Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mef’ûlü Mefâ’îlü Mefâ’îlü Fe’ûlün
Dünyâda cemâlün gibi gülzâr ele girmez
Gönlüm gibi bülbül ana ey yâr ele girmez
‘Âşık geçinür gerçi ki çok hüsnüne şâhum
Benden gibi bir ‘âşık-ı dîdâr ele girmez
Bir sencileyin fenn-i tabâbetde bulınmaz
Bir bencileyin niteki bîmâr ele girmez
Cân murgı gibi dâne-i hâlüne düşen çok
Gönlüm gibi zülfüne giriftâr ele girmez
Kaddün gibi bir serv-i hırâmân bulınmaz
Çeşmün gibi bir nergis-i bî-mâr ele girmez
Şol hûb-ı cihânsın ki bu ‘âlem sadefinde
Dendânuna benzer dür-i şehvâr ele girmez
Redd itme kapundan beni gerçi ki kulun çok
Ey şâh benüm gibi nigeh-bân ele girmez
Dil-dâr-ı vefâdâr gerek dir isen ey dil
Ol sen didigün gibi yüri var ele girmez
Çeşmün gibi bir fitnesi çok dünyede kopmaz
Gamzen gibi bir kâtil u hûn-hâr ele girmez
Kûyında rakîb ile görüp yâri gücenme
Gülşende meseldür gül-i bî-hâr ele girmez
Vir cânunı virürse eger la’line Şâhî
Bunun gibi ucuz eyü bâzâr ele girmez
In English
1. In this world no rose garden like your beauty is to be had; O beloved, no nightingale like my heart is to be found for it either.
2. My shah, though many pass for lovers of your beauty, no lover longing to see your face like me is to be had.
3. None like you is to be found in the art of medicine; no patient like me is to be had either.
4. Many fall, like the bird of the soul, upon the grain of your mole, but none caught in your lock like my heart is to be had.
5. No swaying cypress like your stature is to be found; no languid narcissus like your eye is to be had.
6. You are such a beauty of the world that in the oyster shell of this world no royal pearl resembling your teeth is to be had.
7. Though your servants are many, do not turn me away from your door; O shah, no watchman like me is to be had.
8. O heart, if you say a faithful beloved is needed, (know that) one such as you describe, go on, go and look, is not to be had.
9. In this world no tumult as full of mischief as your eye breaks out; no murderer and blood-drinker like your glance is to be had.
10. Do not be offended at seeing the beloved with the rival in her street; in the rose garden there is a proverb: "No rose is to be had without a thorn."
11. Şâhî, if (the beloved) gives her lip, give your life; no bargain as cheap and good as this is to be had.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Structure of the Poem
The ghazal of eleven couplets is written in the "mef'ûlü mefâ'îlü mefâ'îlü fe'ûlün" pattern. The redif is "ele girmez" (is not to be had), and the rhyme is the "-âr" sound in the words "gülzâr, yâr, dîdâr, bîmâr, giriftâr, bî-mâr, şehvâr, var, hûn-hâr, bî-hâr, bâzâr". Kılıç counts the redif "ele girmez" among the refrains of the divan. In the edition the folio mark 21b stands at the end of the eighth couplet.
The word "nigeh-bân" in the seventh couplet does not fit the "-âr" rhyme. "Nigeh-dâr" (guardian, protector), of the same meaning, both completes the rhyme and sits in the metre in the same way; "nigeh-bân" may have been written in the manuscript or in the typesetting in place of "nigeh-dâr". This proposed reading is our own, and the text has not been altered. The word "bîmâr" also enters the rhyme twice, as "sick" in the third couplet and in the phrase "nergis-i bî-mâr" in the fifth with the sense of a languid eye; the edition writes the second with a hyphen.
Meaning and Figures of Speech
Every couplet of the ghazal draws a comparison and ties it, through the redif "ele girmez", to the same verdict: the beloved's beauty, the lover's loyalty, the physician's skill, the patient's pain are all without equal. In the third couplet the beloved is the physician and the lover the patient; the words "sencileyin" (like you) and "bencileyin" (like me) standing opposite each other at the head of the two lines give the couplet balance. In the fourth couplet the mole is the grain laid in the snare, the lock the snare itself. The cypress stature and narcissus eye in the fifth couplet and the pearl teeth in the sixth are familiar comparisons of divan poetry. The phrase "âlem sadefi" (the oyster shell of the world) likens the world to an oyster shell holding a pearl.
In the eighth couplet the poet turns to his heart and meets its search for a faithful beloved with irony: "yüri var", that is, go on, go and look, you will not find one. The tenth couplet applies the proverb "there is no rose without a thorn" to the rival at the beloved's side; the rose is the beloved, the thorn the rival. This is the clearest couplet of the ghazal spoken by way of irsal-i mesel (adducing a proverb). In the last couplet love is turned into a trade: giving one's life and receiving the lip is a cheap and profitable bargain. The word "bâzâr" completes this image of commerce in which life and lip are weighed like goods.
Bibliography
- Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 74, ghazal no. 54 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 21b); also p. 29 (refrains), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.
Online sources
