the address "şâh" in the second couplet; in divan poetry it is common to address the beloved as king.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book pp. 57-58, ghazal no. 23 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225); also p. 42 (quoted in the introduction as "G24/5"; the poet's praise of his own poetry), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources