Original Persian Text
Metre: Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilün
Şod siyeh ez-cürm ü isyân nâme-i ikbâl-i men
Ger ne-bahşâyî günâhem râ çi bâşed hâl-i men
Afv ez-Mevlâ be-cû verne çi gerded Şâhiyâ
Tâc u taht u şevket-i şâhî vü genc-i mâl-i men
In English
1. The register of my fortune has turned pitch black with guilt and rebellion; if you do not forgive my sin, what will become of my state?
2. O Şâhî, seek pardon from the Lord; otherwise what will become of (what use are) my crown, my throne, my royal majesty and my treasure of wealth?
Literary and Historical Commentary
Structure of the Poem
The two-couplet Persian poem is written in the "fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilün" pattern. The redif is "-i men" (my), and the rhyme is the "-âl" sound in "ikbâl, hâl, mâl". The two lines of the first couplet and the second line of the second couplet rhyme; because of this rhyme scheme Kılıç counts the poem as a "nazm" rather than a kıt'a. In the edition the folio mark [96b] stands next to the number of the poem. It is the only Persian nazm that bears the pen name, and the last of the Persian nazms. Describing the order of the manuscript, Kılıç says that the divan ends "with ghazals, müfreds and nazms".
Meaning and Figures of Speech
The first couplet rests on the image of the register of deeds. What the servant does is written in a register; sin blackens this register. Here the poet says "nâme-i ikbâl": ikbal means both fortune and happiness and also prosperity and rise to power. The blackening of the register of fortune with guilt and rebellion suggests on one side the servant's sin and on the other the darkening of the prince's fortune. The second couplet enumerates crown, throne, royal majesty and treasure, and says that without God's pardon these have no value. The word "şâhî" in the phrase "şevket-i şâhî" means royal, belonging to the shah, but it also recalls the pen name that occurs in the same couplet. This double meaning is a double entendre (tevriye). There is also a congruence of images (tenasüp) between the black register and "nâme" (letter, register).
Historical Context
Kılıç does not discuss this short poem separately. The word "isyân", however, does not remain merely in the sense of sin in the mouth of a prince; it also carries the sense of revolt against the ruler. According to Kılıç's account of his life, Bayezid was declared "bâgî", one in rebellion against the sultan, in the fatwas of the Şeyhülislam Ebussuûd Efendi. Kılıç also speaks of the poems in which the prince, understanding the error he committed in opposing his father, asks for pardon. Read with this information, the counting of crown and throne as worthless without pardon sounds like the voice of a prince who has lost the struggle for the throne. This reading is ours; the "Mevlâ" of the poem is God, and no historical name occurs in it.
Bibliography
- Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 164, Persian nazm no. 3 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 96b); footnote 221 (the distinction between nazm and kıt'a), footnotes 226-227 (Turkish meanings of the couplets); also p. 12 (being declared "bâgî" in Ebussuûd's fatwas), p. 27 (the manuscript ending with the nazms), p. 34 (poems asking for pardon), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.
Online sources
