Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

‘Ârızun âşüftesi âyâ bu gîsûlar mıdur
Yohsa ol âteş-perest olan şu Hindûlar mıdur
Kulle-i kûh-ı mahabbetde bu gönlüm şîrîni
Râm u nahcîr eyleyen ol çeşm-i câdûlar mıdur
Çeşmüne cânâ kirişmeyle dil-aşûb itmegi
Bilmezem ta’lîm iden gamzenle ebrûlar mıdur
Kim ola şeb-bû iden didüm meşâm-ı ‘âlemi
Kâküline el urup didi ‘aceb bular mıdur
Ayagına yüz sürüp Şâhî o serv-kâmetün
Eşk-i çeşmüm cûş idüp akar ‘aceb cûlar mıdur

In English

1. Are these tresses perhaps the ones enamoured of your cheek, or are they those fire-worshipping Hindus?

2. On the summit of the mountain of love, is it those sorcerous eyes that have tamed and hunted the Şirin (the sweetness) of my heart?

3. O beloved, I do not know who taught your eye to confound hearts with coquetry; was it your glance and your brows?

4. I said, "Who is it that fills the nostrils of the world with the scent of the night-flower?" She put her hand to her forelocks and said, "Could it be these?"

5. When Şâhî rubs his face at the feet of that cypress-tall one, the tears of my eyes surge and flow; are these perhaps streams?

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 and stands on folio 10a of the manuscript. The redif is "-lar mıdur" (are they); the rhyme is formed by the "-û" sound in the words "gîsû, Hindû, câdû, ebrû, bu, cû". "Mıdur" is in Kılıç's list of redifs. The pen name appears in the last couplet.

A couplet written with the same redif and rhyme belongs to Bayezid's brother, Prince Cihangir. Kılıç quotes Cihangir's couplet from Ahdî's Gülşen-i Şu'arâ: "'Akl u fikrüm târumâr iden bu gîsûlar mıdur / Yohsa ruhsârundaki bu hâl-i hindûlar mıdur". Not only redif and rhyme but also construction are shared between this couplet and Şâhî's opening couplet: in both, the first line ends with "gîsûlar mıdur" and the second begins with "yohsa" (or else) and ends with "hindûlar mıdur". Kılıç does not mention this similarity. That the two princes wrote on the same ground, while it is not known which of them wrote first, is our own observation; Cihangir died in 1553.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet the beloved's cheek is likened to fire, and her black hair and moles to "Hindû". In divan poetry the Hindu is the symbol of blackness and unbelief; the fire-worshipping Hindu is the theme of black hair gathered around the fire of the cheek. Asking whether it is the hair or the "fire-worshipping Hindus" that are enamoured of the cheek, the poet blends the two comparisons together. The phrase "kulle-i kûh-ı mahabbet" (the summit of the mountain of love) and the word "şîrîn" in the second couplet evoke the story of Ferhad and Şirin; but the structure of the line is obscure, and the words "gönlüm şîrîni" can be read either as "the sweetness of my heart" or as "the Şirin of my heart". This reading is our own.

In the third couplet the poet asks from whom the eye learned the art of confounding hearts, and the glance and the brows are pointed to as the answer; there is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between eye, glance and brow. The fourth couplet is a small scene of dialogue: the poet asks who it is that fills the world with the scent of the night-flower (şeb-bû), and the beloved puts her hand to her forelocks and says, "Could it be these?" The association of hair with musk and night fragrance is common in divan poetry; a link is also drawn between the blackness of the forelock and the darkness of night. In the last couplet the tears flowing at the feet of the cypress-tall beloved are likened to streams; the cypress's growing by the water is the basis of this comparison.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 59, ghazal no. 26 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 10a); also p. 6 (Prince Cihangir's couplet "gîsûlar mıdur", from Ahdî) and p. 29 (redifs), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources