Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilün

Kıldı hasret gözlerüm yaşın şarâb
İtdi fürkat bagrumun başın kebâb
Gün yüzünden dûr olalı âh kim
Gözlerüme gelmedi bir lahza hâb
Çâre yok hecrün elinden kurtulam
Ol idiserdür beni âhir türâb
‘Âkıl isen bu cihâna virme dil
Gönli bir ma’mûre vir k’olmaz harâb
Şâhiyâ itme şikâyet dünyeden
Âhiret fikr it ki ol ‘ayn-ı savâb

In English

1. Longing has turned the tears of my eyes to wine; separation has roasted the core of my breast.

2. Since I was parted from your sunlike face, ah, not for a moment has sleep come to my eyes.

3. There is no escape from the hand of separation; in the end it will turn me to dust.

4. If you are wise, do not give your heart to this world; give your heart to a prosperous place that will not fall to ruin.

5. O Şâhî, do not complain of the world; think of the hereafter, for that is the very essence of what is right.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal of five couplets is written in "fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilün", the short pattern of the remel family, and stands on folio 4b of the manuscript. There is no redif; the rhyme is the "-âb" sound in the words "şarâb, kebâb, hâb, türâb, harâb, savâb". The pen name appears in the last couplet. The rhyme words are almost the same as those of the preceding ghazal (G.8): there the order is "kebâb, şarâb, hâb, harâb, türâb, savâb", here "şarâb, kebâb, hâb, türâb, harâb, savâb". The subject of the two ghazals is also the same; the first two couplets speak of the pain of separation, the last of the transience of the world. This closeness is our own observation, and it suggests that G.9 is a ghazal in which the poet reworked the ground of G.8 in a shorter metre.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Kılıç cites the opening couplet of this ghazal as an example of the frequency of the words "estrangement and parting" (hecr ve fürkat) in Bayezid's poems. In the opening couplet the two lines are built in parallel: "longing" turns the tears to wine, "parting" roasts the core of the breast. The arrangement of subject, object and verb in the same order in both lines produces a plainer utterance than the opening couplets of G.6 and G.8. In the second couplet the sunlike face and the sleepless eye are set against each other. The verb "idiserdür" in the third couplet carries the "-iser" future suffix of Old Anatolian Turkish and means "will make"; separation is presented as an end from which there is no escape.

The last two couplets are those that Kılıç cites in his introduction as examples of couplets of counsel on the transience of the world. In the fourth couplet "cihân" (the world) is compared with "ma'mûre" (a prosperous place): this world is a place that will fall to ruin, and the heart should be given to a prosperous place that will not. That this prosperous place is the hereafter is said plainly in the last couplet. The word "'ayn" in "'ayn-ı savâb" (the very essence of what is right) means both essence and eye, and with a subtle turn it links to the image of the eye that has been spoken of in the ghazal from the beginning; this connection is our own reading. The ghazal is a short and plain example that unites the pain of love and the counsel of renunciation in five couplets.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 51, ghazal no. 9 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 4b); also p. 31 (G.9/1, estrangement and parting) and p. 41 (G.9/4-5, couplets of counsel), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources