Original Persian Text

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

Dil be-bûy-ı sünbület çün bâd ser-gerdân şod
Râh-ı Mecnûnî girift ü vâlih ü hayrân şod
Zülf-i ü ber-Mushaf-ı rûyeş be-ragmem pâ-nihâd
Ez-ser-i kâfir velî bî-dîn ü bî-îmân şod
Pîş ez-în der-kûdekî ber-burc-ı dil bûdî hilâl
Der-çehâr deh sâlegî hem-çün meh-i tâbân şod
Çün tu der-sahn-ı gülistân der-neşînî bâ-hasân
Pîşe-i mâ hem-çü bülbül nâle vü efgân şod
Bü’gzer ez-zulm ü sitem ey şâh-ı hûbân rahm kon
În dil-i âbâd-ı Şâhî ez-gam-et vîrân şod

In English

1. With the scent of your hyacinth hair the heart has become giddy and a wanderer like the wind; it has taken the road of Majnun and become bewildered and amazed.

2. In spite of me, her tresses set foot on the Mushaf of her face; they were unbelievers from the start, and now they have become without religion and without faith.

3. Before this, in your childhood, you were a crescent in the constellation of the heart; at fourteen years of age she became like the shining full moon.

4. When you sit with thorns (with others) in the courtyard of the rose garden, our work has become to moan and cry out like the nightingale.

5. O shah of the fair ones, give up cruelty and reproach, have pity; this prosperous heart of Şâhî has been laid waste by grief for you.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The five-couplet Persian ghazal is written in the "fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilün" pattern. The redif is "şod" (became), and the rhyme is the "-ân" sound in "ser-gerdân, hayrân, îmân, tâbân, efgân, vîrân"; in the opening couplet "ser-gerdân" and "hayrân" rhyme together. Kılıç counts the word "şud" among the redifs of the Persian ghazals for two ghazals; in fact this redif is used in Persian Ghazals 4, 7 and 8, that is, in three ghazals. Ghazals 7 and 8 are written in another pattern. In the edition the folio mark [92a] stands next to the number of the ghazal, so the poem begins at the head of a new leaf in the manuscript.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal uses well-known motifs of divan poetry within a tight order. In the opening couplet the beloved's hair resembles the hyacinth through its scent; the heart wanders like the wind in pursuit of this scent and takes the road of Majnun, who fell into the desert. The second couplet carries the boldest image of the poem: the beloved's face is likened to the Mushaf, because its lines are regular and bright, and her black tresses to an unbeliever, because they cover this face. The falling of the tresses over the face is presented as setting foot on the holy book; that is why it is said of the tresses that "they were unbelievers before, and now they have become without religion and without faith". The third couplet rests on the phases of the moon. The passage from crescent to full moon is matched with the passage from childhood to youth, and the number "fourteen" suggests both the age of the beloved and the fourteenth night, when the moon is full; the observation of this second association is ours. In the first half of the line the beloved is addressed as "you", while the redif says "became"; such shifts of person are frequent in the poem.

In the fourth couplet the rose garden sets up the triad of rose, nightingale and thorn. Kılıç renders the word "hasân" in a footnote as "rubbish (others)"; the beloved's sitting with worthless rivals leaves the nightingale-lover nothing to do but cry out. The closing couplet rests on the contrast between "âbâd" (prosperous) and "vîrân" (ruined): a flourishing heart turns into a ruin through grief for the beloved. There is also a link of sound between the address "şâh-ı hûbân" (shah of the fair ones) and the poet's pen name "Şâhî". There is no sign in the poem of the person to whom it was written or of when it was written.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 156, Persian ghazal no. 4 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 92a); footnotes 146-150 (Turkish meanings of the couplets); also p. 29 (the redif "şud"), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources