Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ’îlün Mefâ’îlün Fe’ûlün

Cemâlündür serîr-i hüsne server
Gulâmundur meh ü hûrşîd ü hâver
Cemâlün gülsitânı tâze olsun
Hudâdan dilerüm tâ rûz-ı mahşer
N’ola kılsa idün ey âfitâbum
Benüm bir gice gam-hânem münevver
Gice gündüz visâlündür murâdum
Hudâdan dilerüm ide müyesser
Hayâlün bir nefes hâlî degüldür
Gönülden gözden ey rûh-ı musavver
Şehâ tebdîl-i sûretle ‘acebdür
Yüzün görmekçün olmazsam kalender
Niçün hoş geçmeye sâyende Şâhî
Du’â-gûyunken ey serv-i semen-ber

In English

1. Your beauty is the sovereign of the throne of loveliness; the moon, the sun and the light rising in the east are all your slaves.

2. I pray to God that the rose garden of your beauty may stay fresh until the Day of Judgement.

3. O my sun, what harm would it do if one night you came and lit up my house of grief?

4. Night and day my one desire is union with you; I pray to God to make it easy.

5. O spirit given bodily form, your image is never for a moment absent from my heart and my eyes.

6. O king, it would be a wonder if I did not change my appearance and become a kalender (a wandering dervish) in order to see your face.

7. O cypress with a jasmine breast, why should Şâhî not live happily in your shadow while he is ever praying for you?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal of seven couplets is written in the hezec pattern "mefâ'îlün mefâ'îlün fe'ûlün"; according to Kılıç's tally twenty ghazals in the divan use this pattern. It stands on folio 13b of the manuscript. There is no redif; the rhyme is the sound "-er": server, hâver, mahşer, münevver, müyesser, musavver, kalender, semen-ber. The pen name appears in the last couplet. To whom it was written is not known for certain.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet sets a scene of sovereignty. Beauty is imagined as a throne (serîr), and the beloved's face is the head of this throne; the moon, the sun and the light rising in the east have become its slaves. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between the words server (sovereign), serîr (throne) and gulâm (slave). In the third couplet the beloved is addressed as "âfitâbum" (my sun) and asked to come one night and light the house of grief; since the sun is asked to come at night, the couplet holds a pleasing contrast between night and sun. The "rûh-ı musavver" of the fifth couplet means the spirit having taken on form. The beloved is as subtle as a spirit and yet concrete enough to be seen; that is why her image leaves neither the heart nor the eye.

The sixth couplet is the most striking place in the ghazal. "Tebdîl-i sûret" means changing one's appearance; to see the beloved's face, the poet is ready to put on the guise of a kalender, a wandering dervish who has renounced worldly ties. Since rulers and princes were known to mix with the people in disguise, this couplet takes on a particular colour in a prince's mouth; this assessment is our own reading.

The phrase "Hudâdan dilerüm" (I pray to God), repeated twice in the ghazal, and the word "du'â-gûy" (one who prays) in the last couplet give the poem an air of prayer. In the second couplet it is wished that the beloved's beauty stay fresh "tâ rûz-ı mahşer", until the Day of Judgement, and in the last couplet the poet speaks of living happily in her "sâye", her shadow. Kılıç regards the second ghazal of the divan as a poem dedicated to Süleyman the Magnificent and notes that it prays for the sultan's shadow never to be lacking until the Resurrection. Since this ghazal has the same language of prayer and shadow, together with the address "şehâ" (O king), one may think that the poem was directed at the same addressee; this is our own reading, and the source draws no such connection.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book pp. 62-63, ghazal no. 33 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 13b); also p. 29 (metres), p. 36 (the dedication of the second ghazal to Süleyman the Magnificent), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources