Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Vâlih ü hayrân kıldı gönlümi sevdâ-yı ‘ışk
Eyledi ‘âlemlere derdâ beni rüsvâ-yı ‘ışk
Cânı ser-gerdân idüp gönlüm perîşân eyledi
Vireli zülfün ucından başuma gavgâ-yı ‘ışk
Ney gibi bagrum delindi inlerem feryâd idüp
Cân kulağıyla işit gel gör nedür bu nây-ı ‘ışk
Görinen ancak kurı dükkân-ı tendür dostum
Oldı cân u dil metâ’ı cümleten yagma-yı ‘ışk
Seyr idelden gül yüzün gülzâr-ı hüsnünde senün
Oldı bülbül gibi Şâhî dostum gûyâ-yı ‘ışk

In English

1. The passion of love has left my heart bewildered and amazed; what pain, love has disgraced me before the worlds.

2. Ever since the quarrel of love was dealt to my head from the tip of your hair, it has left my soul reeling and my heart in disarray.

3. Like the reed flute my breast has been pierced, I moan, crying out; hear with the ear of the soul, come and see what this reed of love is.

4. What is seen is only the empty shop of the body, my friend; all the goods of soul and heart have become the plunder of love.

5. Ever since he gazed on your rosy face in the rose garden of your beauty, my friend, Şâhî has become, like the nightingale, one who speaks of love.

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. It carries no folio mark in the edition; it stands after the 29a mark at the end of the second couplet of the preceding ghazal. The redif (refrain) is "-yı 'ışk" (of love), and the rhyme is the "-â" sound in the words "sevdâ, rüsvâ, gavgâ, nây, yagmâ, gûyâ". "'Işk" appears as a separate refrain in Kılıç's list. The pen name appears in the last couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Kılıç says that poems speaking of beauties and love are found in the divan, though few, and he quotes this ghazal in full as an example "expressing the manifestations of love in man". In the ghazal each couplet shows something love does to the lover: it bewilders and disgraces him, leaves his soul reeling and his heart scattered, pierces his breast, plunders the shop of his body, and in the end makes him speak like the nightingale.

The third couplet sets up a likeness between the pierced body of the reed flute (ney) and the lover's pierced breast. The ney gives voice because it is pierced, and the lover moans because his breast is pierced. The poet asks his listener to hear "with the ear of the soul". Kılıç notes that another couplet in which the sound of the ney is mentioned ("G140/3" in the introduction) has suggested that the poet may have been a Mevlevi, but he adds that mystical elements are used in Bayezid's poems as means of expression within the tradition of divan poetry. The first line of this couplet begins in the same way as the words "Ney gibi bagrum delindi" in the third couplet of ghazal 14; the repetition is our own observation.

The fourth couplet combines the language of trade and of plunder: only the empty shelves of the shop of the body remain, because the goods of soul and heart have been plundered by love. The last couplet ends with the word "gûyâ". The word means "speaking, one who speaks" and is also used in everyday language in the sense of "as if". Ever since Şâhî saw the beloved's rosy face, he has become one who, like the nightingale, gives voice to love; at the same time the sense "as if he had become a nightingale" is also felt. The words rose, rose garden and nightingale form a congruence of images (tenasüp) in this last couplet. The address "dostum" (my friend), which occurs twice in the ghazal, gives the poem the air of pouring out one's troubles to a friend rather than to 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. 84, ghazal no. 78 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 29a); also p. 26 (the ney image and mystical elements), p. 29 (list of refrains) and p. 40 (the full ghazal, manifestations of love), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources