Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Bir nazarla gönlüm aldun sevdügüm cânum benüm
Dildeki ârâmum aldun âh sultânum benüm
Hâlüme lutf eyle rahm it şâh-ı hûbânum benüm
İntizâr eyle ben öldüm ey güzel hânum benüm
Ugradum bir derde derdâ hadd ile pâyânı yok
Çekdügüm derd ü belânun sevdügüm oranı yok
Sensüzin bir hasteyem kim derdümün dermânı yok
İntizâr eyle ben öldüm ey güzel hânum benüm
Gül yüzün görmem nigârâ aglaram hicrân ile
Geçdi ‘ömrüm âh kim bülbül gibi efgân ile
Nây-veş bagrum delikdür inlerem ben cân ile
İntizâr eyle ben öldüm ey güzel hânum benüm
Göreliden gün yüzüni olmışam dîvâne ben
Yanmaga ‘ışk âteşine olmışam pervâne ben
Boynı baglu bir kul oldum turmışam fermâna ben
İntizâr eyle ben öldüm ey güzel hânum benüm
Görmeyelden gül yüzüni tende cânum hastedür
İnlerüm bülbül gibi âhum göge peyvestedür
Bend-i zülfünde dil Şâhî şikeste-bestedür
İntizâr eyle ben öldüm ey güzel hânum benüm

In English

1. My beloved, my soul, with one glance you took my heart; ah, my sultan, you took the peace that was in my heart. O shah of the beauties, be gracious to my state, have mercy. Watch for me (wait), I have died, O my fair lord.

2. Alas, I have met with a pain that has no limit and no end; my beloved, the pain and affliction I suffer have no measure. Without you I am a sick man whose pain has no cure. Watch for me, I have died, O my fair lord.

3. O beauty, I do not see your rose face, I weep with separation; alas, my life has passed in lament like the nightingale. Like the reed flute my breast is full of holes; I moan with all my soul. Watch for me, I have died, O my fair lord.

4. Since I saw your sunlike face I have become mad; to burn in the fire of love I have become a moth; I have become a servant with bound neck and stand ready for your command. Watch for me, I have died, O my fair lord.

5. Since I last saw your rose face my soul has been sick in my body; I moan like a nightingale, my sighs reach the sky. In the bond of your lock Şâhî's heart is broken and bound. Watch for me, I have died, O my fair lord.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a murabba of five stanzas with a refrain, written in the "fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilün" pattern of the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre). In the first stanza the four lines end with the redif (refrain word) "benüm" and rhyme on "-ânum": cânum, sultânum, hûbânum, hânum. The other stanzas use the rhymes "-ânı yok", "-ân" with the redif "ile" (hicrân, efgân, cân), "-âne" with the redif "ben" (dîvâne, pervâne, fermâna) and "-estedür" (hastedür, peyvestedür, bestedür). The sequence "pâyânı yok, oranı yok, dermânı yok" in the second stanza also occurs with nearly the same words in the second stanza of the first murabba and the sixth stanza of the fourteenth murabba. The refrain is the line "İntizâr eyle ben öldüm ey güzel hânum benüm". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last stanza (fol. 72b). It is not known to whom the poem was written.

"İntizâr eyle" in the refrain is in the imperative and means "wait, watch for"; the line can be read as "watch for me, I have died", or, starting from the sense of waiting in the word "intizâr", it can be understood as the lament "I have died of watching for you". In the translation we have followed the first sense.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem ties the beginning of love to a glance: with a single glance the beloved has taken the heart and its peace. The third and fifth stanzas use the image of the rose and the nightingale; the beloved's face is the rose, and the lover is the nightingale who cannot see it and moans. In the third stanza the breast full of holes like a reed flute (ney) is a simile that ties the moaning to the holes of the instrument. The image of the ney also occurs in other ghazals of the divan; Kılıç writes that because of a couplet about the sound of the ney it has been thought that Şâhî may have been a Mevlevi, but adds that there is no information about any attachment of his to a Sufi order. The fourth stanza lists three states of surrender with the words "dîvâne" (madman), "pervâne" (moth) and "kul" (servant); the moth burning in the candle's flame is the familiar image of burning in the fire of love. The phrase "şikeste-beste" in the last stanza recalls a broken and bandaged limb: in the bond of the lock the heart is both broken and bound. The use of the word "beste" (bound) together with the bond of the lock creates a congruence of images (tenasüp).

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book pp. 136-137, murabba no. 10 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 72b); also pp. 26 and 40 (the reed-flute image), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources