Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilün
Ey gözi âhû-yı Çîn ü kâküli misk-i Tatar
Makdemünle eyledün Rûm illerini müşg-bâr
Bendene cevr ü cefâdan gel ferâgat it diyü
İşügünde nice bir feryâd idem leyl ü nehâr
Terk idelden ey yüzi gül gülsitân-ı kûyunı
İnlerem bülbül gibi feryâd idüp ben zâr u zâr
Sâbitem râh-ı mahabbetde ben ey şîrîn-zebân
Rahm idüp hâlini ben Ferhâdunun sorsan ne var
Cümle ‘âlem ey hilâl-ebrû vü ey zühre-cebîn
Zerre-veş mihr-i ruhun şevkinden olmış bî-karâr
Hakka irişüp bulur cânâ hayât-ı sermedî
Zülf-i kullâbun olursa ger dil-i Mansûra dâr
Hâlün ile zülfüne sayd olalı murg-ı revân
Nesne yok hâlinde kalmışdur perîşân bî-karâr
Derd-i hasret öldürür gurbet diyârında meded
Ey tabîb irmezse ger bana cevâb-ı la’l-i yâr
Zillete düşdüm elüm al ey şeh-i gerdûn-cenâb
Himmetün mihriyle rif’at bulmak ister ben gubâr
Rûyumı eşkümle saldum ben ayagun tozına
Sîm ü zerdür her neye mâliksem itdüm hep nisâr
Zârlıklar itdügince ‘andelîb-i dil dirîg
Gül gibi handân olur ol pür-sitem bî-rahm yâr
Sevdügüm ‘ışkun şarâbın nûş idelden bilmiş ol
Gitdi hûş u ‘akl u serden kalmadı ‘âr u vakâr
Şâh-bâz-ı kâkül-i dil-ber bu gönlüm kebkini
Geşt iderken deşt-i âzâdîde hoş itdi şikâr
Sûret-i şem’-i şeb-i hecrün nicesi vasf idem
Şerha âgâz eylesem evvel zebân oda yanar
Za’f-ı gâlib olalı derd-i firâk-ı yâr ile
Dâr-ı dünyâ gözlerüme ser-te-ser dar oldı dar
Taldı ‘ışkun bahrine dil zevrakı gavvâs-vâr
Ne halâsı var anun ne ana hadd ü (ne) kenâr
Zâhirâ kûyun koyup gitmek dilersem tan mı kim
Sabr elden gidicek lâzım gelür terk-i diyâr
‘Âşıkun yüzine urma eşk-i çeşmin az görüp
Her kişi mikdârı denlü cûşa durur eşk nisâr
Gonce-lebsin gül-’izârum alma âhın bülbülün
‘Âşıkun âhı ider zîrâ ki tag u taşa kâr
Fürkat-i ruhsârına nâ-çâr gerçi sâbirem
Bagrumı hûn eyler ammâ andugumca la’l-i yâr
Kaddümi sen bükmiş iken bu ‘acebdür kim yine
Ey tabîbüm derdine dermânı dil senden umar
Gel gel ey gülzâr-ı ‘ışkun nâ-şüküfte goncesi
Bülbül-i cân nagme kılsun şevk ile bî-ihtiyâr
La’l-i nâbun yâdına ey dil-ber-i ra’nâ senün
Bâde-i gül-gûn elümde içerem leyl ü nehâr
Mîr-i iklîm-i melâhatsın sa’âdetle begüm
Müstedâm ol taht-ı ‘izzetde ilâ yevmi’l-karâr
Nâ-gehân gördüm o serv-i kâmetüm bin nâz ile
Nergis-i mestiyle kıldı merhabâ vü i’tibâr
Vâlih ü hayrân iden ol merhabâdur hep beni
Ey boyı serv-i revân gonce-dehân u gül-‘izâr
Hey di zâlim gözlerün kan itmesünler zulm ile
Küfr ile turur meseldür zulm ile turmaz diyâr
Lâ dimen ben her ne cevrün var ise baş üstine
Tek hemân agyâra itme iltifât u i’tibâr
Yâr elinden ‘ışk câmın Şâhî rindâne çeküp
Düşdi nâmusı koyup mey-hâneye mest ü humâr
In English
1. O you whose eye is a gazelle of China and whose forelock is musk of Tatary, with your arrival you have made the lands of Rûm fragrant with musk.
2. How long must I cry out night and day at your door, saying, "Give up tormenting and wronging your servant"?
3. O rose-faced one, since I left the rose garden of your street I moan like the nightingale, crying out in lament upon lament.
4. O sweet-tongued one, I stand firm on the path of love; what would it cost you to take pity and ask after your Ferhâd (that is, me)?
5. O you with brows like the new moon and a brow like Venus, the whole world, like a mote, has lost its rest from longing for the sun of your cheek.
6. O soul, if your hook-curved lock becomes the gallows for the heart of Mansûr, that heart reaches God and finds eternal life.
7. Since the bird of the soul fell prey to your mole and your lock, it has nothing left; its state has remained distraught and restless.
8. O physician, help; if no answer reaches me from the beloved's lip, the pain of longing will kill me in the land of exile.
9. O shah whose threshold is as high as heaven, I have fallen into abasement, take my hand; I, who am dust, wish to rise by the sun of your favour.
10. With my tears I rubbed my face in the dust of your feet; silver and gold, whatever I own, I have scattered it all (at your feet).
11. Alas, as often as the nightingale of the heart laments and pleads, that merciless beloved full of cruelty laughs like a rose.
12. Know, my beloved, that since I drank the wine of love, sense and reason have gone from my head; neither shame nor dignity is left to me.
13. The falcon of the beloved's forelock nicely caught the partridge of this heart of mine as it roamed the desert of freedom.
14. How shall I describe the state of the candle of the night of separation? If I began to explain it, my tongue would first burn in the fire.
15. Since weakness overcame me through the pain of separation from the beloved, the house of the world has become narrow to my eyes from end to end, narrow.
16. The skiff of the heart dived like a pearl diver into the sea of love; now it has no escape, and this sea has neither limit nor shore.
17. Is it any wonder if I wish to leave your street and go? It seems that when patience is lost one must abandon one's homeland.
18. Do not throw the lover's tears in his face, finding them few; each person's tears surge and scatter according to his strength.
19. O my rosebud-lipped, rose-cheeked one, do not take on the nightingale's sigh; for the lover's sigh works even upon mountain and stone.
20. Though I helplessly endure separation from your cheek, whenever I remember the beloved's lip it turns my heart to blood.
21. Though you have bent my stature, it is a wonder that the heart, O my physician, still hopes from you the cure for its pain.
22. Come, come, O unopened bud of the rose garden of love; let the nightingale of the soul sing with longing, beyond its own control.
23. O graceful beloved, in memory of your pure ruby lip I drink rose-coloured wine in my hand night and day.
24. You are the lord of the realm of beauty, my bey; may you remain forever in happiness on the throne of honour until the Day of Judgement.
25. Suddenly I saw my cypress-statured one appear with a thousand coquetries; with her drunken narcissus eye she greeted me and showed me regard.
26. O you whose stature is a swaying cypress, rosebud-mouthed and rose-cheeked, it is that greeting that has left me wholly bewildered and amazed.
27. Ho, tell your cruel eyes not to shed blood with tyranny; there is a proverb: "A land endures with unbelief, it does not endure with tyranny."
28. I do not say "no" to any torment you have; on my head be it; only do not show attention and regard to the rivals.
29. Şâhî, drinking the cup of love like a libertine (rind) from the beloved's hand, abandoned his good name and fell into the tavern drunk and hung over.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Structure of the Poem
This poem of twenty-nine couplets is the longest ghazal in the divan; in the table of couplet numbers that Kılıç gives in the introduction it appears as the only ghazal with 29 couplets. It is written in the "fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilün" pattern, has no redif, and its rhyme is the "-âr" sound (müşg-bâr, nehâr, zâr, bî-karâr, dâr, gubâr, nisâr, şikâr, kenâr, diyâr …). In a poem of this length the repetition of rhyme words is unavoidable: "bî-karâr" is the rhyme in couplets 5 and 7, "nehâr" in 2 and 23, "nisâr" in 10 and 18, "diyâr" in 17 and 27, "i'tibâr" in 25 and 28, and "yâr" in three separate couplets. "Ne var" in the fourth couplet and "yanar" in the fourteenth also depart from the scheme with their short vowels. The pen name is in the last couplet.
In the manuscript the ghazal begins on folio 82b and is the last poem before the masnavis: according to Kılıç's footnote, after this ghazal, before the masnavis begin, Bâkî's ghazal with the opening line "Feryâduma ol kâmet-i şimşâd yitişmez" was recorded on 84a in a different hand. This record shows that another hand later made an addition to the manuscript. The "(ne)" in the sixteenth couplet is a completion by Kılıç; the word "cûşa" in the eighteenth couplet appears in the manuscript as "hûşâ" and has been corrected in the edition.
Meaning and Figures of Speech
The opening couplet introduces the beloved with the standards of eastern beauty: her eye is a gazelle of China, her forelock musk of Tatary, and with her arrival the "lands of Rûm", that is, the Ottoman lands, have filled with the scent of musk. After this welcome the long ghazal sets out the states of the lover in tableaux of one couplet each. The sixth couplet carries the densest allusion: the "kullâb" (hook) shape of the lock is likened to the "dâr" (gallows) of Hallâc-ı Mansûr, who was executed on the gallows for saying "Ene'l-Hak" (I am the Truth); that this death opens onto eternal life rests on the understanding of Hallâc in the Sufi tradition. In the fourth couplet the lover likens himself to Ferhâd, in the thirteenth his heart to a partridge caught by the falcon, in the sixteenth to a skiff diving into the sea. In the fifteenth couplet the play of sound (cinas) between "dâr-ı dünyâ" (the house of the world) and "dar oldı dar" (became narrow, narrow) makes the narrowness of the world's house for the lover audible to the ear as well.
The ninth and twenty-fourth couplets stand apart from the general mood of the ghazal. In one, the person addressed as "şeh-i gerdûn-cenâb" (shah whose threshold is as high as heaven) is asked to rescue the poet from abasement; in the other, a prayer is offered that the "Mîr-i iklîm-i melâhat" remain on his throne until the Day of Judgement. This prayer recalls the prayer sections of kasides. The saying in the twenty-seventh couplet, "A realm endures with unbelief, it does not endure with tyranny", is also a familiar proverb addressed to rulers. These couplets may be thought to turn towards a ruler or patron rather than a beloved; however, the edition records nothing about to whom the ghazal was written, and this reading is our own.
Bibliography
- Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book pp. 71-74, ghazal no. 53 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fols. 82b-84a); footnotes 105 ("hûşâ") and 106 (Bâkî's ghazal on 84a); also p. 27 (table of couplet numbers), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.
- Süleyman Uludağ, "Hallâc-ı Mansûr", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 15, Istanbul 1997, pp. 377-381. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/hallac-i-mansur
Online sources
