Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Niçe bir hasret odıyla yüregüm yana benüm
Ya yüzüm yaşum ile kanlara boyana benüm
Gel a ey kanlu yaşumla boyanan nâme yine
Hâlüm i’lâm kıl ol server-i hûbâna benüm
Ola kim merhamet ide dil-i mihnet-zedeme
Hele bir aglayasın hâlümi cânâna benüm
Hüsrev-i ‘ışkam u Ferhâd bana kul olımaz
Anlamam gelmiş ola mislümi devrâna benüm
Âstîn-i keremiyle gözümün yaşını sil
Rahm kıl iki gözüm yuma yüzüm kana benüm
Ne sözüm var helâl olsun eger mey yirine
Kanumı içer ise ol gözi mestâne benüm
Gele insâf ide vasfında o nâzük güzelün
Sözlerüm Şâhî degül mi katı rindâne benüm

In English

1. How long will my heart burn with the fire of longing, or my face be dyed in blood with my tears?

2. Come, O letter dyed with my bloody tears; once again make my state known to that chief of the beauties.

3. Perhaps he will take pity on my afflicted heart; above all, may you weep as you tell my beloved of my state.

4. I am the Hüsrev of love, Ferhâd cannot even be my servant; I do not think anyone like me has ever come into the world.

5. Wipe the tears from my eyes with the sleeve of your generosity; have pity, lest my two eyes wash my face in blood.

6. If that drunken-eyed beloved drinks my blood instead of wine, what can I say, let it be lawful to him.

7. Let someone come and judge fairly: Şâhî, in describing that delicate beauty, are my words not truly in the manner of a rind?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The seven-couplet ghazal is written in the "fe'ilâtün fe'ilâtün fe'ilâtün fe'ilün" pattern. The redif (refrain word) is "benüm" (my, of mine). The rhyme words are "yana, boyana, hûbâna, cânâna, devrâna, kana, mestâne, rindâne". In transliteration some of these end in "-a" and some in "-e"; since in the Arabic script the dative ending and the suffix "-âne" are written with the same letter, the rhyme looks regular in the manuscript. This explanation is ours. Kılıç counts the ghazal among the ten with the redif "benüm"; in footnote 73 it appears as "92", because in this part of the edition the numbers in the introduction are one less than those of the text. In the edition the folio mark 34b stands at the end of the opening couplet. The addressee is not stated.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The most striking part of the ghazal is the second and third couplets. The poet addresses the letter dyed with bloody tears, sends it to the beloved and asks it to tell of his state weeping. Making the letter speak like a living being is personification, and addressing it with "ey" (O) is apostrophe. Tears turning to blood is one of the familiar hyperboles of divan poetry; here the blood is imagined as the ink of the letter. Kılıç separately discusses the poems Bayezid wrote in the voice of a son awaiting letters from his father, but he does not count this ghazal among those examples; the addressee here is called "server-i hûbân" (chief of the beauties), an expression also used for the beloved.

The fourth couplet reverses the story of Hüsrev and Şîrîn. In the story the true lover is Ferhâd, who cuts through mountains, while Hüsrev is his royal rival. Şâhî declares himself "the Hüsrev of love" and says that Ferhâd could not even be his servant. The roles of ruler and lover are joined in one person; this is a meaningful choice for the pen of a prince, but the poem gives no sign beyond it. In the fifth couplet "âstîn-i kerem" (the sleeve of generosity) gives concrete form to the beloved's favour as a sleeve that wipes away tears. In the sixth couplet the drunken eye drinks the lover's blood instead of wine; the shared colour of "mey" (wine) and "kan" (blood) carries this image. In the last couplet the poet describes his own words as "rindâne". The rind in divan poetry is a person who lives free, careless of convention and without show. Kılıç also notes that couplets in which the poet mentions his own poetry are rare in the divan; this couplet is one of those few examples.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book pp. 91-92, ghazal no. 93 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 34b); also p. 29 (footnote 73: ghazals with the redif "benüm"), p. 32 (the son awaiting letters from his father) and p. 42 (couplets in which the poet mentions his own poetry), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources