Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün

Gözüm hicr ile sen giryān imişsin
Yürek bu derd ile sen ḳan imişsin
N'ola cāndan seni artuḳ seversem
Meger sen cān içinde cān imişsin
Feraḥ gördüm seni cānum sevindi
Ben aġladuġuma ḫandān imişsin
Ḳul olmaḳ isterimişsin o şāha
Be ‘Adlī sen ‘aceb ṣulṭān imişsin
Felek-ḳadr olduġuñı bilmez idük
İşiginde meger derbān imişsin

In English

1. My eye, it seems you have been weeping from separation; heart, it seems you have turned to blood with this pain.

2. What wonder if I love you more than life; it turns out you are the soul within the soul.

3. I saw you cheerful and my soul rejoiced; it turns out you were laughing at my weeping. The couplet can be read in two ways: the second line can also mean "it turns out you were smiling while I wept".

4. So you wished to be a servant to that shah; hey Adlî, what a strange sultan you turn out to be.

5. We did not know you were of a rank as high as the heavens; it turns out you have been a doorkeeper at his threshold. The couplet can be read in two ways: the one addressed may be Adlî of the previous couplet, in which case his loftiness comes from serving as doorkeeper at the beloved's door. The lines can also be read as addressed to the beloved.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has five couplets and is written in a short pattern of the hezec metre, "mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün fe‘ûlün". The redif (refrain word) is "imişsin" (it seems you are), and the rhyme is the sound "-ân": giryân, kan, cân, handân, sultân, derbân. It stands as no. 104 in Bayram's edition and is found in all five manuscripts (OR, T, M1, M2, İBB); the edition records no variant readings at all. A notable structural feature of the ghazal is that the pen name (mahlas) appears not in the last couplet but in the fourth; the fifth couplet comes after the pen-name couplet. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The whole atmosphere of the ghazal comes from the suffix "imiş" in the refrain. This suffix expresses a state that one realises afterwards, learns with surprise; every couplet is the product of an "it turns out" moment. In the opening couplet the poet addresses first his eye, then his heart, and speaks as if he had only just noticed that separation has made them weep and turned them to blood. The link between "giryân" (weeping) and "kan" (blood) rests on the image of bloody tears in classical Ottoman poetry.

In the second couplet the word "cân" (soul, life) occurs three times. The lover says that no one should wonder at his loving the beloved more than life, because the beloved is "the soul within the soul". The repetition reinforces through sound the idea that the love surpasses even his own life. The third couplet sets joy against pain. The lover sees the beloved cheerful and rejoices; but then he realises that the beloved was laughing at his weeping. There is antithesis between "ağlamak" (to weep) and "handân" (laughing).

The fourth couplet states most openly a situation frequent in Adlî's poems: the lover is called a "servant" and the beloved a "shah", while the poet who writes the verse is himself a sultan. Here the poet voices this irony himself. The lines "So you wished to be a servant to that shah; hey Adlî, what a strange sultan you turn out to be" bring the words servant and sultan together in one person. "Be", in its dictionary sense, is an interjection of address; the poet's calling to his own pen name with this familiar form of address gives the couplet a tone of self-mockery. There is congruence of images (tenasüp) among the words "kul" (servant), "şâh" (shah) and "sultân", and antithesis between servant and sultan.

The fifth couplet carries the same thought a step further. "Felek-kadr", in its dictionary sense, means of a rank as high as the heavens; "derbân" is a doorkeeper. While keeping a door was counted among the lowest offices of a palace, being doorkeeper at the beloved's door is presented as a rank as lofty as the heavens. The sultan who in the previous couplet wished to be a servant is exalted in this one by keeping a door, and this binds the two couplets together.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018, p. 142, poem no. 104 (manuscript information in the footnote on the same page). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr