Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün

Dil-i maḫzūnı ġamuñ fikriyile şād ideyin
Sitem ü derd ü belāña anı mu‘tād ideyin
Şād olur derdüñ ile cānumı şād eyleyicek
Nice bir ‘āfiyet içre anı nā-şād ideyin
Ḫāne-i dil ki ḫarāb oldı gözüñ mekrinden
Ġamzeñ oḳlarıyile anı ben ābād ideyin
Varayın kūyuña cānumı nis̱ār eyleyeyin
Gülsitān içre göñül murġını āzād ideyin
Ḳaddümi iki büküp āh ideyin ben ‘Adlī
N'ola dil-dār yolında hele bir ād ideyin

In English

1. Let me gladden the sorrowful heart with the thought of grief for you; let me accustom it to your reproach, your pain and your affliction.

2. The heart rejoices in your pain; since pain will gladden my soul, how long shall I leave it unhappy in well-being.

3. The house of the heart, ruined by the guile of your eye, let me rebuild and make prosperous with the arrows of your sidelong glance.

4. Let me go to your street and scatter my soul on your path as an offering; let me set the bird of the heart free in the rose garden.

5. Let me, Adlî, bend my stature double and sigh; what if, at least, I should win a name on the beloved's path.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has five couplets and is written in the remel metre "fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "ideyin" (let me do); the rhyme rests on the sound "-âd": şâd, mu‘tâd, nâ-şâd, âbâd, âzâd, âd. 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. 110 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 2, T reads "‘âkıbet" (the end) for "‘âfiyet" (well-being); in couplet 3, T, M1 and M2 read "cevrinden" (by the cruelty) for "mekrinden" (by the guile); in couplet 4, T reads "zâgını" (its crow) for "murgını" (its bird). The closing couplet carries an interesting variant: OR and İBB read "âd" for "âh" in the first line, and M1 and M2 read "âh" for "âd" in the second; that is, depending on the manuscript, what the lover wishes to gain is a name or a sigh. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Every couplet of the ghazal is a sentence of resolve ending with the refrain "ideyin"; the lover lists what he will do. What these resolutions share is accepting pain and turning it into joy. In the opening couplet the heart will rejoice in thinking of the beloved's grief and grow used to his reproach and affliction. There is a contrast between "mahzûn" (sorrowful) and "şâd" (glad). The second couplet carries this thought to a paradox: since the heart rejoices in pain, keeping it in well-being is making it unhappy. The opposition between "şâd" and "nâ-şâd" (joyless) is built on the positive and negative forms of the same word. T's reading "‘âkıbet" adds the sense of "in the end" to the line.

The third couplet works the same paradox through an image of building. The heart is a house, ruined by the guile of the beloved's eye. The lover will rebuild this ruined house with the arrows of the beloved's sidelong glance. The arrow destroys, yet here it repairs; there is an open contrast between "harâb" (ruined) and "âbâd" (prosperous). In classical poetry the eye, the eyelashes and the sidelong glance (gamze) are often likened to weapons such as arrows and swords; that the wound these weapons open is counted a blessing for the lover belongs to the same tradition.

In the fourth couplet the lover thinks of going to the beloved's street and scattering his soul on his path. "Nisâr", in its dictionary sense, is money or gifts scattered on someone's path. In the second line the heart is a bird to be set free in the rose garden; in this couplet the beloved's street is equated with the rose garden. T's reading "zâgını" (its crow) turns the bird into one unbefitting a rose garden; the edited text follows the reading "murg" (bird).

The closing couplet shows the lover sighing with his stature bent double. A stature bent double is, in classical poetry, the image of the lover broken by pain and age. In this state Adlî wishes to win a name on the beloved's path. The manuscript variants make this couplet interesting: when "âh" and "âd" change places, the lover wishes either to win a name by sighing or to gain a name and then sigh. Which is correct cannot be determined with certainty from the manuscripts.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018, p. 148, poem no. 110 (manuscript variants in the footnote on the same page). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr