Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Yoluma ölmez dimişsin bana ‘ömrüm katı çok
Sen niye açdun dehânun kim didüm ben anı yok
Çeşm-i hışm ile kıya bakdukca câna kâr ider
Gamzenün her biri ey kaşı kemân gûyâ bir ok
Yüz bulaldan kâkülün sarkar dehânun öpmege
Ol siyeh-rûyı var imdi bir dahı koynuna sok
Ey gönül gel hüsn ü hulkı koma elden bir nefes
Çünki makbûl-i Hudâ mahbûb-ı halk olur halûk
Yâr-ı sâdık arayup n’eylersin ey Şâhî kim ol
Fi’l-mesel Ankâ gibi bir ismdür kim cism yok

In English

1. You said of me, "He will not die on my path, his life is too long"; I had said your mouth did not exist, so why did you open your mouth?

2. O beloved whose brow is a bow, whenever you look askance with an angry eye, each of your sidelong glances strikes the soul as if it were an arrow.

3. Ever since your forelock was indulged, it hangs down to kiss your mouth; go now and tuck that black-faced one into your bosom once more.

4. O heart, come, do not let go of beauty and good character for a moment; for the good-natured man is accepted by God and beloved of the people.

5. O Şâhî, why do you search for a faithful friend? As the proverb has it, he is like the Ankâ, a name without a body.

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 29a stands at the end of the second couplet. There is no redif; the rhyme is built with the words "çok, yok, ok, sok, halûk, yok". The word "yok" of the second line of the opening couplet becomes a rhyme again in the closing couplet. "Halûk" in the fourth couplet, with its long "û" sound, does not fully fit the other rhymes. Kılıç's table of rhyme letters shows three Turkish ghazals ending in the letter "kaf". The pen name appears in the last couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is a witty couplet built on the image in divan poetry of the beloved's mouth being counted as "non-existent" because it is so small. The beloved has said of the lover, "he will not die on my path, his life is very long". The lover, for his part, has said that the beloved's mouth does not exist; when the beloved opens the mouth to speak, this statement is disproved. Thus the two sides refute each other's words: the beloved says the lover will not die, and the lover counts the beloved's mouth as non-existent. This solution is our own reading.

In the second couplet the sidelong glances of the beloved, who is "kaşı kemân" (whose brow is a bow), are like arrows. There is a well-known congruence of images (tenasüp) among brow, glance and arrow. The third couplet teases the forelock. "Yüz bulmak" means both to be spoiled by indulgence and to reach the face; as the forelock is indulged, it hangs down onto the cheek to kiss the beloved's mouth. The poet calls the black forelock "siyeh-rû" (black-faced) and tells the beloved to tuck it into his bosom. The expression "black-faced" denotes both the black colour and a disgraced person; thus a double entendre (tevriye) arises in the couplet.

The fourth couplet is a counsel and asks that beauty and good character be preserved together. There is derivation (iştikak) between the words "hüsn ü hulk" (beauty and character) and "halûk" (good-natured). The closing couplet says that searching for a faithful friend is in vain: the faithful friend is like the Ankâ, whose name is known but whose body is never seen. This couplet completes the same subject as the words "bulmaduk bir yâr-ı sâdık" (we did not find a faithful friend) in the opening couplet of ghazal 76, which comes immediately before it in the edition; this connection is our own observation. In divan poetry the Ankâ is the example of things that have a name but do not exist, and in the opening couplet of ghazal 87 it is also named together with love.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 84, ghazal no. 77 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 29a); also pp. 27-28 (distribution of ghazals by rhyme letter), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources