Original Persian Text

Metre: Mefâ’îlün Mefâ’îlün Fe’ûlün

Eger hâhî selâmet yâbî Şâhî
Me-kon zulm ü be-kon ber-Hak-nigâhî

In English

1. O Şâhî, if you wish to find salvation, do no wrong and keep your gaze on God (Hak). (Kılıç renders the first line as "If you want salvation, find Şâhî".)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The seventh Persian single couplet is the last text of the edition. It is written in the "mefâ'îlün mefâ'îlün fe'ûlün" pattern and is musarra' (both lines rhyme): "Şâhî" and "nigâhî" rhyme. There is no folio mark in the edition. According to Kılıç's description the manuscript of the divan "ends with ghazals, single couplets and nazms"; in the edition, however, since the Persian section begins with nazms and closes with single couplets, this couplet is the last couplet of the book. The poet's pen name (mahlas) "Şâhî" stands in the rhyme position; this gives the couplet the air of a ghazal's closing couplet, the last couplet in which the pen name appears.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet is a piece of advice. The second line gives two commands: "me-kon zulm" (do no wrong) and "be-kon ber-Hak-nigâhî" (look to God, keep God in view). The first line states the reward of this advice: salvation. Kılıç understands the first line as "If you want salvation, find Şâhî", taking the word "Şâhî" as the object of the verb "yâbî" (you find). According to Persian syntax, "eger hâhî selâmet yâbî" can also be read as "if you wish to find salvation"; in this reading "Şâhî" is the pen name with which the poet addresses himself. Since in classical poetry it is common for the poet to give himself advice through his pen name in the closing couplet, we have followed the second reading. That the pen name also carries the sense of "şâhî" (kingship, sovereignty) creates the possibility of a tevriye (double entendre): in the third Persian nazm the phrase "şevket-i şâhî" (the majesty of kingship) also occurs. This double sense is our own reading. There is a tezat (antithesis) between "zulm" (wrong) and "Hak": wrong is injustice, while Hak is both a name of God and justice itself.

Historical Context

Kılıç says that in the prince's poems he "sometimes appears as a poet giving advice to his sovereign" and gives an example from the seventeenth murabba. The advice in this single couplet, by our reading, is directed by the poet to himself; avoiding wrong and keeping God in view could also be understood as a vow a candidate for the throne makes to himself. In Kılıç's reading, by contrast, the couplet tells the reader to seek salvation in Şâhî. Which reading the poet intended and when the couplet was written cannot be drawn from the edition.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 165, Persian single couplet no. 7 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225), note 235 (Turkish meaning of the couplet); also p. 27 (arrangement of the divan), p. 36 (advice to the sovereign), p. 164 (Persian nazm no. 3, note 227), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources