Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ḳaşları yāyın ḳurup atduḳca müjgānı dürüst
Bir ḫaṭā itmez irer her cāna peykānı dürüst
Gerçi kim yāḳūt dirler yazdı çok meşḳ-ı mis̱āl
Yazmadı ḫaṭṭuñ gibi bir ḫaṭṭ-ı reyḥānı dürüst
Zāhidüñ yiri olursa yiridür nār-ı Ceḥīm
Küfr zülfüñ olmadı anuñçün īmānı dürüst
Çün gedādur ḳapuña geldükce iy şāh āftāb
Ḫᵛān-ı ḥüsnüñden nevāl alursa bir nānı dürüst
Va‘desine iy göñül dil-berlerüñ aldanma kim
Anlaruñ olmaz cihānda ‘ahd ü peymānı dürüst
Ol raḳīb-i seg dişin bilerdi yārüñ la‘line
Seng urup ḳomadılar aġzında dendānı dürüst
Gülşen-i naẓmuñda ‘Adlī gül koḫular dā’imā
Her nefes bülbül gibi kim oḳusa anı dürüst

In English

1. Whenever she draws the bow of her eyebrows and shoots her lashes straight, her arrowheads never miss and reach every soul true to the mark. (The eyebrow is likened to a bow and the lash to an arrow.)

2. It is true, they say, that Yâkût wrote many models for practice; yet he never wrote a reyhânî script as faultless as the down on your cheek. (Yâkût is a famous calligrapher and also the ruby that stands for red lips; "hat" means both handwriting and the fine down on the cheek, and "reyhân" is both basil and the name of a script.)

3. If the ascetic's place is the fire of Hell, it is the place he deserves, for because of the unbelief of your tress his faith did not stay sound. The couplet can be read in two ways: "because he did not believe in the unbelief of your tress, his faith was incomplete", or "because he was carried away by the unbelief of your tress, his faith did not remain sound".

4. O king (the beloved), the sun is a beggar whenever it comes to your door; if it receives a gift from the table of your beauty, it is no more than one whole loaf of bread. (The round, shining face of the sun is likened to a loaf.)

5. O heart, do not be deceived by the promises of beauties, for in this world neither their word nor their pledge holds firm.

6. That dog of a rival was sharpening his teeth for the beloved's ruby lips; they threw stones at him and left not a tooth sound in his mouth.

7. O Adlî, in the rose garden of your verse, whoever reads it rightly like a nightingale always smells roses with every breath.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of seven couplets. Its metre is the remel pattern of aruz (quantitative metre), "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "dürüst", and the rhyme is the "-ānı" sound of "müjgānı, peykānı, reyḥānı, īmānı, nānı, peymānı, dendānı, anı". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is number 12 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 whole design of the ghazal rests on its redif. Today the Turkish word "dürüst" is mostly used in a moral sense, "honest"; in older Turkish it meant "straight, correct, sound, whole, complete". Adlî tries out all these meanings in turn. In the first couplet the arrow is shot straight and hits the mark true; in the second the script is written without fault; in the third faith is sound; in the fourth the loaf stays whole; in the fifth word and pledge are kept firm; in the sixth the teeth stay in place; in the last couplet the poem is read rightly. The redif taking on a different meaning in each couplet gives the ghazal an air of play.

The first couplet describes the beloved's glance in the language of archery: the eyebrow is the bow, the lash the arrow, and the tip of the lash the iron arrowhead (peykân). The word "ḫaṭā" here means both "error" and an arrow missing its mark. In the M1 and M2 manuscripts "hīç ḫaṭā" (no error at all) is read in place of "bir ḫaṭā".

The second couplet is the most striking in the ghazal. The word "yāḳūt" has two meanings. The first is the famous calligrapher Yâkût el-Müsta‘sımî, who lived in the 13th century (d. 1299). Yâkût fixed the proportions of the six classical scripts known as "aklâm-ı sitte" and brought the muhakkak and reyhânî scripts in particular to their perfect form. The second meaning is the red ruby, which in divan poetry stands for the beloved's lips. The word "ḫaṭṭ" in the same couplet also means both script and the fine down appearing on the beloved's cheek; "reyḥān" denotes both the basil plant and the reyhânî script. The couplet can thus be read on two levels: even the most masterly calligrapher, who wrote many "meşk", that is pieces written as models for students, could not write a reyhânî as faultless as the down on the beloved's cheek. The use of several words with double meanings in one couplet is a dense example of double entendre (tevriye); there is also a congruence of images (tenasüp) among the words hat, meşk, misal, writing and reyhânî. The edition's text reads "meşḳ-ı mis̱āl"; the footnote, however, gives "meşḳ u mis̱āl" as the main reading and "meşḳ-ı mis̱āl" as the variant of the OR manuscript.

This couplet gains a further meaning when the poet's link with the art of calligraphy is considered. According to the introduction to Bayram's edition, Bayezid II took lessons in calligraphy from the famous calligrapher Şeyh Hamdullah while he was sanjak governor (sanjak-bey) in Amasya, and after coming to the throne he invited his teacher to Istanbul, hosted him in the palace and granted him a timar (a revenue grant). According to the encyclopaedia entry on Yâkût el-Müsta‘sımî, the Ottoman school of calligraphy was born of long work on seven pieces of Yâkût's writing which Bayezid II took from the treasury and gave to Şeyh Hamdullah. Since it is not known when the ghazal was written, the couplet cannot be tied to any of these events; but the poet who brings together Yâkût's name and the terms of calligraphy so skilfully is known to have been a ruler who learned calligraphy himself.

In the third couplet the ascetic (zahid), the pious man who cares for outward appearance, is judged worthy of Hell. In the phrase "küfr zülfüñ" there is no izafet (genitive link) mark, and the line can be understood in two ways: the ascetic's faith in the religion of love remained incomplete because he did not believe in the beloved's infidel tress, or his faith did not remain sound because he was carried away by the unbelief of that tress. In both readings a contrast is drawn between faith and unbelief, the hope of paradise and the fire of Hell.

In the fourth couplet the beloved is the "şāh" (king), and the sun a beggar waiting at the door. The round, shining face of the sun is likened to a whole loaf taken from the beloved's table of beauty. Setting king against beggar is frequent in divan poetry; here even the greatest light in the sky lives on the beloved's alms. T reads "gedā" in place of "gedādur", OR "ḫūn-ı" (blood) in place of "ḫᵛān-ı" (table), and M2 "ne var" (what there is) in place of "nevāl" (gift).

The fifth and sixth couplets describe the beloved's faithlessness and the rival. The word and pledge of beauties do not hold firm. The rival, for his part, is likened to a dog; he has "sharpened his teeth" for the beloved's ruby lips, that is, he has been watching for a chance to seize them. The literal and figurative senses of the idiom work together here: stones are thrown into the mouth of the dog sharpening its teeth, and not a tooth is left sound. Throwing stones at a dog is an image taken from everyday life and conveys the anger felt towards the rival with a harsh humour.

The last couplet is a fahriye, in which the poet praises his own verse. Adlî's poetry is a rose garden; whoever reads it rightly like a nightingale smells roses with every breath. In older Turkish the verb "koḫulamak" means "to smell, to sniff". There is a congruence of images among "gülşen" (rose garden), "gül" (rose) and "bülbül" (nightingale). In this couplet the redif refers to the poem being "read rightly"; given the words with several meanings in the preceding couplets, this condition is an apt warning.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2018, p. 50, poem no. 12; manuscript variants in the footnotes on the same page; introduction pp. 7, 16 and 26-27 (Bayezid II and Şeyh Hamdullah).

Academic studies

Online sources