Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Sînemün üstine urdum lâle gibi tâze dâg
Şâh-ı ‘ışkam gûyiyâ kurdum mahabbetden otag
Bezm-i mihnetde ko ben hûn-ı ciger nûş ideyin
Nûş-ı cân olsun çemende komasın elden ayag
La’lüne benzer diyü cânâ şarâb-ı ergavân
Toldurup zerrîn kadehler nûş iderler sol u sag
Bu tutum kim sevdügüm bu çeşm-i kattâlündedür
Ben de bildüm kim komaz dünyâda bu bir kimse sag
Yanılup bir gice tek gelsün o Şâhî hânuma
Yüregüm yagından ana yakayum bir şeb-çerâg

In English

1. I have pressed a fresh brand upon my breast like the tulip; I am the shah of love, as if I had pitched a royal tent of affection.

2. Let me drink the blood of my liver at the feast of hardship; let it be the nectar of the soul to others, let them not put down the cup in the meadow.

3. Beloved, saying that purple wine resembles your ruby lip, they fill golden cups and drink to the right and left.

4. My love, the resolve in this murderous eye of yours is such that I too have understood that it leaves no one alive in this world.

5. Let that shah come by mistake to my house one night alone; I would light a night lamp for him from the fat of my heart.

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 in the edition the folio mark 28a stands at the end of the second couplet. There is no redif; the rhyme is the "-ag" sound in the words "dâg, otag, ayag, sag, sag, çerâg". In Kılıç's table of rhyme letters there is one Turkish ghazal ending in the letter "gayın"; this ghazal is that example. The pen name appears in the last couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet rests on the well-known image of the brand (dâg, a burn scar) in divan poetry. Lovers would brand their breasts for the sake of love; the red tulip with a black spot at its centre is also likened to this burn. The poet likens the fresh wound on his breast to a tulip and then to a royal tent (otag): the poet, who calls himself "şâh-ı 'ışk" (the shah of love), is inside a sovereign's tent made of affection with this wound upon his breast. The resemblance between the tent-like shape of the tulip and the royal tent is our own reading.

The second and third couplets set up the drinking party. The lover accepts drinking the blood of his own liver as his share, and he wants the others not to put down the cup in the meadow. In the third couplet, because the purple wine is likened to the beloved's lip, those at the party drink to the right and left from golden cups. In the fourth couplet the word "sag" becomes a rhyme again, but this time its meaning changes: in the third couplet "sol u sag" means left and right, in the fourth couplet "kimse sag" means no one alive. Rhyming the same word in two different senses is an example of perfect paronomasia (tam cinas), and it takes the repetition out of the category of a fault.

The last couplet is the most interesting of the ghazal. In the edition "o Şâhî" is printed with a capital as the pen name, yet the line asks that the beloved come by mistake, alone, to the lover's house one night. In this case the word "şâhî" can be read both as the poet's pen name and as "that shah", that is, the beloved; this two-way use of the pen name is our own observation. The lover says he will light a "şeb-çerâg" (night lamp) for the guest from the fat of his heart. The melting of the heart's fat is an idiom expressing great pain; here the melting fat becomes the oil of the lamp lit to welcome the beloved.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 83, ghazal no. 74 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 28a); also pp. 27-28 (distribution of ghazals by rhyme letter), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources