Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ’îlün Mefâ’îlün Fe’ûlün

Gam-ı hecrünle ey yâr-ı ferah-nâk
Gönül gam-gîn ciger hûn dîde nem-nâk
Nice i’lâm idem şevk-i visâlün
Ki hayretde kalupdur ‘akl-ı derrâk
Cihânda hîç vaslun gibi olmaz
Hümûm-ı hecr ü zehr-i dehre tiryâk
Yanaldan şem’-veş nâr-ı firâka
Dehânumdan döner fânûs-ı eflâk
Dil-i Şâhîden istifsâr idersen
Firâkun mübtelâsı zâr u gam-nâk

In English

1. O joyful beloved, through the grief of separation from you the heart is sorrowful, the liver bloody, the eye wet.

2. How can I make known my longing for union with you, when even the all-perceiving mind is left in bewilderment?

3. In the world nothing is such an antidote as union with you to the cares of separation and the poison of time.

4. Ever since I burned like a candle in the fire of separation, the lantern of the heavens turns with the smoke of my mouth.

5. If you ask Şâhî's heart how it is, it is one afflicted with separation from you, moaning and sorrowful.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal of five couplets is written in the "mefâ'îlün mefâ'îlün fe'ûlün" pattern. It carries no folio mark in the edition; it stands after the 30b mark at the end of the fifth couplet of the preceding ghazal. There is no redif; the rhyme is the "-âk" sound in the words "ferah-nâk, nem-nâk, derrâk, tiryâk, eflâk, gam-nâk". There is a correspondence between the opening and closing couplets: in the opening the beloved is called "ferah-nâk" (joyful), in the closing the lover is called "gam-nâk" (sorrowful), and the two words are opposites formed with the same suffix. The pen name appears in the last couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The second line of the opening couplet lists the lover's state in three short phrases: "gönül gam-gîn, ciger hûn, dîde nem-nâk" (the heart sorrowful, the liver bloody, the eye wet). Heart, liver and eye are the three organs on which the pain of love leaves the most trace in divan poetry. The second couplet says that the longing for union cannot be told, because even the all-perceiving mind is in bewilderment. The third couplet uses the language of sickness and medicine: against the cares of separation and the poison of time, union is a "tiryâk", an antidote. There is a contrast (tezat) between "zehr" (poison) and "tiryâk" (antidote).

The fourth couplet carries the most striking conceit of the ghazal. The lover burns like a candle in the fire of separation. A lantern placed around a candle protects its light, and in revolving lanterns pictures move around the candle. The poet likens the sky, that is, the heavenly spheres, to a lantern turning around himself; and what turns this lantern is the smoke of sighs coming from the lover's mouth. Thus the lover's burning is placed at the centre of the whole universe. Explaining the likening of the spheres to a lantern and the linking of its turning to the smoke from the mouth in this way is our own reading. The words şem' (candle), nâr (fire), fânûs (lantern) and dehân (mouth, here breath and smoke) form a congruence of images (tenasüp) in this couplet.

The closing couplet supposes that the beloved asks a question: if he asks Şâhî's heart how it is, the answer he receives is that it is afflicted with separation, moaning and sorrowful. The word "istifsâr" (asking after one's state) gives the couplet the air of the language of letters. The general mood of the ghazal is in line with the poems of separation in the divan; Kılıç's summing up of the main theme of Şâhî's poems with the words separation, parting, longing and fire also applies to this ghazal. 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. 86, ghazal no. 82 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 30b); also p. 31 (the main theme of the poems), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources