Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Âteş-i hasret nigârâ eyledi bagrum kebâb
Dûd-ı hecrün eyledi şâhâ gözüm yaşın şarâb
Ayrılalı gün yüzünden bilmez oldum özümi
Ne hayâlün başa varur ne gelür gözüme hâb
Ârif olan zevk-i dünyâya gönül virmez kim ol
Evvelin ma’mûr iderse âhirin eyler harâb
Kişi ger bin yıl sürerse ‘ıyş u işret dünyede
İtmesün ana heves çün âhiri olur türâb
Derd ü mihnetden şikâyet ne idersin Şâhiyâ
Âhirün ne olacakdur anı gör oldur savâb

In English

1. O beauty, the fire of longing has turned my breast to roast meat; O king, the smoke of separation from you has turned the tears of my eyes to wine.

2. Since I was parted from your sunlike face I have lost all sense of myself; neither does your image come to an end nor does sleep come to my eyes.

3. The wise man does not give his heart to the pleasures of the world; for if the world makes his beginning prosperous, it makes his end a ruin.

4. Even if a man should live a thousand years in this world in feasting and revelry, let him not covet it, for its end is to become dust.

5. O Şâhî, why do you complain of pain and affliction; look to what your end will be, that is what is right.

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. There is no redif; the rhyme is the "-âb" sound in the words "kebâb, şarâb, hâb, harâb, türâb, savâb". The pen name appears in the last couplet. According to Kılıç's footnote this ghazal is a response poem (nazire) to Ahmedî's ghazal whose opening couplet is "Oldı hüsnünün hayâsından eriyüp gül âb / Nergisünün hasretinden gözlerüm toldı gülâb"; Kılıç bases this information on Kâmil Ali Gıynaş's edition of the Pervâne Bey Mecmuası (2017, p. 271). The ghazal is also found in the Mecmû'atü'n-nezâ'ir, an anthology of response poems, and Kılıç gives the variant readings of this anthology in the footnotes.

These differences are not small. In the opening couplet the anthology reads "bagrumı itdi" instead of "eyledi bagrum", and in the second couplet "kendümi" instead of "özümi" (both: myself). The first line of the third couplet is entirely different in the anthology: "Ârif isen pîre-zen dehre gönül virme sakın" (if you are wise, beware of giving your heart to the world, that old crone). In the fourth couplet "'ıyş u işretle safâ" is written instead of "'ıyş u işret dünyede", and in the fifth "itme hergiz" instead of "ne idersin", and "bil" instead of "oldur". The anthology's reading, which likens the world to an old crone, is notable because the same comparison occurs in the last couplet of G.28 in this group ("Vefâsuz pîre-zendür çarh-ı gaddâr"); this comparison is our own.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first two couplets of the ghazal speak of the pain of love, the last three of the transience of the world. This division carries the poem from a love ghazal towards a didactic (hikemî) ghazal of counsel. In the opening couplet the fire of longing and the smoke (dûd) of separation are used together; the smoke of the fire stings the eye, and the tears turn to wine, that is, to blood. In the second couplet the idiom "başa varmak" means to come to an end: the beloved's image does not end, nor does the sleeplessness cease.

The third couplet says that the world makes a man's beginning (evvel) prosperous and his end (âhir) a ruin; the words "evvel" and "âhir", "ma'mûr" (prosperous) and "harâb" (ruined) form two separate pairs of contrast. The fourth couplet reminds us that the end of even a thousand years of pleasure is dust. In the last couplet the poet, addressing himself, counsels himself to stop complaining of pain and to think of the end. The last two couplets of G.9, which Kılıç quotes as an example in his introduction, repeat the same counsel in a shorter metre.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book pp. 50-51, ghazal no. 8 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225); footnotes 87-96 (nazire to Ahmedî; variants of the Mecmû'atü'n-nezâ'ir); also p. 41 (couplets of counsel, G.9/4-5), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources