Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Tâ ölince eksük olmaz dehr-i dûna kînemüz
Tîr-i hecri birle zîrâ toptolıdur sînemüz
Gün yüzin mir’ât-ı dilde seyr iderken ol mehün
Dûr idüp gözden yine kıldı şikest âyînemüz
Virme ‘ömrün hâsılın bâd-ı hevâya key sakın
Dâne-i haclet olur dil hırmeninde çînemüz
Halk râhat olmadı feryâd u âhumdan benüm
Girye vü nâle doldı çün bu dildeki gencînemüz
Âsitân-ı yârdan ben dûr olalı Şâhiyâ
Hem-ser olmadı yine bu devlet-i dîrînemüz

In English

1. Until we die our rancour towards the base world will not lessen; for our breast is crammed full with the arrow of separation.

2. While we were gazing at the sunlike face of that moon in the mirror of the heart, she took herself out of sight and once again broke our mirror.

3. Beware, do not give the yield of your life to the wind of idle desire; (otherwise) our gleaning on the threshing floor of the heart becomes a grain of shame.

4. People have had no rest from my cries and sighs; for this treasure of ours in the heart has filled with weeping and lament.

5. O Şâhî, since I fell far from the beloved's threshold, this old fortune (happiness) of ours has not been our companion again.

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 possessive suffix "-müz" (our), and the rhyme is the "-îne" sound in the words "kîne, sîne, âyîne, çîne, gencîne, dîrîne". In the edition the folio mark 23b stands at the end of the second couplet.

According to Kılıç's footnote the metre is faulty in the second line of the fourth couplet, and the conjunction "vü" in the phrase "Girye vü nâle" ought not to be there. The edition left this conjunction in the text and showed the problem in the footnote; here too the text has not been altered. Kılıç points out such metrical faults with footnotes elsewhere in the divan as well.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet begins with a lifelong rancour towards the world and ties the cause of this rancour to the arrow of separation filling the breast; the rhyme of "kîne" (rancour) and "sîne" (breast) leans these two notions against each other. In the second couplet the heart is a mirror and the beloved's face is reflected in it; when the beloved withdraws from sight, the mirror breaks. The breaking of the mirror expresses, together with the loss of the reflected face, the shattering of the heart; the Turkish idiom "gönül kırmak" (to break someone's heart) also supports this image.

The third couplet rests on a comparison taken from the world of farming: if the yield of life is given to the wind, the ears gleaned on the threshing floor of the heart turn into grains of shame. The words "hırmen" (threshing floor), "dâne" (grain) and "çîne" (gleaning) form a congruence of images (tenasüp); "bâd-ı hevâ" (the wind of desire) unites in one phrase the wind that winnows the threshing floor and empty desire. In the fourth couplet the heart is a treasury; yet what fills this treasury is weeping and lament. The expression "devlet-i dîrîne" (old fortune) in the last couplet can be read in two directions, since the word "devlet" means both happiness and fortune and sovereignty. The word "âsitân" (threshold) is used in divan poetry for the door of both the beloved and the ruler, and fixes the servant's place before that threshold. This link between falling far from the beloved's threshold and losing one's old fortune is especially striking from the pen of a prince; this interpretation is our own, and the edition offers no assessment of the ghazal.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 77, ghazal no. 60 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 23b); footnote 107 (faulty metre in the second line of the fourth couplet), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources