Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe’ilâtün Fe’ilâtün Fe’ilâtün Fe’ilün

Dil-i ‘uşşâkla zülfün koma gavgâ ideyor
El urup gamzene bir hâdise peydâ ideyor
Tûtî-i dil kafes-i tenden eyâ rûh-ı revân
Bâl açup kûyuna düşmege tekâzâ ideyor
Beni Ferhâd-sıfat lutf ile şîrîn sühanun
Düşürüp vâdî-i ‘ışka yine şeydâ ideyor
Dil-i tûtî n’ola güftâra gelürse şâhum
Ruhun âyînesini seyr ü temâşâ ideyor
Bûse-i la’lüne Şâhî n’ola cân virür ise
Hastedür derdine dermân temennâ ideyor

In English

1. Your locks are quarrelling with the hearts of lovers, do not allow it; they are also laying hands on your glance and stirring up a new incident.

2. O walking soul, the parrot of the heart is pressing to spread its wings from the cage of the body and alight in your street.

3. With its grace your sweet speech has once again cast me like Ferhad into the valley of love and driven me mad.

4. My king, what if the parrot of the heart begins to speak; it is gazing and gazing at the mirror of your cheek.

5. What if Şâhî gives his soul for a kiss of your lip; he is a sick man, he longs for a remedy for his pain.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal of five couplets is written in the remel pattern "fe'ilâtün fe'ilâtün fe'ilâtün fe'ilün" and stands on folio 18b of the manuscript. The redif is "ideyor" (is doing), the rhyme the sound "-â": gavgâ, peydâ, tekâzâ, şeydâ, temâşâ, temennâ. "İdeyor" is the sixteenth-century form of today's "ediyor"; Kılıç counts the fact that most of the redifs consist of Turkish verbs as a feature of the poetry of this century, and includes "ideyor" in his list. The pen name appears in the last couplet. There is no information on to whom it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet the locks and the glance behave like persons: the locks have started a quarrel with the hearts of lovers and, laying hands on the glance as well, have stirred things up. The poet asks the beloved not to allow this turmoil. The words quarrelling, laying hands on and stirring up an incident set a lively scene close to spoken language. In the second couplet the heart is likened to a parrot (tûtî) and the body to a cage; the bird of the soul wants to spread its wings from the cage and alight in the beloved's street. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between soul and cage, bird and wing.

The third couplet is built on a double entendre (tevriye). "Şîrîn sühan" means sweet speech; the same word also recalls the name of Şirin, Ferhad's beloved. The beloved's sweet speech has cast the lover into the valley of love and driven him mad, just as Şirin did to Ferhad. The fourth couplet returns to the image of the parrot. In divan poetry the parrot is thought to learn to speak in front of a mirror, taking its own reflection for another bird; this belief is the basis of the motif of parrot and mirror. The parrot of the heart is gazing at the beloved's cheek, bright as a mirror; its beginning to speak, that is, to compose poetry, is therefore nothing to wonder at. In this way the couplet also points to the poet's own verse as speech born of the beloved's beauty; this interpretation is ours.

In the last couplet the lover is ready to give his soul for a kiss and likens this to a sick man's search for a remedy. The phrase "n'ola" (what if) is repeated in the fourth and fifth couplets and presents the lover's conduct as something to be indulged.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book pp. 68-69, ghazal no. 46 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 18b); also p. 29 (redifs and metres), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources