Original Persian Text

Metre: Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilün

Ey ki tîret râ nişâne cân-ı men
Şod zi-derdet ber-felek efgân-ı men
Bâz yâbem rûz u ‘ömr-i refte râ
Ger şebî yek dem şevî mihmân-ı men
Ân sanem bâ-zülf-i kâfir-kîş bered
Ey Müselmânân zi-dest îmân-ı men
Derd-i cân dârem be-Kânûn u Şifâ
Nîst cüz la’l-i lebeş dermân-ı men
Ber-deret Şâhî tazallum mî-koned
Yek nazar û râ bes ey sultân-ı men

In English

1. O you who make my soul the target of your arrow, from the pain of you my cry has risen to the heavens.

2. If one night you become my guest for a moment, I shall find again the day and the life that have passed.

3. O Muslims, that idol (that beauty) with her tresses of unbelieving nature is carrying off my faith from my hands.

4. I have a pain of the soul (that does not pass even) with the Kânûn and the Şifâ; I have no remedy but her ruby lip.

5. Şâhî at your door complains of injustice and asks for help; O my sultan, one glance is enough for him.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The five-couplet Persian ghazal is written in the "fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilün" pattern. The redif is "-ı men" (my), and the rhyme is the "-ân" sound in "cân, efgân, mihmân, îmân, dermân, sultân". Kılıç counts "men" as the redif of three Persian ghazals; the others are Persian Ghazals 14 and 15. In Kılıç's survey of metres this pattern is listed only for the Turkish poems; this ghazal, the only Persian ghazal written in this pattern, is not counted in that survey. In the edition there is no folio mark within the text of this ghazal.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet the beloved's glance is an arrow and its target is the lover's soul; arrow, target and cry form a congruence of images (tenasüp). In the second couplet it is said that a meeting of one night would bring back the life that has passed. The third couplet rests on the opposition of faith and tresses, frequent in divan poetry. The beauty is a "sanem", an idol; her tresses are "kâfir-kîş", of unbelieving nature, and take the lover's faith from his hands. The lover's cry "O Muslims" turns the situation into a call for help.

The fourth couplet is the most striking couplet of the ghazal. "Kânûn" and "Şifâ" are the names of two great works of Avicenna (İbn Sînâ): his encyclopaedic work in medicine, el-Kānûn fi't-tıb, and the Kitâbü'ş-Şifâ, which covers his philosophical system in all its aspects. The words also carry the meanings of law (canon) and cure; thus the couplet says that even the books of the greatest physician cannot remedy the pain of the soul, and that the only remedy is the beloved's lip. This is a double entendre (tevriye) and an allusion (telmih). In Turkish Ghazal 127 of the divan there is also a couplet in which physicians say that there is no remedy for love in the Kânûn. One might also think that the word "Kânûn" recalls the poet's father, Süleyman the Lawgiver (Kanuni), but there is no other sign in the couplet to support this, and it is only our conjecture.

The closing couplet recalls a petitioner at the gate of a council. "Tazallum" means to ask for help by declaring that one has suffered injustice; the door, the sultan and the sufficiency of one glance present the beloved as a ruler. There is no information in the poem on the person to whom or the time at which it was written.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 160, Persian ghazal no. 12 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225); footnotes 188-192 (Turkish meanings of the couplets); also p. 29 (the redif "men"), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Academic studies

Online sources