Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

İñlerem her dem ziyāde derd ile ṭolābdan
Yaşum artuḳ mevc urur her laḥẓada seyl-ābdan
Niçe yüz biñ bende-i bendüñden āzād isteseñ
Al elüñe zülfüñi çöz bir ḳılını bāddan
Rūşen oldı hep cihānda mihr-i ruḫsāruñ senüñ
Gündüzin gün pertevinden gice de meh-tābdan
Ka‘be-i ḥüsnüñde zāhid görse ḳaşuñ iy ṣanem
Ḳıblei terk eyleye yüz döndere miḥrābdan
Ḥasret-i la‘l-i lebüñle yaşumuñ her ḳatresi
Sūz-ı hicrüñde senüñ rengīn ü ter ‘unnābdan
Dergehüñden ġayrı yoḳ baña cihānda ilticā
Āh eger maḳṣūd-ı dil fetḥ olmaya ol bābdan
Fürḳatüñden aġladuḳça ‘Adli çeşminden anuñ
Cem‘ olupdur cümle deryālar dökilen ābdan

In English

1. At every moment I moan with grief more than the water wheel; at every instant my tears surge more than a flood.

2. If you want the hundreds of thousands of servants caught in the bonds of your hair to be set free, take your hair in your hand and untie it; (free) one strand of it from the wind. The end of the second line is unclear; Bayram notes in a footnote that the word "bâd" (wind) does not fit the rhyme of the ghazal, so the text may be corrupt here.

3. The sun of your face has become manifest throughout the world: by day from the light of the sun, and by night from the moonlight (the sun and the moon reflect the radiance of your face).

4. O idol-like beauty, should the ascetic see your eyebrow in the Kaaba of your beauty, he would abandon the kıble (the direction of prayer) and turn his face from the mihrab (your eyebrow is more worthy of prostration than the prayer niche).

5. Out of longing for your ruby lip, in the burning of separation from you, every drop of my tears is more colourful and fresh than the jujube (the bloody tears are red as the jujube).

6. In this world I have no refuge but your court; alas, if the wish of the heart is not opened at that door (what will become of me).

7. As Adlî weeps for separation from you, all the seas have been gathered and formed from the water poured out of his eyes.

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 "-âb": tolâb, seyl-âb, meh-tâb, mihrâb, ‘unnâb, bâb, âb. The word "bâd" in the second couplet does not fit this series, and Bayram records this separately in his footnote. The ghazal is a short love poem whose opening couplet rhymes within itself and whose other couplets rhyme with it in their second lines. It stands as no. 107 in Bayram's edition and is found in all five manuscripts (OR, T, M1, M2, İBB). The variants that affect the meaning are these: in couplet 1, T reads "iy şehüm" (O my shah) for "derd ile"; in couplet 4, T, M1 and M2 change the word order to "kaşuñ görse zâhid"; in couplet 5, M1 and M2 read "rengîn dutar" for "rengîn ü ter"; in couplet 7, T, M1 and M2 read "fürkatüñde" for "fürkatüñden". To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The feeling the ghazal carries from beginning to end is the overflowing of tears. In the opening couplet the lover moans more than the water wheel. "Dolap" here has its dictionary sense of a wheel that lifts water; the creaking it makes as it turns is likened in classical poetry to the moaning lover. In the second line the tears surge more than a flood. In the closing couplet the same exaggeration reaches its furthest point: all the seas of the world are formed from the water poured out of Adlî's eyes. This is a clear example of the figure of hyperbole (mübalağa). So the ghazal opens with water and closes with water; there is congruence of images (tenasüp) among the words "seyl-âb" (flood), "eşk" (tear), "deryâ" (sea) and "âb" (water).

The second couplet rests on the closeness in sound between the words "bende" (servant) and "bend" (bond). The lovers are servants caught in the bond of the beloved's hair; the way to free them is to untie the hair. As Bayram also points out, the last part of the line is problematic, so it would not be right to give it a definite meaning here. In the third couplet the beloved's face is the sun ("mihr", in its dictionary sense, means both sun and love). The light of the sun by day and of the moon by night all comes from the radiance of that face; that is, the beloved's face is held above the two sources of light in the sky.

The fourth couplet uses one of the well-known comparisons of classical poetry: the eyebrow is likened to the mihrab because of its arched shape. The beloved's beauty is the Kaaba, and the ascetic (zahid), the pious man bound to outward observance, would turn away from both the kıble and the mihrab if he saw this eyebrow. There is congruence of images among the words "Ka‘be", "kıble" and "mihrâb"; the word "sanem" (idol) sets up a contrast with them. The ascetic's abandoning of religious rules is a scene often used in classical poetry to show the power of love.

In the fifth couplet bloody tears are likened to the jujube. "‘Unnâb", in its dictionary sense, is a small red fruit, and because of its colour it is also used in classical poetry for the lip; here the tears flowing from longing for the lip have taken on the lip's colour. In the sixth couplet the word "fetih", in its dictionary sense, means opening; the congruence among "dergâh" (court), "bâb" (door) and "fetih" makes the beloved's threshold the lover's only refuge. The possibility that the door may not open ends the couplet with a plea.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018, p. 145, poem no. 107 (manuscript variants in the footnote on the same page). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr