Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Tutalum taglarca yâ Rabb günâhum var imiş
Yâ oransuz rahmetün deryâları kanı senün

In English

1. O Lord, suppose I have sins as great as mountains; then where are the boundless seas of your mercy?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The eighteenth single couplet is written in the "fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilün" pattern. In the edition the folio mark [97b] stands beside the number. While the earlier single couplets are gathered on leaves 63a-64b of the manuscript, this couplet and the last Turkish single couplet after it stand on a leaf near the end of the manuscript. According to Kılıç's description the divan "ends with ghazals, single couplets and nazms"; these two couplets belong to that last group of single couplets. There is no rhyme between "var imiş" and "senün"; this is an unrhymed müfred.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet is a münacat, a supplication addressed directly to God. The first line builds a concession with the word "tutalum" (let us say, suppose): the poet does not deny that his sins are as great as mountains. The second line meets this concession with a question: where are the boundless seas of mercy? The question is not a real question; it is a rhetorical question (istifham) reminding that mercy is greater than sin. The antithesis (tezat) of mountain and sea carries the whole structure of the couplet: sin is high and heavy, mercy deep and without limit; however great a mountain may be, it can be sunk in the sea. The word "oransuz" is formed from the Old Turkish "oran" (measure, amount) and means "measureless, boundless". "Kanı" means "where then, where is". The suffix "imiş" makes one feel that the sin is voiced, in the poet's own eyes too, as a belated discovery, a reckoning. Likening sin to a mountain and mercy to a sea is a common expression in Islamic literature; the couplet's strength lies in opening this comparison with a plain, everyday "tutalum".

Historical Context

Kılıç adds the word "afv" (forgiveness) to the main themes of Şâhî's poems and notes that the prince asks his father's pardon in a ghazal with the refrain "afv" placed at the end of the divan. In the versed letter of pardon (afnâme) addressed to his father, which he quotes in the introduction and which is not in the divan, the prince speaks in the same form: "Tutalum iki elüm başdan başa kan ola / Bu meseldür söylenür kim 'kul günâh itse n'ola'" (Suppose both my hands were covered in blood; there is a saying, "what if a servant sins"). The same words return in Kanuni's reply: "Tutalum iki elün başdan başa kan da ola / Çünki istigfâr idersün biz de 'afv itsek n'ola" (Suppose both your hands were covered in blood; since you ask forgiveness, what if we too forgive). Kılıç holds that the afnâme was written from Iran to ask for pardon. This single couplet speaks to God and says nothing of the father; its shared "tutalum" with the afnâme and its place at the end of the manuscript suggest that the couplet is akin to the pardon-seeking language of the prince's last years. This connection is our own reading; the edition does not state when the couplet 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. 149, single couplet no. 18 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 97b); also p. 27 (arrangement of the divan), p. 31 (the theme of "afv"), p. 34 (the ghazal with the refrain "afv"), pp. 37-39 (the afnâme and Kanuni's reply), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources