Original Persian Text

Metre: Mef’ûlü Fâ’ilâtün Mef’ûlü Fâ’ilâtün (Müstef’ilün Fe’ûlün Müstef’ilün Fe’ûlün)

Derd ü belâ vü gam şod hâsıl merâ zi-gerdûn
Yâ Rab çi çâre sâzem şod hâl-i men diger-gûn
Ez-âşnâ vü hîşân bûy-ı vefâ ne-bînem
Mândem be-mülk-i hayret âşüfte-hâl ü mahzûn
Yâ Rab be-nâm-ı pâket kon sûy-ı men nigâhî
Geşt ez-gam-ı zemâne dil-haste vü ciger-hûn
Ey serv-i ser-firâzem der-cüst ü cûy-ı vuslat
Her sû reved sirişkem mânend-i âb-ı Ceyhûn
Şâhî zi-dest-i hicrân ez-hod haber ne-dâred
Û râ tefakkudî kon ey şâh-ı rub’-ı meskûn

In English

1. Pain, affliction and grief have fallen to me from the heavens; O Lord, what remedy shall I find, my state has changed (has become wretched).

2. I find no scent of loyalty from acquaintance or kin; I am left in the land of bewilderment, distraught and sorrowful.

3. O Lord, for the sake of your pure name cast one look towards me; from the grief of the age I have become sick at heart and bleeding at the liver.

4. O my lofty cypress, as I wander seeking union, my tears flow in every direction like the waters of the Oxus (Ceyhun).

5. Şâhî knows nothing of himself because of separation; O shah of the inhabited world, ask after him once.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The five-couplet Persian ghazal is written in a metre shown in the edition in two ways: "mef'ûlü fâ'ilâtün mef'ûlü fâ'ilâtün" or "müstef'ilün fe'ûlün müstef'ilün fe'ûlün". According to Kılıç's survey, one Turkish and one Persian ghazal are written in this pattern. It has no redif; the rhyme is the "-ûn" sound in "gerdûn, diger-gûn, mahzûn, ciger-hûn, Ceyhûn, meskûn". In the edition the folio mark [94b] stands at the end of the second couplet. Kılıç records that in the second line of the first couplet the tezkire of Hasan Çelebi reads "ma"; the opening couplet of the ghazal is thus known in this tezkire as well.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is a poem of complaint and supplication. The first three couplets complain of the heavens, of kin and of the age; the triad of pain, affliction and grief, the disloyalty of friend and kin, the sickness of the heart and the blood of the liver follow one another. In the fourth couplet the words suddenly turn to the beloved: the lofty cypress, the search for union and tears flowing like the Oxus. In the last couplet the "shah of the rub'-ı meskûn", the ruler of the inhabited quarter of the earth, is named. This title suits a ruler rather than a beloved. In Mesnevi 1 of the divan the same phrase occurs in the form "ey pâdişâh-ı rub'-ı meskûn", and that mesnevi ends "Süleymân Hânısın devr-i zemânun" (you are the Süleyman Khan of the age). This link suggests that the shah of the closing couplet can be read as Süleyman the Magnificent; this reading is ours.

Historical Context

After saying that Bayezid's poetry was little known, Kılıç notes that this ghazal is an exception. In Sadeddin Nüzhet Ergun's work Türk Şairleri there is a record that Çeşmî, a geomancer of Bursa who lived in the sixteenth century, wrote a tahmis on this ghazal. In two stanzas of the tahmis the three lines added before the couplets are in Persian, in the other stanzas in Turkish. The tahmis quoted by Kılıç has small differences from the text of the divan: in the first couplet "çe" is read in place of "çi", and in the fourth couplet "rûd-ı sirişkem" in place of "reved sirişkem". The lines added by Çeşmî describe the speaker's state in terms of exile, orphanhood and friendlessness; in the last stanza Çeşmî names himself and speaks of being imprisoned in the well of grief. In the ghazal itself, however, there is no certain sign of the date of its writing. The tears flowing like the Oxus recall the words "yaşum Nîl ü Ceyhûn olmışdur" (my tears have become the Nile and the Oxus) in the last letter sent from Iran to his father, quoted by Kılıç; the complaint of finding no loyalty from kin also fits these years. These links are our observation.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 161, Persian ghazal no. 13 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 94b); footnotes 193-198 (variant in Hasan Çelebi, Turkish meanings of the couplets); also p. 29 (survey of metres), pp. 42-43 (Çeşmî's tahmis, from Ergun's Türk Şairleri), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources