Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ey boyı serv-i revân bu gonce-fem kim sendedür
Bülbül-i şûrîde-veş efgân u zârî bendedür
Tâb-ı ruhsârunla sahn-ı gülşen ü kûhsârda
Lâle vü gül her biri bir âteş-i sûzendedür
Kâmet-i bâlân ile cânâ dehânundan senün
Servler hayrân u bî-dil gonceler şermendedür
Gökde âhum yirde eşküm rûz u şeb cânâ seni
Görmeyelden sû-be-sû cûyende vü pûyendedür
Gûy-veş çevgân-ı zülfünde dil-i Şâhî senün
Ey şeh-i mülk-i melâhat bir belâ-keş bendedür

In English

1. O you whose stature is a swaying cypress, as long as this rosebud mouth is with you, the cries and laments of the frenzied nightingale are with me.

2. From the radiance of your cheek, in the courtyard of the rose garden and on the mountains, tulip and rose are each in a burning fire.

3. O soul, before your lofty stature the cypresses stand bewildered and heartless, and before your mouth the rosebuds are ashamed.

4. O soul, since I ceased to see you, night and day my sighs in the sky and my tears on the earth run in every direction searching for you.

5. O shah of the realm of beauty, Şâhî's heart, like a ball before the polo stick of your locks, is a slave who bears affliction.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The five-couplet ghazal is written in the "fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilün" pattern. The redif is the suffixes "-dedür", and the rhyme is the "-en" sound in the words "sen, ben, sûzen, şermen, pûyen, ben". In the edition the folio mark 82b stands at the end of the ghazal; that is, this ghazal was copied on one of the last leaves of the manuscript and owes its place in the edition to Kılıç's arrangement of the ghazals in alphabetical order. According to Kılıç the divan is not arranged in order (mürettep), and some of the Turkish ghazals stand scattered in the manuscript.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is built on the correspondence between "sende" (with you) and "bende" (with me): the rosebud mouth is with you, the lament with me. In the last couplet the rhyme returns to the word "bende", but this time the meaning changes: in the opening couplet "bende" means "with me, in me", while in the phrase "bir belâ-keş bende" in the couplet with the pen name it means "slave". The entry of two words of identical spelling into the rhyme with different meanings is the figure of cinas (paronomasia), and it ties the beginning of the ghazal to its end.

The second and third couplets describe nature's defeat before the beloved's beauty. Tulip and rose have caught fire from the radiance of the cheek, the cypress is bewildered before the stature, the rosebud ashamed before the mouth. "Sahn-ı gülşen" (the courtyard of the rose garden) and "kûhsâr" (the mountains) in the second couplet take in a whole landscape stretching from garden to mountain: the tulip blooms on the mountain, the rose in the garden, and both are set alight by the fire of the same cheek. This is a comparison of superiority often found in divan poetry: the beloved is more beautiful than the things she is likened to. In the fourth couplet sigh in the sky and tear on the earth, "cûyende vü pûyende" (seeking and running), search for the beloved everywhere like two couriers; the contrast between sky and earth gives the couplet breadth. In the last couplet the heart is the ball before the polo stick of the locks. The image of gûy ü çevgân (ball and polo stick) likens the lover's helplessness before the beloved's hair to the game played on horseback.

In the couplet with the pen name the beloved is addressed as "şeh-i mülk-i melâhat" (shah of the realm of beauty); the closeness in sound between the pen name "Şâhî" and the word "şeh" sets servant and shah face to face in the same line.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 71, ghazal no. 52 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 82b); also pp. 27-29 (arrangement of the divan and alphabetical ordering), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources