Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefâ’îlün Mefâ’îlün Fe’ûlün
Boyun tûbâ tudagun âb-ı kevser
Hatun reyhân yanagun verd-i ahmer
Kadün yanında tûbâ pest ü kûtâh
Lebün yanında şûr u telh kevser
Münevverdügi gül yüzün kamerden
Benüm çok sevdügüm günden de ezher
Yine gönlüm saçun bendine düşmiş
Bu def’a sezmezem ki kurtara ser
Hele ben kûyuna dîdâra geldüm
Rakîb-i rû-siyeh bilmem ne ister
Sitârem yok ki bir şeb-tîre külbem
Gelüp rûşen kıla ol mâh-peyker
Ne çâre Şâhiyâ çekmek gerekdür
Çü gördük cevre mâ’ildür o dil-ber
In English
1. Your stature is the Tûbâ tree, your lip the water of Kevser; the down on your face is sweet basil, your cheek a red rose.
2. Beside your stature the Tûbâ is low and short; beside your lip the Kevser is salty and bitter.
3. Your rose face is brighter than the moon; that face I love so much is more radiant even than the sun.
4. Once again my heart has fallen into the bonds of your hair; this time I do not think it will save its head.
5. Here I have come to your street to see your face; I do not know what the black-faced rival wants.
6. I have no lucky star, so that that moon-faced one might come and light up my hovel, dark as night.
7. O Şâhî, there is no help for it, one must endure; for we have seen that that heart-stealer is inclined to cruelty.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Structure of the Poem
The ghazal of seven couplets is written in the pattern "mefâ'îlün mefâ'îlün fe'ûlün" and stands on folio 14a of the manuscript. There is no redif; the rhyme is the sound "-er": kevser, ahmer, ezher, ser, ister, peyker, dil-ber. Although the first line of the opening couplet ends in "kevser", the second couplet rhymes with the same word; repeating a rhyme word is counted a fault in classical poetry, but here the repetition serves a deliberate comparison. The ghazal immediately before it is also written in the same metre and with an "-er" rhyme. There is no information on to whom it was written.
Meaning and Figures of Speech
The first two couplets use the same material in two different ways. In the opening couplet the beloved's stature is likened to the Tûbâ tree of Paradise, her lip to Kevser, the river of Paradise, the down on her face to sweet basil, her cheek to a red rose. In the second couplet the poet is not content with the comparison and ranks the beloved above what she is compared to: beside her stature the Tûbâ falls short, beside her lip the water of Kevser is salty and bitter. Thus the simile of the first couplet turns, in the second, into a statement of superiority. The same images of Tûbâ and Kevser are also found in the third couplet of the preceding ghazal; read side by side, the two poems show the poet's fondness for this motif.
In the third couplet the rose face is found brighter than the moon, the beloved brighter than the sun. This language of light returns in the sixth couplet: the poet has no "sitâre", no star of fortune; that is why the moon-faced beloved does not come to light his hovel, dark as night. Since the word "sitâre" means both star and fortune, the couplet contains a double entendre (tevriye); the words star, şeb-tîre (dark night), mâh-peyker (moon-faced) and rûşen (bright) also form a congruence of images (tenasüp). In the preceding ghazal too the beloved, as a sun, was asked to come and light the house of grief.
The "rakîb-i rû-siyeh", the black-faced rival, of the fifth couplet is a contrast set against the white, red and shining faces of the first couplets. The word "ser" in the fourth couplet means head; the heart that has fallen into the bonds of the hair will not be able to save its head. The last couplet ends in a resignation that accepts the beloved's inclination to cruelty and counsels patience.
Bibliography
- Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 63, ghazal no. 34 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 14a); also p. 29 (metres), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.
Online sources
