Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Sahn-ı gülşen bana sensüz gûyiyâ zindândur
Fürkatünle dil perîşân u gözüm giryândur
Görinen sahn-ı çemende her giyâh-ı mergzâr
Çeşmüme her biri gûyâ hançer-i bürrândur
Gice gündüz nâle vü âh (u) figânumdan benüm
Yir hayretde kalupdur çarh ser-gerdândur
Çâremi sordum etibbâdan tutup nabzum didi
Vasl-ı yâre sa’y kıl kim derdüne dermândur
Nâme-i cân-bahşun ile yâd idersen tîz tîz
Pâdişâhum Şâhîye gâyet büyük ihsândur

In English

1. Without you the midst of the rose garden is like a dungeon to me; through separation from you my heart is distracted and my eye is tearful.

2. Every blade of grass that appears in the midst of the meadow, every green thing in the pasture, is to my eye like a sharp dagger.

3. Night and day, from my moaning, my sighs and my cries, the earth has been left in bewilderment, and the sky turns round and round as if dizzy.

4. I asked the physician for my cure; taking my pulse, he said, "Strive for union with the beloved, that is the remedy for your pain."

5. My sovereign, if you remember me quickly, quickly, with your life-granting letter, it is a very great favour to Şâhî.

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" and stands on folio 17a of the manuscript. The redif is the suffix "-dur/-dür" (is), the rhyme the sound "-ân": zindân, giryân, bürrân, ser-gerdân, dermân, ihsân. The pen name appears in the last couplet. Kılıç gives the last couplet of this ghazal among the examples of the poems Bayezid wrote to his father. In the introduction the ghazal is cited under the number "G43"; from a certain point onward the ghazal numbers in the introduction are one higher than the number in the text, and in the text this ghazal is number 42.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first two couplets turn the spring garden upside down. Without the beloved the rose garden turns into a dungeon; every blade of grass in the meadow, every green thing in the pasture, pierces the lover's eye like a sharp dagger. The turning of beauty into pain in the eye of one who has been parted is worked out in these two couplets as an antithesis. The third couplet is built on hyperbole: from the lover's cries, lasting night and day, the earth has been left standing in bewilderment, while the sky keeps turning as if dizzy. Finding a poetic cause for a familiar phenomenon such as the turning of the sky is also an instance of hüsn-i ta'lîl (poetic aetiology).

The fourth couplet sets up a small scene: the physician takes the lover's pulse and says that the only cure is union with the beloved. The words pulse, physician, cure, pain and remedy form a congruence of images (tenasüp). The last couplet changes the address; the lover now calls out "pâdişâhum" (my sovereign) and asks to be remembered often with a life-granting letter. The words "tîz tîz" (quickly, quickly) add haste and impatience to this request.

Historical Context

Kılıç says that in the poems addressed to his father one hears the voice of a son awaiting a letter from his father, and he gives this couplet as the first example of such utterances. According to him, Bayezid wrote many letters conveying his wishes, requests and pleas for pardon, both from Kütahya in order not to go to Amasya and in Iran while at the Shah's side, and received no answer to most of them; some of the letters never reached the sultan, and to some the sultan saw no need to reply. Kılıç thinks that this distress made the poet take up his pen. There is no sign in the text as to which of these two periods the ghazal belongs to. One may think that the phrase "nâme-i cân-bahş", in the mouth of a prince whose life was at stake, could also mean a letter that "grants life", that is, one announcing pardon; this is our own reading.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 67, ghazal no. 42 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 17a); also p. 32 (the son awaiting a letter from his father), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources