Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

‘Āşıḳ olur mı diyen sen meh-liḳāyı sevmezin
Ümmet olur mı diyen kim Muṣṭafā'yı sevmezin
Zāhidi gör kim güzeller sevmegi inkār ider
Ās̱im olmaz mı diyen nūr-ı Ḫudā'yı sevmezin
Cān virürler ayaġuñ ṭopraġına ṭāliblerüñ
Nice müflis ola diye kīmyāyı sevmezin
Yāre didüm vaṣluñı Ḥaḳ'dan temennā eylerem
Didi dil-ber nāz idüp ben bu du‘āyı sevmezin
‘Adli'nüñ feryādını işitmiş işiginde yār
Ḫışm ile dimiş sürüñ ben ol gedāyı sevmezin

In English

1. You who say "I do not love the moon-faced beauty", can you ever be a lover? Can anyone who says "I do not love Mustafa (the Prophet Muhammad)" belong to his community?

2. Look at the ascetic who denies loving the beautiful; is not one who says "I do not love the light of God" a sinner? (The beauty of the beautiful is held to be a reflection of God's light.)

3. Those who seek you give their lives for the dust of your feet; how could one who says "I do not love the elixir" remain poor? The couplet can be read in two ways: the second line can also be understood as "would anyone say 'I do not love the elixir', so as to remain poor?" In both readings the dust of the beloved's feet is likened to the alchemical elixir (kimya) that turns copper into gold, and it is said that whoever desires it will not stay poor.

4. I said to the beloved, "I ask God for union with you"; the heart-stealer, playing coy, said, "I do not like this prayer."

5. The beloved heard Adlî's lament at the threshold and said in anger, "Drive him away, I do not love that beggar."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has five couplets and is written in the remel metre "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "sevmezin"; in Old Anatolian Turkish this form means "I do not love". The rhyme rests on the sound "-âyı": meh-likâyı, Mustafâ'yı, Hudâ'yı, kîmyâyı, duâyı, gedâyı. It stands as no. 100 in Bayram's edition, in the section of the divan for refrains ending in the letter "nûn", and it is found in all five manuscripts (OR, T, M1, M2, İBB). The variants are minor: in couplet 2, T, M1 and M2 read "sevmege" for "sevmegi"; in the last couplet OR, T, M1 and M2 read "feryādın" for "feryādını", and T, M1 and M2 read "nigār" for "yār". To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Every couplet of the ghazal is built on whose mouth the refrain's "I do not love" comes from. In the first three couplets the words are an accusation directed at someone who shrinks from love; in the last two they come from the beloved's own mouth and turn the lover away. So the lover who at the start of the ghazal reproaches those who do not love ends by hearing "I do not love" himself.

The opening couplet sets up an equivalence between love and faith. Just as one who does not love the moon-faced beauty cannot be a lover, one who does not love the Prophet cannot be counted among his community. The second couplet turns the same logic on the ascetic (zâhid). In classical Ottoman poetry the zâhid is the type of the pious man who clings to outward worship and looks down on love and beauty. The poet calls the beauty of the beautiful "the light of God"; denying the love of beauty therefore means not loving that light, and falling into sin. The words ümmet (community), Mustafâ, zâhid, âsim (sinner), nûr-ı Hudâ (light of God) and duâ (prayer) form a web of religious vocabulary in the ghazal, and in the fourth couplet this web is tied to an unexpected point by the beloved's reply, "I do not like this prayer".

The third couplet draws on the old belief in alchemy. "Kîmyâ", in its dictionary sense, is the elixir believed to turn copper into gold. The dust of the beloved's feet is likened to this elixir: lovers give their lives for that dust, because whoever obtains it will not remain poor. The link between "müflis" (bankrupt, poor) and "kîmyâ" is the basis of the couplet. The syntax of the second line is obscure and has been given above in two readings.

In the fourth couplet the lover says that he asks God for union. The beloved, playing coy, declares that she does not like this prayer; the prayer is rejected by the very person it concerns. The closing couplet makes the rejection harsher still: the beloved hears Adlî's lament at the threshold and says in anger, "drive him away, I do not love that beggar". The word "gedâ" (beggar) carries a situation frequent in Adlî's poems: the lover is cast as a pauper begging at the beloved's door, while the poet who writes the verse is himself a sultan. The command "sürün" (drive him away) and the word "eşik" (threshold) recall a palace scene in which a beggar waiting at the gate is sent off.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018, p. 138, poem no. 100 (manuscript variants in the footnote on the same page). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr