Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Hecr elinden olmışam bî-çâre bilmen n’eyleyem
Bulmadum derdüme dermân çâre bilmen n’eyleyem
Hasretâ derdâ dirîgâ geçdi ‘ömrüm hecr ile
İrmez isem şol büt-i ‘ayyâra bilmen n’eyleyem
Şol perîşân zülf ü hâli dil görüp oldı esîr
Düşdi ‘ışkına gönül dil-dâre bilmen n’eyleyem
Bülbül-i dil kaldı hâr-ı firkat içre zâr ile
Ol kad-i serv ü gül-i ruhsâra bilmen n’eyleyem
Şâhiyâ hayfâ ki hasret tâ kıyâmet kalısar
Hâlümi ‘arz idemen ol yâre bilmen n’eyleyem

In English

1. Because of separation I have become helpless, I do not know what to do; I found no cure for my pain, I know no remedy, what am I to do.

2. Alas the longing, alas the pain, what a pity; my life has passed in separation. If I cannot reach that cunning beauty (idol), I do not know what I shall do.

3. The heart saw that dishevelled lock and mole and became a captive; the heart has fallen in love with that beloved, I do not know what to do.

4. The nightingale of the heart has been left moaning among the thorns of separation; what am I to do about that cypress-statured, rose-cheeked beloved, I do not know.

5. O Şâhî, what a pity that this longing will last until the Day of Judgement; I cannot lay my state before that beloved, I do not know what to do.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The five-couplet ghazal is written in the "fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilün" pattern. The redif (refrain word) is "bilmen n'eyleyem" (I do not know what to do), and the rhyme is the "-âr" sound followed by the dative ending in "bî-çâre, çâre, 'ayyâra, dil-dâre, ruhsâra, yâre". Kılıç lists "n'eyleyem" among the refrains of the divan. "Bilmen" in the redif is Old Anatolian Turkish for "bilmem" (I do not know). In the opening couplet the rhyme words come from the same root: "bî-çâre" (helpless) and "çâre" (remedy). By the rules of rhyme this is a weak choice; on the other hand, the two lines of the opening couplet express the same helplessness from two sides: first the person is helpless, then the pain has no remedy. In the edition the ghazal is on page 91 and has no folio mark of its own. Its addressee is not stated.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The whole weight of the poem rests on the redif. Each couplet describes a state of helplessness and ends with "bilmen n'eyleyem" (I do not know what to do), so that the ghazal becomes a lament arriving at the same question from five different points. The same expression also occurs in Bayezid's prose: in the letter he wrote to his father on being granted the sanjak of Kütahya, quoted by Kılıç, the prince says "şol denlü şâdam ki şâdılığımdan bilmem n'eyliyem" (I am so glad that I do not know what to do for gladness). The bewilderment born of joy in the letter and of separation in the ghazal is expressed with the same idiom; this similarity is our observation. The sequence "Hasretâ derdâ dirîgâ" at the beginning of the second couplet is an exclamation made of three words with the interjection "-â" added to their ends: "alas the longing, alas the pain, what a pity". In the same couplet the beloved is called "büt-i 'ayyâr"; in divan poetry "büt" (idol) stands for the beautiful one, and "'ayyâr" for a cunning, heart-stealing person.

The third couplet rests on the motif of the snare: the dishevelled lock is imagined as the net that catches the bird of the heart, and the mole on the cheek as the grain of bait. Only "zülf" (lock) and "hâl" (mole) are named in the line, but the phrase "esîr olmak" (to become captive) completes the picture. In the fourth couplet the rose and nightingale motif is reversed: the nightingale is not beside the rose but left among the thorns of separation. The phrases "kad-i serv" (cypress stature) and "gül-i ruhsâr" (rose cheek) bring the garden images together in a congruence of images (tenasüp). "Kalısar" in the last couplet is formed with the Old Anatolian Turkish future suffix and means "will remain". In the couplet with the pen name (mahlas) the poet laments that the longing will last until Judgement Day, but the real pain is that he cannot lay his state before the beloved. This is a frequent theme in Şâhî's divan. According to Kılıç, the content of the divan can largely be summed up in the words "ayrılık, fürkat, firâk, hicrân, hasret, hecr" (separation and longing), and this ghazal, whose first word is "hecr", fits that description exactly.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 91, ghazal no. 92 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225); also p. 8 (Bayezid's letter to his father), p. 29 (refrains) and p. 31 (main theme of the divan), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources