Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ey sabâ lutf it haber vir ol nigârum hoş mıdur
Lâle-haddüm serv-kaddüm gül-‘izârum hoş mıdur
‘Asker-i Sünnî ile azm-i Kızılbaş eyleyen
Server-i sâhib-kırânum tâc-dârum hoş mıdur
Hasretinden gözlerüm gurbetde giryân eyleyen
Ol hayâl-i yâr-ı cân u gam-güsârum hoş mıdur
Pâdişâhum serverüm püşt-i penâhum mesnedüm
Rüstem-ı meydân-ı rezm ü şeh-süvârum hoş mıdur
Hizmetinde Şâhîyi dûr eyleyüp nâ-kâm iden
Pâdişâhum kâmrânum şehr-yârum hoş mıdur

In English

1. O morning breeze, be kind and bring me news: is that beloved of mine well; is my tulip-cheeked, cypress-tall, rose-faced one well?

2. Is my lord, the lord of the auspicious conjunction (sâhib-kırân), my crowned one, who marches against the Kızılbaş with the Sunni army, well?

3. Is the image of that beloved of my soul, my consoler, who with longing makes my eyes weep in exile, well?

4. Is my padishah, my lord, my protector, my support, the Rüstem of the field of battle, my royal horseman, well?

5. Is my padishah, my fortunate ruler, my sovereign, who has kept Şâhî far from his service and left him without his wish, well?

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 "-um hoş mıdur" (is my ... well); the rhyme is formed by the "-âr" sound in the words "nigâr, gül-'izâr, tâc-dâr, gam-güsâr, şeh-süvâr, şehr-yâr". Every line ends with the question "hoş mıdur" (is he well, is he in good health). The pen name appears in the last couplet. Kılıç quotes this ghazal in full in two places in the introduction and refers to it as "G28"; the number in the introduction is one greater than the number in the text. The quotation in the introduction reads "gam-küsâr" and "Rüstem-i".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens with an address to the morning breeze (sabâ), the messenger wind of divan poetry. In the first couplet the one addressed is a beloved with tulip cheeks, cypress stature and rose face; from the second couplet onward it becomes clear that this beloved is a ruler. The epithets "server, sâhib-kırân, tâc-dâr, pâdişâh, püşt-i penâh, mesned, şeh-süvâr, şehr-yâr" (lord, lord of the auspicious conjunction, crowned one, padishah, protector, support, royal horseman, sovereign) follow one another. In the fourth couplet the ruler is likened to Rüstem, the hero of the Iranian epic. The union of the epithets of beauty used for a beloved and the epithets of sovereignty used for a ruler under the same redif is the original side of the ghazal.

Historical Context

According to Kılıç the ghazal was written to Sultan Süleyman the Lawgiver: within the aesthetics of divan poetry and in a conversational tone, the poet calls on the morning breeze to bring news of his father and indirectly asks after his father's health. Kılıç also notes that in this poem the poet, while likening his father to a beloved, praises his sovereignty as well. The words "who marches against the Kızılbaş with the Sunni army" in the second couplet point to one of Süleyman's campaigns against the Safavids. According to the TDV encyclopedia, in 1548 Bayezid met his father at Akşehir as he marched against Iran and was summoned to Aleppo when the army wintered there; in the Nakhchivan campaign of 1553, on the other hand, he was sent to Edirne to guard the throne. The word "exile" (gurbet) in the third couplet and the words "kept far from his service" in the last couplet suggest a period when the poet was not at his father's side on campaign; in this respect the Nakhchivan campaign of 1553 comes to mind. This dating is our own inference; the source does not give the year in which the ghazal was written.

In the last couplet it is said that the poet has been kept far from the padishah's service and left "nâ-kâm", without attaining his wish. Kılıç notes that in the divan one hears the voice of a son awaiting letters from his father and longing to see him; this ghazal is one of the clearest examples of those poems.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book pp. 59-60, ghazal no. 27 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225); also pp. 32-33 and 36 (quotation of the ghazal in the introduction as "G28" and its address to Süleyman), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.
  • Şerafettin Turan, "Bayezid, Şehzade", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 5, Istanbul 1992, pp. 230-231. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/bayezid-sehzade

Online sources