Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Dem-be-dem kopdukda dilden işbu âh-ı âteşîn
Odlara yakup teni eyler beni zâr u enîn

In English

1. Whenever this fiery sigh breaks from the heart, moment by moment, it burns the body in flames and leaves me moaning and lamenting.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This müfred is written in the "fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilün" pattern. Its two lines rhyme in the "-în" sound with the words "âteşîn" and "enîn"; for this reason the couplet looks like the opening couplet of a ghazal. Whether it is an opening couplet left over from a ghazal is not known. That Kılıç's introduction also quotes a single opening couplet found in the tezkire of Hasan Çelebi and absent from the divan shows that Şâhî's couplets could circulate on their own; there is, however, no such record concerning this müfred. According to Kılıç's count, six of the nineteen Turkish müfreds in the divan are written in this pattern. In the edition there is no folio mark beside this couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet rests on the idea that the lover's sigh is fire. In divan poetry the fire of love within the lover comes out with the sigh; the smoke of the sigh rises to the sky and its fire burns the body. Here, whenever the fiery sigh breaks from the heart, it burns the body and makes the lover moan. The Persian adjective "âteşîn" (fiery) in the first line and the Turkish word "od" (fire) in the second say the same thing in two languages; this repetition forms a congruence of images (tenasüp) that strengthens the image of fire in the couplet.

The word "dem" in "dem-be-dem" (moment by moment, every moment) also means breath. Since a sigh is also a breath, this second meaning of "dem" adds a subtle echo to the couplet. This observation is ours. In the second line the doublet "zâr u enîn" (moaning and lamenting) gives the sound of the burning body; thus sight (fire), touch (burning) and sound (moaning) come together in the couplet. Kılıç says that it would be apt to sum up the main theme of Şâhî's poems with the words "ayrılık, fürkat, firâk, hicrân, hasret, hecr, harâb, giryân and âteş" (separation, parting, absence, severance, longing, estrangement, ruin, weeping and fire). This müfred is a short example built on "âteş" (fire), the last of those words. There is no information on when the couplet was written or to whom it was spoken.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 147, müfred (single couplet) no. 3 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225); p. 26 (19 Turkish müfreds; a single opening couplet preserved in a tezkire), p. 27 (the order of the manuscript), p. 29 (survey of metres), p. 31 (key words: "âteş"), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources