Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Zülfünün her bir kılında haste gönlüm bestedür
Derd-i ‘ışkun mübtelâsıdur be-gâyet hastedür
Leylî-i zülfün gamıyla dil perîşân oldı bil
Çek anı zencîre kim Mecnûn gibi ……
Ruhlarun üzre görelden zülf-i ‘anber-bârunı
Dil perîşân hâtır u gönlüm benüm işkestedür
Her ne denlü zâr kılsa gûşuna irmez senün
‘Âşık âhından sakın kim göklere peyvestedür
Gam degül gülzâr-ı hüsn içinde ol gonce-dehen
Şâhî-i bî-çâreye açılmasa nev-restedür

In English

1. My sick heart is bound to every single strand of your locks; it is afflicted with the pain of your love, it is sick beyond measure.

2. Know that the heart has been distracted by grief for your locks, dark as night like Leylâ; put it in chains, for like Mecnun ...... (the end of the line is left blank in the manuscript).

3. Since it saw your ambergris-scented locks over your cheeks, the heart is distracted, and my mind and my heart are broken.

4. However much the lover moans, it does not reach your ear; beware of the lover's sigh, for it has reached the heavens.

5. It is no grief if that rosebud-mouthed one does not open to poor Şâhî in the rose garden of beauty; she is still newly grown.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal of five couplets is written in the pattern "fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilün". The redif is the suffix "-dür" (is), the rhyme the sound "-este": beste, haste, işkeste, peyveste, nev-reste. It shares the metre, redif and rhyme of the ghazals before and after it. The pen name appears in the last couplet. There is no information on to whom it was written.

The last line of the second couplet of the ghazal is incomplete. According to Kılıç's note this place is left blank in the manuscript and is marked with dots in the edition. Judging by the rhyme scheme, the missing word must end in "-estedür"; which word it was cannot be known. In the edition the folio mark 14a stands beside this line. Since the preceding ghazals are on folios 15a and 15b and the following ones on folio 16b, 16a would be expected here; we think the mark may be a typesetting error, and this observation is ours.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet the heart is bound to every strand of the locks; being bound (beste) and being sick (haste) meet in the same rhyme. In the second couplet the phrase "Leylî-i zülf" carries a double entendre (tevriye): "leyl" means night and describes the black locks, while it also recalls Leylâ, the beloved of Mecnun. That is why the heart distracted by grief for the locks is likened to Mecnun and is to be chained like a madman; the chain, in turn, is a well-known image for the locks. The word "perîşân" (distracted, dishevelled) occurs in the first line of both the second and the third couplets; the idea that the dishevelled locks also bring disorder to the heart is repeated. The "işkeste" of the third couplet is a form of the word "şikeste" (broken) with a vowel added at the beginning.

The second half of the fourth couplet, "göklere peyvestedür", which says that the lover's sigh has reached the heavens, is repeated word for word in the third couplet of the next ghazal. In the last couplet there is a double entendre between the rosebud and opening: the rosebud is a flower not yet opened, while the beloved's "opening" is her showing favour to the lover, her smiling. Since the beloved is still newly grown (nev-reste), her not opening is excused. The words rose garden, rosebud and opening form a congruence of images (tenasüp) in this last couplet and close the ghazal with images of spring.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book pp. 65-66, ghazal no. 39 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 14a); also p. 43 (the establishment of the text), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources