Original Persian Text

Metre: Mef’ûlü Mefâ’îlü Mefâ’ilü Fe’ûlün

V’ez gül eser-i rûy-ı tu dârem heme dânend
V’ez misk-i Hoten bûy-ı tu dârem heme dânend
Kerdem be-hevâyet zi-cihân kat’-ı ta’alluk
Ey serv-i revân rûy-ı tu dârem heme dânend
Ez-nergis-i şûh-ı tu merâ çend sitem nîst
Men nâle zi-gîsû-yı tu dârem heme dânend
Der-sîne çünîn zahm-ı firâvân-ı ciger-sûz
Ez-gamze-i ebrû-yı tu dârem heme dânend
Çün Şâhî çerâ men ne-şevem vâlih ü şeydâ
Sevdâ-yı siyeh-mûy-ı tu dârem heme dânend

In English

1. Everyone knows that I bear a trace of your face from the rose; everyone knows that I bear your scent from the musk of Khotan.

2. For love of you I have cut every tie with the world; O swaying cypress, everyone knows that I have turned my face to you alone. (Kılıç renders the line as "everyone knows that I have seen your face".)

3. Is the reproach that comes to me from your coquettish narcissus eye so little; (yet) everyone knows that my moaning is because of your hair. (Kılıç takes the first line as "my reproach is not because of your coquettish narcissi".)

4. Everyone knows that the countless liver-burning wounds in my breast were opened by your brow and your glance.

5. Like Şâhî, why should I too not be bewildered and mad; everyone knows that I carry the passion (sevdâ) for your black hair.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The five-couplet Persian ghazal is written in the pattern given in the edition as "mef'ûlü mefâ'îlü mefâ'ilü fe'ûlün". It has a long redif: "-û-yı tu dârem heme dânend" (everyone knows that I bear your ...). The rhyme is the "-û" sound in "rûy, bûy, rûy, gîsû, ebrû, mûy". "Rûy-ı tu" is repeated in the rhyme position both in the first line of the opening couplet and at the end of the second couplet. Kılıç counts the word "dânend" among the redifs of the Persian ghazals. In the edition the folio mark [92b] stands at the end of the second couplet. The first line of the opening couplet begins with the conjunction "V'ez" (and from); this is not a usual beginning for the opening of a ghazal, and one may ask whether something is missing at the beginning of the ghazal. This observation is ours. Kılıç records that in the first couplet the Persian divançe has "müşg" in place of "misk".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The words "everyone knows", repeated in every couplet by the redif, say that a love that should be kept secret has now come out. In the opening couplet the beloved's face is tied to the rose and her scent to the musk of Khotan; rose and musk form a congruence of images (tenasüp) of colour and scent. The phrase "rûy-ı tu dârem" in the second couplet can be understood in two ways: "I bear your face (in my heart)" or, with the Persian idiom "rûy dâşten", "I have turned my face to you". Kılıç gives a rendering close to the first meaning; the second reading is ours. Kılıç understands the phrase "çend sitem nîst" in the third couplet as a negative sentence; it is also possible to read it as a question meaning "how much reproach there is". In this reading the lover does not belittle the reproach of the narcissus eye but says that his real pain comes from the hair; this too is our reading.

In the fourth couplet the brow is likened to a bow and the glance (gamze) to an arrow, and the wounds in the breast are the marks of these arrows. The closing couplet uses the word "sevdâ" in its two senses: the passion of love, and black bile, which in old medicine drives a man mad. The blackness of the hair also recalls this second meaning, and so a congruence of images is formed between "siyeh-mûy" (black hair) and "sevdâ". The ghazal bears no sign of the person to whom 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 pp. 156-157, Persian ghazal no. 5 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 92b); footnotes 151-156 (variant in the Persian divançe, Turkish meanings of the couplets); also p. 29 (the redif "dânend" and the survey of metres), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources