Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Bir nefes ‘Īsī-ṣıfat ol ġonca-leb açsa dehen
Ḫākden baş ḳaldurup her mürde çāk ide kefen
Gülşen-i ḥüsnüñde ḥaddüñdür gül-i ḥamrā velī
Ḫaṭṭ-ı sebzüñdür benefşe ‘ārıżuñdur yāsemen
Būy-ı zülfüñ armaġan iletmese Çīn'e ṣabā
Ḥasretinden ḫūn-ı dil olmazdı āhū-yı Ḫuten
Seyl-i eşküm cismümi ġarḳ itmeseydi şem‘ veş
Āteş-i āhumla başdan ṭutuşup yanardı ten
Lālei beñzetmege ḥaddüñe ṣaḥrāda ṣabā
Gül gibi zeyn eyleyüp geydürdi vālā pīrehen
Çekdi sūsen hançerin beñzer diyüben aġzuña
Ḳorḳusından ġoncalar aġzın yumup açmaz dehen
Ḥabs-i ġamda dōstum şekker-lebüñ vaṣf itmege
‘Adli gibi olmaya bir ṭūṭi-i şīrīn-suḫan

In English

1. Should that rosebud-lipped one open his mouth for a single breath, like Jesus, every dead man would raise his head from the earth and tear his shroud. M1 and M2 read "eyler" for "ide", with the same meaning.

2. In the rose garden of your beauty your cheek is the red rose; the down on your face (the fine, greenish down) is the violet, and your face is the jasmine.

3. Had the morning breeze (saba) not carried the scent of your hair to China as a gift, the gazelle of Khotan would not have turned its heart to blood out of longing (would not have stored musk in its navel).

4. Had the flood of my tears not drowned my body, my flesh would have caught fire from the top, like a candle, from the fire of my sighs and burned. OR reads "çeşmümi" (my eye) for "cismümi" (my body).

5. To make the tulip in the desert resemble your cheek, the morning breeze adorned it like a rose and dressed it in a precious shirt.

6. The lily drew its dagger, saying (the rosebud) resembles your mouth; out of fear of it the rosebuds keep their mouths shut and do not open them. OR and İBB read "açar" (opens) for "açmaz" (does not open).

7. My friend, to praise your sugar lip in the prison of grief there is no sweet-tongued parrot like Adlî.

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". It has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme rests on the sound "-en": dehen, kefen, yâsemen, Huten, ten, pîrehen, suhan. The word "dehen" (mouth) is used in the rhyme position both in the opening couplet and in the sixth couplet. It stands as no. 115 in Bayram's edition and is found in all five manuscripts (OR, T, M1, M2, İBB). To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is a description of beauty, opening and closing with the beloved's lip. In the opening couplet the beloved's breath is compared to the breath of Jesus. In Islamic tradition Jesus is believed to have healed the sick and raised the dead by his breath, and divan poetry often recalls this miracle under the name "dem-i Îsî" (the breath of Jesus). Adlî extends this motif through hyperbole: should the rosebud-lipped beloved open his mouth for a moment, the dead would rise from their graves and tear their shrouds. In the phrase "gonca-leb" (rosebud-lipped) the lip is likened to a closed rosebud; this link between the opening bud and the opening mouth is taken up again in the sixth couplet.

The second couplet lays out the beloved's face as a garden. The cheek is the red rose, the fine greenish down on the face (hat) the violet, the white face the jasmine. There is a congruence of colours among red, purple and white. The third couplet rests on the motif of musk. In the couplet the names of China and Khotan (Huten) are mentioned together with the scent of musk; musk, in its dictionary sense, is the scented substance taken from the pod in the navel of the male musk deer. According to the poet, when the morning breeze carried the scent of the beloved's hair to China, the gazelle of Khotan turned its heart to blood out of longing for that scent; musk is that blood turned into fragrance. This explanation is a fine example of hüsn-i ta‘lil, the art of finding an imaginary cause for a real fact.

The fourth couplet balances two opposing states of the lover against each other. The fire of the sigh was about to set the body alight like a candle, but the flood of tears drowned it; the antithesis (tezat) between fire and water is shown as a balance that keeps the lover alive. The phrase "başdan tutuşmak" (to catch fire from the top) recalls a candle burning from its wick, that is, from its top.

In the fifth and sixth couplets the flowers compete with the beloved. To make the tulip resemble the beloved's cheek, the morning breeze dresses it in a precious shirt like a rose; "vâlâ", in its dictionary sense, means both lofty, precious and a fine silk cloth. The lily's pointed leaves, for their part, are seen in the couplet as a dagger. Adlî ties the rosebud's staying closed to its fear of the lily's dagger: when the rosebud tried to resemble the beloved's mouth, the lily drew its dagger, and out of fear the bud can no longer open its mouth. This too is an example of hüsn-i ta‘lil.

The closing couplet praises the poet's own speech. The parrot, as a bird that can talk, is called here "şîrîn-suhan", that is, sweet-tongued; there is congruence of images (tenasüp) between "şekker-leb" (sugar-lipped) and "tûtî-i şîrîn-suhan" (sweet-tongued parrot). "Habs-i gam" (the prison of grief) recalls the parrot in its cage: Adlî presents himself as a parrot who, even in the prison of grief, does not cease praising the beloved's lip.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018, p. 153, poem no. 115 (manuscript variants in the footnote on the same page). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Mustafa İsmet Uzun, "Îsâ (Türk Edebiyatı)", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 22, Istanbul 2000, pp. 473-475, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/isa.

Online sources