Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilün
Dilde derdüm sanma çarhun mihnetindendür benüm
Cânda gussam yâ bu gamzen sür’atindendür benüm
Yâhud eşkâl-i cihânun kesretindendür benüm
Bir meh-i nâ-mihr-bânun hasretindendür benüm
Hem-demüm gussa enîsüm dostlar derd oldugı
Gözlerüm giryân ciger biryân yüzüm zerd oldugı
Düşüben râh-ı mahabbetde tenüm gerd oldugı
Bir meh-i nâ-mihr-bânun hasretindendür benüm
Zülf-i Leylâ gibi bu gönlüm müşevveş bî-karâr
Hâl-i Mecnûn gibi kârum rûz u şeb feryâd u zâr
Sîne sûzân u ciger biryân u çeşmüm cûybâr
Bir meh-i nâ-mihr-bânun hasretindendür benüm
Künc-i fürkatde dem-â-dem zâr u giryân oldugum
Çâh-ı hasretde esîr-i derd-i hicrân oldugum
Mihrinı fâş eyleyüp ‘âlemde destân oldugum
Bir meh-i nâ-mihr-bânun hasretindendür benüm
Gün gibi sabrum yakasın çâk idüp âh eylemek
Âhum ile âsumânı kara har-gâh eylemek
Hâsılı gam hırmânında gendümi kâh eylemek
Bir meh-i nâ-mihr-bânun hasretindendür benüm
Nâr-ı fürkatle kara bagrumı yakup taglamak
Pîşe vü kâr oldugı feryâd idüp kan aglamak
Nâlemi hem-dem idüp âhumla ülfet baglamak
Bir meh-i nâ-mihr-bânun hasretindendür benüm
Derd-i hecr-i yâr ile gam-gîn ü nâ-şâd oldugum
San’at-ı mihr ü mahabbetde ben üstâd oldugum
Şâhiyâ derd ü belâya böyle mu’tâd oldugum
Bir meh-i nâ-mihr-bânun hasretindendür benüm
In English
1. Do not think the pain in my heart comes from the torment of heaven; the sorrow in my soul comes neither from the swiftness of that glance nor from the multitude of the world's conditions. My pain comes from longing for a merciless (sunless) moon.
2. That sorrow is my companion and pains are my friends; that my eyes weep, my liver is roasted and my face is pale; that I fell upon the road of love and my body became dust: all comes from longing for a merciless moon.
3. This heart of mine is tangled and restless like Leylâ's lock; my work, like Mecnun's state, is crying and moaning night and day; my breast burning, my liver roasted, my eye a stream. These come from longing for a merciless moon.
4. That I moan and weep at every moment in the corner of separation, that I am the captive of the pain of separation in the well of longing, that I revealed my love for her and became a tale in the world: these come from longing for a merciless moon.
5. To tear the collar of my patience like the sun and sigh, to turn the sky into a black tent with my sighs, in short to turn my wheat into straw on the threshing floor of grief: this comes from longing for a merciless moon.
6. To burn and brand my black breast with the fire of separation, that crying out and weeping blood have become my trade and work, to make my lament my companion and bind friendship with my sighs: this comes from longing for a merciless moon.
7. That I am grieved and joyless with the pain of separation from the beloved, that I am a master in the art of love and affection, O Şâhî, that I have grown so used to pain and affliction: this comes from longing for a merciless moon.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Structure of the Poem
The poem is a murabba of seven 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 in "-etindendür benüm": mihnetinden, sür'atinden, kesretinden, hasretinden. The other stanzas use the redifs (refrain words) "oldugı" and "oldugum" with the rhymes "-erd", "-ân", "-âd", the rhyme "-âr", and the rhymes "eylemek" and "-aglamak". The refrain is the line "Bir meh-i nâ-mihr-bânun hasretindendür benüm". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last stanza in the form "Şâhiyâ" (fols. 69b-70a). It is not known to whom the poem was written.
There is a notable feature in the construction of the murabba: from the second stanza on, the first three lines of each stanza are phrases without a predicate, ending in verbal nouns and participles such as "oldugı", "oldugum", "eylemek" and "aglamak". Their predicate is the refrain; the stanza is completed by the sentence "all this comes from longing for a merciless moon". In this way the refrain is no longer merely a repeated line but becomes a statement that binds each stanza grammatically; this observation is our own.
Meaning and Figures of Speech
The first stanza is a search for a cause: the source of the pain is neither heaven nor the glance nor the crowd of the world, but only longing for the beloved. In the phrase "meh-i nâ-mihr-bân" (merciless moon) in the refrain, the word "mihr" means both love and the sun; the moon-faced beloved is both merciless and like a moon that cannot take its light from the sun. This double entendre (tevriye) joins the words "hasret, hecr, fürkat" (longing, separation), which Kılıç regards as the main theme of Şâhî's poetry. In the third stanza Leylâ's lock and Mecnun's state form an allusion. In the fifth stanza the sun splitting the horizon at dawn is likened to a lover tearing his collar; the smoke of sighs turns the sky into a black tent. In the last line of the same stanza the words "hırmân" (threshing floor), "gendüm" (wheat) and "kâh" (straw) build a congruence of images (tenasüp): on the threshing floor of grief the lover's wheat turns to straw, that is, his labour is wasted. "Mihrinı" in the fourth stanza is printed in the edition with a dotless ı and is read "Mihrini". The phrase "a master in the art of love and affection" in the last stanza resembles the expression "üstâd olmışam" (I have become a master) found in other murabbas of the divan.
Bibliography
- Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book pp. 133-134, murabba no. 6 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fols. 69b, 70a); also pp. 30-31 (the murabbas and Şâhî's main themes), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.
Online sources
