Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Her nefes iy ḫaste-dil maḳṣūd ne feryāddan
Merḥamet gelmez bilürsin çün şeh-i bī-dāddan
Çün ṭutuldı zülfine dil murġı yārüñ çāre ne
Dām-ı müşgildür ḫalāṣ olmayısar ṣayyāddan
Eylemişdi ḳıṣṣa-i ‘ışḳı benüm rūḥum revān
Dāstān oḳımadın Mecnūn ile Ferhād'dan
Ḥamdülillâh kim degül adum benüm kelb iy raḳīb
Ġayret ehline ölüm yegdür yaramaz addan
Yazmışidüm ṣūret-i cānānı dil levḥinde ben
Ḥüsn taṣvīr eylemek hiç olmadın üstāddan
Ḫırmen-i ḥüsninde dil murġına virmez dānei
Ol ṣanem ṣankim getürmiş toḫmını Baġdād'dan
Bād-ı āhuñla niçün ol serv meyl itmez saña
Çünki ‘Adlī meyl ider her sūya servi bāddan

In English

1. O sick heart, what is the purpose of lamenting with every breath? You know that no mercy comes from an unjust shah.

2. Since the bird of the heart has been caught in the beloved's hair, what remedy is there? It is a trap hard to undo; there is no escape from the hunter.

3. Before the epic of Mecnun and Ferhad was ever read, my spirit had learned the tale of love by heart (had lived the story of love before them).

4. Rival, thank God my name is not "dog"; for people of honour, death is better than a bad name.

5. Before ever learning from a master how to portray beauty, I had drawn the beloved's image on the tablet of my heart.

6. That idol-like beauty does not give the bird of the heart a single grain from the harvest of his beauty; it is as if he had brought his seed from Baghdad. The couplet can be read in two ways: "dâne", in its dictionary sense, means both a grain and a beauty spot; the beloved's beauty spot, which lures the bird of the heart into the trap, may also be meant. Why Baghdad is mentioned is not clear from the couplet.

7. Adlî, why does that cypress not bend towards you with the wind of your sighs, when the cypress bends in every direction with the wind?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has seven couplets and is written in the remel metre "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is the suffix "-dan" (from); the rhyme rests on the sound "-âd": feryâd, bî-dâd, sayyâd, Ferhâd, üstâd, Bağdâd, bâd. The word "ad" (name) in the fourth couplet joins this rhyme with a short vowel. It stands as no. 105 in Bayram's edition and is found in all five manuscripts (OR, T, M1, M2, İBB). The following variants affect the meaning: in couplet 2, T reads "olmaz seri" for "olmayısar"; in couplet 4, M1 and M2 read "‘ibret" for "ġayret"; in couplet 5, T, M1 and M2 read "naḳş" for "hīç"; in couplet 6, M1 and M2 read "ṣanmañ" (do not think) for "ṣankim"; in the last couplet OR and İBB read "sūsen" (lily) for "servi". To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is advice addressed to the heart: lamenting is useless, because the beloved is a "şeh-i bî-dâd", an unjust, tyrannical shah. "Bî-dâd", in its dictionary sense, means unjust. Calling the beloved a shah carries a situation frequent in Adlî's poems; here, however, the irony goes one layer deeper: a sultan who bears the pen name "Adlî", that is, "the just", calls his beloved an unjust shah.

In the second couplet the heart is a bird, caught in the beloved's hair, that is, in a trap. There is congruence of images (tenasüp) among the words "dâm" (trap), "murg" (bird) and "sayyâd" (hunter). The likening of hair to a trap is one of the best-known comparisons of classical Ottoman poetry. The sixth couplet returns to the same hunting scene: the beloved does not give the bird of the heart a single grain from the harvest of his beauty. The words "hırmen" (harvest heap), "dâne" (grain) and "tohm" (seed) form a second cluster of congruent images. Whether the mention of Baghdad in the couplet rests on some witticism is not clear. The sound "dâd" in the rhyme sets the name Bağdâd beside "bî-dâd" (unjust) in the opening couplet; but to draw a meaning from this would be interpretation.

The third and fifth couplets say that the lover's love is pre-eternal. The spirit knows the tale of love before the epics of Mecnun and Ferhad are read; the stories of Leyla and Mecnun and of Ferhad and Şirin are cited in classical poetry as the model stories of love. The mention of these two famous lovers is an instance of telmih (allusion). In the fifth couplet the heart is a tablet on which a picture is drawn; the lover drew the beloved's image there before learning from a master how to portray beauty. In both couplets the idea is worked out that love is not learned but inborn.

The fourth couplet addresses the rival. The lover gives thanks that his name is not "kelb" (dog); for a person of honour and self-respect, death is preferable to bearing a bad name. Although the couplet does not say so openly, it implies that the one who bears the bad name is the rival. The reading "ibret" (lesson) for "gayret" in M1 and M2 turns the second line into a moral maxim.

The closing couplet is built on the word "meyl". In its dictionary sense the word means both to bend and to incline one's heart, to fall in love. The cypress bends in every direction with the wind; but the beloved, the cypress-statured beauty, does not bend towards Adlî with the wind of his sighs. The use of these two senses together comes close to a double entendre (tevriye). There is also congruence of images among the words "bâd" (wind), "âh" (sigh) and "serv" (cypress).

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018, p. 143, poem no. 105 (manuscript variants in the footnote on the same page). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr