Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Görmeyelden gül yüzüni aglarum ben zâr u zâr
Kaddümi gamdan hilâl itdün eyâ mekkâr-kâr
Mâr-veş tolandı zülfün gerdenine gönlümün
Sînem üzre yayılup mâr oldı her mû târ u mâr
‘Akl u sabrum târ-mâr oldı reh-i mihnetde âh
Cânuma zülfün ucından gussaya ne bâr bâr
Kim yokar el pâdişâhum dilde genc-i mihrüne
‘Aks-i zülfünle tolaldan genc-i sînem mâr mâr
Mûr-veş Şâhî ele alup metâ’-ı cânını
Pâyuna çekse Süleymân Hânum itme ‘âr ‘âr

In English

1. Since I have not seen your rosy face I weep and wail and wail; O you whose trade is deceit, you have bent my stature like the crescent moon with grief.

2. Your locks have coiled like a snake around the neck of my heart; spreading over my breast, every hair has become a snake, scattered every way.

3. Ah, on the road of affliction my reason and patience have been scattered; what burdens upon burdens of grief have come to my soul from the tips of your locks.

4. My padishah, who could stretch out a hand to the treasure of love for you in my heart, since the treasure of my breast has been filled with snake upon snake by the reflection of your locks?

5. If Şâhî, like an ant, takes the goods of his soul in his hand and carries them to your feet, O my Süleyman Han, do not disdain it, do not disdain.

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 construction of the rhyme is notable: the second line of every couplet ends with a word containing the sound "-âr" said twice ("zâr u zâr, mekkâr-kâr, târ u mâr, bâr bâr, mâr mâr, 'âr 'âr"). In this way rhyme and repetition (tekrir) are interwoven, and in each couplet the ghazal closes with an echoing sound. The pen name appears in the last couplet. According to Kılıç's footnote, the first two couplets stand on folio 10b of the manuscript and the other couplets on folio 12a.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet the lover, parted from the rose-faced beloved, weeps and wails, and his stature is bent like the crescent moon with grief. In the second and fourth couplets the theme of the snake comes to the fore. The locks coil like a snake around the neck of the heart, and every hair spreading over the breast turns into a snake. The juxtaposition of the words "târ" (strand) and "mâr" (snake), together with the idiom "târ u mâr" (scattered, routed), forms a pun (cinas). In the fourth couplet the love hidden in the heart is likened to a treasure, and the reflection of the locks on the breast to the snakes that guard the treasure; the guarding of treasure by snakes is a familiar belief in divan poetry, and the same theme is also treated in G.16.

The last couplet alludes to the relation between Solomon and the ant. The sura al-Naml of the Qur'an tells of Solomon's coming with his army to the valley of the ants; in divan poetry the ant is the symbol of the small and humble servant who offers the great ruler a gift as far as his strength allows. The poet likens himself to the ant and his soul to this small gift, and asks "Süleymân Hânum" (my Süleyman Han) not to disdain it. There is a similarity of sound between "mûr" (ant) and "mâr" (snake) in the second and fourth couplets.

Historical Context

The address "Süleymân Hânum", besides the allusion to the prophet Solomon, plainly evokes Bayezid's father, Sultan Süleyman the Lawgiver. The address "pâdişâhum" (my padishah) in the fourth couplet also supports this reading. Kılıç does not mention this ghazal among the poems written to the poet's father; but he notes that the divan contains ghazals that address the father in the language of the beloved. That this ghazal may have been written to Süleyman is our own reading; there is no information on when it was written.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book pp. 60-61, ghazal no. 29 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 10b and 12a); footnote 102; also pp. 32-33 (ghazals addressing the father in the language of the beloved), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources