Original Persian Text

Metre: Mefâ’îlün Mefâ’îlün Fe’ûlün

Merâ gîrem güneh ez-had birûn şod
Zi-dest-i kahr-ı men ‘âlem zebûn şod
Be-dergâhet künûn bâ âh u zârî
Dilem pür-sûz u çeşmem gark-ı hûn şod
Zi-behr-i magfiret tâ çend nâlem
Hudâyâ bahr-i gufrân-ı tu çün şod
Be-çâh-ı ma’siyet üftâde bûdem
Merâ Hak dest-gîr ü reh-nümûn şod
Zi-avn-ı Hak be-özr ü tevbe Şâhî
Ümîdem hest ki ez-isyân birûn şod

In English

1. Suppose my sin has passed all bounds; the world has been laid low by the hand of my wrath.

2. Now I am at your court with sighs and moaning; my heart is burning and my eye drowned in blood.

3. How long shall I moan to be forgiven; my God, what has become of your sea of forgiveness?

4. I had fallen into the well of sin; God became the one who took my hand and showed me the way.

5. O Şâhî, I hope that with God's help, through apology and repentance, (my heart) has come out of rebellion. (Kılıç takes the line as "your apology and repentance have exceeded your rebellion".)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The five-couplet Persian ghazal is written in the "mefâ'îlün mefâ'îlün fe'ûlün" pattern. The redif is "şod" (became), and the rhyme is the "-ûn" sound in "birûn, zebûn, hûn, çün, reh-nümûn, birûn"; "birûn" is repeated between the opening and the closing couplets. In the edition the folio mark [97a] stands at the end of the third couplet. The Persian ghazals before and after this poem are on folios 92-93 of the manuscript, while this ghazal is on folio 97. The reason is that Kılıç rearranged the Persian ghazals too in alphabetical order according to the letters of their rhyme and redif.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is in the mood of a münâcât, a prayer of supplication to God, and makes no use of the beloved's motifs of divan poetry. The word "gîrem" (suppose) at the beginning of the first line sets up a supposition and lets the poet accept the guilt without denying it. The second line is striking: the guilt does not remain a merely personal sin; it is said that "the world has been laid low by the hand of my wrath". The rest of the ghazal follows the familiar stages of supplication: coming to the court, weeping, recalling the sea of forgiveness, being rescued from the well of sin. A link is formed through images of water between the "bahr-i gufrân" (sea of forgiveness) of the third couplet and the eye drowned in blood in the second. In the fourth couplet the image of the well and the hand that lifts is like a scene of rescue recalling the prophet Joseph; this association is ours.

The closing couplet can be read in two ways. The words "ez-isyân birûn şod" give the meaning "came out of rebellion"; Kılıç, however, takes the line to mean that repentance has "exceeded" rebellion.

Historical Context

Kılıç says that the prince came to understand the error he had committed in opposing his father and asked for pardon with the ghazal with the redif "afv" near the end of the divan. In this Persian ghazal the one addressed is God, but the words "kahr" (wrath) and "isyân" (rebellion, sin) carry an additional weight in the mouth of a prince. According to Kılıç's account of his life, Bayezid was declared "bâgî", one in rebellion against the ruler, in the fatwas of Ebussuûd Efendi, and in 1559 a battle took place before Konya. Whether the confession of the first couplet carries a reference to these events is not certain; this connection is only our reading.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book pp. 157-158, Persian ghazal no. 7 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 97a); footnotes 162-166 (Turkish meanings of the couplets); also p. 29 (alphabetical arrangement; the redif "şud"), p. 34 (poems asking for pardon), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources