Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ’îlün Mefâ’îlün Fe’ûlün

Sunaldan câm-ı la’lin ol lebi nûş
Götürdi gitdi başdan ayagı hûş
Bu gün gülzâr-ı hüsnün zîneti hep
Cemâlündendür ey serv-i kabâ-pûş
Gönülde kılca gam kalmazdı ey dost
Şol ince bilün kılsam der-âgûş
Şu hûnî çeşmünün hışm u sitemden
Murâdı cân ise baş üstüne hoş
Bu gün Şâhî mahabbet cür’asından
Benem bezm-i safâda mest ü medhûş

In English

1. Ever since that lip offered the ruby cup to drink, it has carried the mind away from head to foot.

2. O cypress clad in a robe, today all the adornment of the rose garden of beauty comes from your face.

3. O friend, not a hair's worth of grief would remain in my heart if I could take that slender waist in my arms.

4. If what that bloodthirsty eye wants through anger and cruelty is my life, gladly, upon my head.

5. Today I, Şâhî, am drunk and beside myself at the feast of joy from a sip of love.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal of five couplets is written in the "mefâ'îlün mefâ'îlün fe'ûlün" pattern. There is no folio mark in the edition; since it comes after the 26a mark in the preceding ghazal, it is understood to stand on the same folio. There is no redif; the rhyme is the "-ûş" sound in the words "nûş, hûş, pûş, âgûş, hoş, medhûş". The word "hoş" in the fourth couplet does not fully fit this sound with its short vowel; Kılıç makes no note on the rhyme. The pen name appears in the last couplet, and the poet speaks of himself in the first person singular ("Benem").

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet the word "ayak" is used in two senses. The expression "başdan ayagı" means from head to foot, entirely; at the same time "ayak" is also a name for the wine cup in divan poetry. The ruby cup offered by the beloved's lip, that is, the lip itself, has carried the mind away from head to foot, and the cup has also taken the mind out of the head. This play on words gives the couplet a double entendre (tevriye), and the words "câm" (cup), "nûş" (drinking) and "hûş" (mind) set up a congruence of images (tenasüp) around the drinking party.

In the second couplet the beloved is called "serv-i kabâ-pûş", the cypress clad in a robe; likening a tall figure in a long robe to a cypress tree is a well-known image. All the adornment of the garden comes from his face. In the third couplet there is again a link between slender waist and hair: if the lover could embrace the waist as thin as a hair, not a hair's worth of grief would remain in his heart. The fourth couplet shows the lover's submission: if the beloved's "hûnî" (bloodthirsty) eye demands his life with anger and reproach, the lover says "upon my head". This idiom expresses readiness before a command and also accords with the place of the eye on the head.

In the last couplet the poet is drunk and beside himself at the feast of joy from a single sip he has drunk from the cup of love. The word "cür'a" (sip) also denotes the last drop left at the bottom of the cup. That the ghazal takes place from beginning to end within the same gathering and that all its couplets are devoted to the beloved's beauty sets it apart from the poems of separation and complaint in the divan. Kılıç's assessment that poems speaking of beauties and love are found in the divan, though few, also applies to this ghazal. There is no sign of a person, place or date in the poem.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 81, ghazal no. 69 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 26a); also p. 40 (poems speaking of beauties and love), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources