Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ayaġın öpmege yārüñ ger vireydi baḫt dest
Başum eflāke irüp ‘ālem olurdı zīr-dest
Bir gice ger yār ile peymāne sürsem reşkden
Ṭañ degül nüh kāse-i gerdūn eger bulsa şikest
Çıḳmazam kūyından ümmīd-i liḳā-yı yār ile
Ehl-i īmāna olur ḥubb-ı vaṭan çün pāy-best
Zāhidi gördüm mürīd ile çıḳar mey-ḫāneden
Ser-girān biri velīkin ol birisi nīm-mest
Her devānuñ şerbetini la‘l-i cānānda ḳomış
‘Adliyā derdi saña taḳdīr iden rūz-ı elest

In English

1. Had fortune lent me a hand to kiss the beloved's foot, my head would have reached the heavens and the whole world would have been under my hand.

2. Were I to pass the cup with the beloved for a single night, it would be no wonder if the nine bowls of the heavens shattered with envy. (The nine heavens are likened to nine bowls turned upside down.)

3. In the hope of seeing the beloved I do not leave her street, for to the people of faith love of homeland becomes a fetter on the feet. (The beloved's street is the lover's homeland.)

4. I saw the ascetic coming out of the tavern with his disciple: one of them heavy-headed, the other half-drunk.

5. O Adlî, He who on the day of elest ordained pain for you has placed the syrup of every remedy in the beloved's ruby lips.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets. Its metre is the remel pattern of aruz (quantitative metre), "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". There is no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is the "-est" sound of "dest, zīr-dest, şikest, pāy-best, nīm-mest, elest". Of these words "elest" is Arabic and the rest are Persian. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is number 11 in Bayram's edition; it is found in the OR, T, M1 and M2 manuscripts and is absent from İBB. It is not known to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first couplet is built on the contrast between foot and head. The lover wishes to bow down to kiss the beloved's foot; this bowing would give him a height that raises his head to the heavens. Exaltation through abasement is one of the most frequently treated ideas of servitude to the beloved in divan poetry. In the rhyme "dest" (hand) and "zīr-dest" (under one's hand, under one's command) stand side by side: if fortune lent a hand, the whole world would come under the lover's hand. Using the same root in two different senses adds wordplay to the couplet. Equating servitude with ruling the world is also striking when one considers that the author of the poem was a ruler.

In the second couplet a likeness is drawn between the cup and the sky. The phrase "nüh kāse-i gerdūn" (the nine bowls of the sphere) in the couplet imagines the nine layers of the heavens as bowls turned down over the world. The congruence of images (tenasüp) between "peymāne" (cup) and "kāse" (bowl) carries this comparison. If the lover shared a cup with the beloved for a night, the nine bowls of the sky would shatter with envy; the word "şikest" (breaking) suggests the breaking both of the cup and of the sky.

In the third couplet the beloved's street becomes the lover's homeland. The lover cannot leave it, because "ehl-i īmāna olur ḥubb-ı vaṭan çün pāy-best": love of homeland is a fetter on the feet of the people of faith. The line recalls the saying "Love of homeland is part of faith"; this saying, cited as a hadith, is regarded as weak or fabricated. Adlî applies the saying to the beloved's street and turns the lover's refusal to leave it into a matter of faith.

The fourth couplet is a short example of the mockery aimed at the ascetic in the ghazal. The ascetic (zahid), the pious man who cares for outward appearance, is seen coming out of the tavern with his disciple; one is heavy-headed ("ser-girān"), the other half-drunk ("nīm-mest"). "Ser-girān" can mean both "heavy-headed, dazed" and "haughty, grave"; the couplet joins in one word the gravity the ascetic puts on for show and the fact that he has just come out of the tavern.

The pen name appears in the last couplet, and the pain of love is tied to the day of elest. In divan poetry the assembly of elest is the pre-eternal moment at which, at the time of creation, the souls answered "yes" to God's question "Am I not your Lord?"; lovers are held to have fallen in love with their beloveds on that day. According to Adlî, He who ordained pain on that day has also placed the syrup of every remedy in the beloved's ruby lips. Pain and remedy come from the same hand; the lover's cure therefore also lies with the beloved. The redness of the ruby evokes the lips, and the syrup their sweetness. In the T manuscript "cānāndan" is read in place of "cānānda", and the line comes close to meaning "has taken the syrup of remedy from the beloved".

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2018, p. 49, poem no. 11; manuscript variants in the footnotes on the same page.

Academic studies

Online sources