Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ’îlün Mefâ’îlün Fe’ûlün

Çün oldı ‘ışkun ey şeh bana vâkı’
İrişdi başuma dürlü vekâyi’
Halâs olmaz gönül gördi cefâdan
Anunçün mihnetüne oldı kâni’
Dirîg itme visâlün şerbetinden
Marîz-i ‘ışkam oldı bana nâfi’
Gönül şeydâ olup zülfüne düşdi
Ko olsun aslına miskîni râci’
Yüzüne bakdugınca Şâhîye âh
Çeker hışm ile gamzen seyf-i kâtı’

In English

1. O shah, ever since love for you befell me, all kinds of events have befallen my head.

2. The heart saw that there was no escape from torment; so it became content with the hardship you give.

3. Do not withhold the sherbet of union with you; I am sick with love, and it is beneficial to me.

4. The heart went mad and fell into your hair; let that poor (musk-scented) one return to its origin.

5. Whenever Şâhî looks at your face, alas, your sidelong glance angrily draws its cutting sword.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal of five couplets is written in the "mefâ'îlün mefâ'îlün fe'ûlün" pattern and carries the folio mark 27b in the edition. There is no redif. The rhyme is built with the words "vâkı', vekâyi', kâni', nâfi', râci', kâtı'"; all of these are words of Arabic origin ending in the letter "ayn". In Kılıç's table showing the distribution of the divan's ghazals according to their rhyme letters, there is one Turkish ghazal ending in the letter "ayın"; this ghazal is that single example. In the opening couplet "vâkı'" and "vekâyi'" come from the same root, and this closeness is an example of derivation (iştikak). The pen name appears in the last couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet the beloved is addressed as "şeh" (shah). Since this address is often used for the beloved in divan poetry, it does not by itself point to a person. The subject of the ghazal is the troubles love brings upon one and the lover's acceptance of them. In the second couplet the heart, realising that there is no escape from torment, accepts the hardship the beloved gives; the word "kâni'" (content, satisfied) expresses this submission. The third couplet uses the language of sickness and medicine: the lover is sick with love, and the sherbet of union will heal him. Sherbet means both a sweet drink and a medicinal drink given to the sick.

The fourth couplet is built on the word "miskîn". Miskin means poor and wretched; at the same time the word carries a sound resemblance to "misk" (musk), and in divan poetry the beloved's hair is musk-scented. The heart, gone mad, has fallen into the beloved's hair; by saying "let that poor one return to its origin" the poet implies that the origin of the heart is that musk-scented hair. The idea that the heart came from the hair and returns there is our own reading; the word "râci'" (returning) allows this reading. The word "şeydâ" (mad) also recalls the well-known link between the chain of the hair and madmen.

In the last couplet the beloved's sidelong glance turns into a sword. As the lover looks at the beloved's face, the glance angrily draws a "seyf-i kâtı'" (cutting sword). This correspondence between looking at the face and drawing the sword shows that the beloved's beauty is at the same time dangerous. There is no sign of a person, place or date in 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. 82, ghazal no. 73 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 27b); also pp. 27-28 (distribution of ghazals by rhyme letter), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources