Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Murg-ı câna olalıdan zülf-i pür-çînün kafes
Kâfirüm ger bir nefes uçmaga eylersem heves
Nice yıllardur yolunda âh kim hâk olmışam
Bulmadum sen serv-i ser-keş dâmenine dest-res
Rûz u şeb bülbül gibi feryâd u efgân eylerem
Olalı sen gonceye gülşende hem-dem hâr u has
Bir nice reşk ile gayret nârına yanmayalum
Karşumuzda nûş ider la’lün şarâbını meges
Şâhîye vaslun gerekdür tâc u tahtı n’eylesün
Mülk-i dünyâdan ana bir lokma vü bir hırka bes

In English

1. Ever since your curling hair became a cage for the bird of the soul, may I be an infidel if I long to fly away for a single breath.

2. Alas, for many years I have become dust on your path; O proud cypress, still I have not been able to lay hand on your skirt.

3. Ever since thorns and straw became the companions of you, the rosebud, in the rose garden, I cry and lament like the nightingale day and night.

4. How long shall we burn in the fire of envy with jealousy, while before our very eyes the fly drinks the wine of your ruby lip?

5. Şâhî needs union with you; what should he do with crown and throne? Of the possessions of the world, a morsel and a cloak are enough for him.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal of five couplets is written in the "fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilün" pattern and carries the folio mark 24b in the edition. There is no redif; the rhyme is the "-es" sound in the words "kafes, heves, dest-res, has, meges, bes". The pen name appears in the last couplet. The two ghazals that follow it in the edition (G.65 and G.66) are also written in the same metre and with the same "-es" rhyme; the words "kafes, has, meges, nefes" are common to the three ghazals. This series is our own observation, and it suggests that the same ground was tried several times.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet the beloved's curling hair is a cage that imprisons the bird of the soul. The lover does not wish to escape this cage; he swears that he would be an infidel if he longed to fly. In the second couplet a link is made between dust and skirt: the lover who has become dust on the path is in the place nearest to the skirt, yet he still cannot reach the skirt of the beloved, who is a "serv-i ser-keş" (proud cypress). The upright bearing of the cypress is tied to the beloved's haughtiness.

The third and fourth couplets are built on jealousy. The thorns and straw that grow beside the rosebud in the garden are the worthless rivals around the beloved; for this reason the lover moans like the nightingale. In the fourth couplet the rival is likened to a fly: just as a fly swarms on sweets, the rival drinks the wine on the beloved's lip before the lover's eyes. Rose and nightingale, bud and thorn, lip with wine and fly form a congruence of images (tenasüp) that completes itself in the ghazal.

The last couplet is the most striking in the ghazal. Şâhî says he does not want crown and throne, and that a morsel of bread and a cloak from the possessions of the world will suffice him. This is the expression of a dervish-like contentment and is often seen in divan poetry. Kılıç reports that in some biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire) Bayezid's pen name "Şâhî" was taken as a sign of his ambition to be sultan; Beyânî and Ahdî are of this opinion. That one of the princes who most desired the throne exchanges crown and throne in a poem for a morsel and a cloak is an expression that stays within the mould of the tradition; there is no basis in the poem for linking it directly with his life.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 79, ghazal no. 64 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 24b); also p. 20 (Beyânî and Ahdî on the pen name "Şâhî"), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources