Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Cennet ü havrâda yokdur sendeki hüsn ü bahâ
Söz dırâz itmek ne lâzım bî-bedelsin sen şehâ
Tolaşaldan zülf-i pür-çînüne cânâ murg-ı dil
Bir duzâga düşdi kim mümkin degül ana rehâ
Âferîn sihr-i cihân-âşûbına ol dil-berün
Hâ deyince zülfin eyler yedi başlu ejdehâ
Ey reh-i ‘ışka düşüp andan nihâyet isteyen
Bu hevâdan geç ki yokdur ana hergiz intihâ
Ol rakîbün ökçesin basup gelür Şâhî kazâ
İsterem kim irişüp cânın ala diyince hâ

In English

1. Neither paradise nor the houris possess the beauty and worth that are in you; why lengthen the matter, O king, you are beyond price (without equal).

2. O beloved, since the bird of the heart became entangled in your curling locks, it has fallen into such a snare that escape from it is impossible.

3. Bravo to the world-confounding magic of that charmer; before one can say "hâ" (in an instant) she turns her locks into a seven-headed dragon.

4. O you who have set out on the road of love and wish to reach its end; give up this fancy, for that road has no end at all.

5. Şâhî, death comes treading on that rival's heels; I wish it would overtake him and take his life before one can say "hâ".

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This ghazal of five couplets is written in the "fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilün" pattern. There is no redif; the rhyme is formed by the "-hâ" sound in the words "bahâ, şehâ, rehâ, ejdehâ, intihâ, hâ". The pen name appears in the last couplet. According to Kılıç's table, the ghazals most often found in the divan are those of five couplets, and this is one of them. It stands on folio 3a of the manuscript; it is not known to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet rates the beloved's beauty above paradise and the houris, and cuts a long praise short with "why lengthen the matter". There is a congruence of images (tenasüp), with a suggestion of trade, between "bahâ" (worth, price) and "bî-bedel" (priceless, without equal); this observation is our own. The second couplet treats a well-known theme of divan poetry: the heart is a bird, and the beloved's curling (pür-çîn) locks a snare. In the third couplet the locks are linked this time to the image of snake and dragon. The beloved's magic, "before one can say hâ", that is, in the twinkling of an eye, turns her hair into a seven-headed dragon. The likening of curled and many-braided hair to a many-headed dragon is an exaggerated extension of the theme of the locks as a snake.

The fourth couplet is the only couplet of counsel in the ghazal. The one who seeks the end of the road of love is told to give up this fancy, for that road has no end. "Nihâyet" and "intihâ", two words with the same meaning (end), stand at the beginning and end of the lines. In the last couplet the poet curses the rival: death (kazâ) comes treading on the rival's heels, that is, right behind him, and the poet wishes that it would overtake him and take his life "before one can say hâ". The idiom "hâ deyince" is used twice in rhyme position, in the third and fifth couplets. This repetition, which expresses the speed of the beloved's magic in the first case and the swiftness of the rival's death in the second, is notable for the exact recurrence of the rhyme word; the observation is our own.

The address to the beloved as "şehâ" (O king) follows the convention of divan poetry by which the beloved is the sovereign of the land of beauty. Apart from this, the poem contains nothing that points to a particular person.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 49, ghazal no. 4 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 3a); also p. 27 (number of couplets in the ghazals), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources