Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe’ilâtün Fe’ilâtün Fe’ilâtün Fe’ilün

Olımaz gülşen-i cennet ruh-ı zîbâna bedel
Bâd-ı bedden gül-i ruhsârına irmege halel
Dilde ekser ser-i zülfeynünün endîşesidür
Belî sevdâ-zedenün ‘âdetidür tûl-i emel
Tutdı tûfân-ı sirişküm yine ‘âlem yüzüni
Korkaram kim felegün vire bekâsına halel
Didüm öldürdi mahallende beni ta’n-ı rakîb
Gül gibi nâz ile güldi didi vallâhi mahal
Sen gazâlun gözi vasfında eyâ Türk-i Hıtâ
Tab’-ı Şâhî gibi kimse diyemez tâze gazel

In English

1. The rose garden of paradise cannot take the place of your lovely cheek; (may) no harm from an evil wind reach the rose of your cheek.

2. In the heart there is mostly the thought of the tips of your two locks; yes, long hope is the custom of one smitten with passion (sevdâ).

3. The flood of my tears has again covered the face of the world; I fear it will bring harm to the very existence of the sphere.

4. I said, "The rival's taunts killed me in your quarter"; she laughed like a rose with coquetry and said, "By God, it served you right."

5. O Turk of Cathay, in describing the gazelle's eye no one can compose so fresh a ghazal as Şâhî's gift.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The five-couplet ghazal is written in the "fe'ilâtün fe'ilâtün fe'ilâtün fe'ilün" pattern. It has no redif; the rhyme is the "-el" sound in the words "bedel, halel, emel, halel, mahal, gazel". The word "halel" rhymes twice, in the opening couplet and in the third. According to Kılıç's footnote this ghazal is not found in the manuscript of the divan; it is taken from the Mecmû'atü'n-nezâ'ir, that is, the Pervâne Bey Mecmuası, and is a nazire (response poem) to Cem Sultan's ghazal with the opening couplet "Kâse-i ömri tehi eylemedin dest-i ecel / Sâkiyâ kâse-i mey sun ki gide tûl-i emel". For this reason it carries no folio mark in the edition.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

A nazire is written keeping the metre and rhyme of the model poem. The rhyme "tûl-i emel" (long hope) in Cem Sultan's opening couplet appears unchanged in the second couplet of Şâhî's ghazal, but in another context: in Cem the wish is to drink before the cup of life is emptied and be rid of long hope, while in Şâhî long hope is the custom of one smitten with passion. Since the word "sevdâ" expresses both black hair and the madness of love, a link of length is made between the tips of the beloved's two locks and long hope.

The third couplet is a hyperbole: the lover's tears have covered the world like a flood and come to threaten the existence of the sphere. The fourth couplet is a small scene of conversation. The lover says that the rival's taunts killed him in the beloved's quarter; the beloved laughs and says "vallâhi mahal". The word "mahal", meaning "deserved, fitting", plays in sound and root on the word "mahalle" (quarter) at the head of the line. In the last couplet the cinas (paronomasia) between "gazâl" (gazelle) and "gazel" (ghazal) is striking: describing the gazelle's eye and composing a fresh ghazal are united in the same phrase. "Türk-i Hıtâ", a reference to the beauties of Cathay, that is, northern China, denotes the lovely beloved in divan poetry.

Historical Context

Kılıç, quoting Mustafa İsen and Ali Fuat Bilkan, states that among the few examples of "hasb-i hâl" poetry, in which the poet relates his own troubles, the most noteworthy are the poems of Cem Sultan and Prince Bayezid. Cem Sultan was the son of Mehmed the Conqueror and, after his defeat by his elder brother Bayezid II in 1481, spent the rest of his life in exile. He was a poet with divans in Turkish and Persian. The Pervâne Bey Mecmuası, the most voluminous anthology of nazires, was compiled in 968 (1560-61) by Pervâne b. Abdullah, one of the palace servants. At that date Bayezid was in Iran. It is striking that two princes, Cem and Bayezid, who entered a struggle for the throne with an elder brother and were forced to leave their homeland, meet on the same ground. When the nazire was written is not known, and there is no record directly linking this similarity between the fates of the two princes to the subject of the ghazal. This assessment is our own.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 89, ghazal no. 88; footnote 110 (nazire to Cem Sultan, from the Mecmû'atü'n-nezâ'ir); also p. 30 (hasb-i hâl poetry, Cem Sultan and Bayezid), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Academic studies

Online sources