Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilün

Kâkülün gamzenle el bir eylemiş
‘Âlemi teshîr u nahcîr eylemiş
Kilk-i kudret nakş-ı hüsnün evvelâ
Sûret-i Yûsufda tahrîr eylemiş
Âferîn cân-âferîne vechüni
Ahsen-i sûretde tasvîr eylemiş
Sana nâz u şîve Kassam-ı Ezel
Bana derd ü gussa takdîr eylemiş
Âteş-i mihr ü mahabbet Şâhînün
Hey meded cânına te’sîr eylemiş

In English

1. Your forelock has joined hands with your sidelong glance; together they have conquered and hunted the world.

2. The pen of divine power first wrote the design of your beauty in the form of Joseph.

3. Bravo to the Creator of souls, who has portrayed your face in the most beautiful form.

4. The Allotter of Pre-eternity has destined coquetry and grace for you, and pain and grief for me.

5. The fire of love and affection, help, has seized the soul of Şâhî.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal of five couplets is written in the "fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilün" pattern and carries the folio mark 25b in the edition. The redif (refrain) is "eylemiş", and the rhyme is the "-îr" sound in the words "bir, nahcîr, tahrîr, tasvîr, takdîr, te'sîr". In the opening couplet the word "bir" entering the rhyme does not fully match the long "î" sound. "Eylemiş" is also in the list of refrains Kılıç gives. The short metre and the "-miş" past tense at the end of the lines give the ghazal a narrative air: how beauty was created and how fate was apportioned are listed as things already done.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet forelock and sidelong glance are two hunters acting together: one is like a snare, the other like an arrow, and joining hands they hunt the whole world. The second and third couplets treat the theme of creation. "Kilk-i kudret" (the pen of divine power) wrote the beloved's beauty first on the face of Joseph, held up as the model of beauty; that is, Joseph's beauty is a first draft of the beloved's beauty. The phrase "ahsen-i sûret" (the most beautiful form) in the third couplet alludes to the words of the fourth verse of the sura al-Tîn, which states that man was created in "ahsen-i takvîm" (the best of moulds). The words pen, design, writing and portrayal form a congruence of images (tenasüp) taken from the arts of writing and painting.

The fourth couplet names "Kassâm-ı Ezel", that is, God who in pre-eternity apportions sustenance and lots: coquetry and grace fell to the beloved, pain and grief to the lover. This apportionment turns the lover's complaint into a state accepted in the name of fate. The last couplet ends with the cry "Hey meded" (help).

The ghazal is written in the same metre, refrain and rhyme as ghazal 68, which immediately follows it in the edition, and the couplets of the two poems overlap to a great extent. The opening couplet of ghazal 67 is almost the same as that of ghazal 68; the third couplet corresponds to the second couplet of ghazal 68, the second couplet to its third, and the last couplet to its last. Ghazal 67 has only the couplet of the Allotter of Pre-eternity in addition. This closeness is our own observation; it may be thought that the two texts are two separate treatments of the same ghazal, or that one is a draft and the other the final form, but which was written first is not known. Kılıç does not mention this similarity.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 80, ghazal no. 67 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 25b); also p. 29 (list of refrains), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources