Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Nūn-ı nergisdür gözüñ üstinde cānā rā ḳaşın
Lālelerde lāmdır yüzüñde zülf-i ‘anberīn
Eşküm aḳçesini ṣu ḳoyar cihān ocaġına
Āl yapraḳlu ‘alem çekdükde āh-ı āteşīn
İy gözi āhū ḫaṭı ‘anber-feşānuñ yādına
Bir deriye ṣarılup ḳaldı Ḫuten'de müşg-i Çīn
Nāḫun-ı gül-berg-i yārüñ her biri āyinedür
‘Adliyā kendüyi görirse n’ola ol nāzenīn

In English

1. My soul, your eye is the letter nûn of the word "nergis" (narcissus), and your brow is the râ above it; the ambergris-scented lock on your face is the lâm in the word "lâle" (tulip). (The eye is likened to the narcissus and the cheek to the tulip; the round bowl of the letter nûn resembles the eye, the curved râ the brow, and the long, hooked lâm the curl of hair falling on the cheek.)

2. When my fiery sigh raises its red-leaved banner (that is, when its flames rise like a crimson flag), the akçe of my tears (drops white as silver coins) puts water on the hearth of the world. The couplet can be read in two ways: the tears put out the fire of the sigh that would engulf the world; or the phrase "putting water on someone's hearth" means that the tears quench the world's hearth and bring it to ruin.

3. O gazelle-eyed one whose down scatters ambergris, in memory of you (of your down) the musk of China wrapped itself in a hide and stayed behind in Khotan.

4. Each of the rose-petal nails of the beloved is a mirror; Adlî, what wonder if that coquettish beauty sees himself (in them).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has four 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 "-în": ‘anberîn, âteşîn, Çîn, nâzenîn. The word "kaşın" in the opening couplet only approximates this sound. It stands as no. 120 in Bayram's edition. It is found in only two of the five manuscripts, T (44a) and M2; it is absent from OR, İBB and M1. While the ghazals that follow it in the edition, nos. 121-126, stand on folios 36b-38b of manuscript T, this ghazal is found on 44a of the same manuscript, which is noteworthy, but the edition gives no information on the reason. No variants are recorded in the edition. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The most striking place in the ghazal is its opening couplet, built on a comparison with letters. In divan poetry the beloved's face is often read like a written page, and the features of beauty are likened to the shapes of Arabic letters. Here Adlî uses the letters of the flower names themselves. In Ottoman script the word "nergis" begins with nûn, and its second letter is râ; "lâle" begins with lâm. The round bowl of the nûn with its dot is likened to the eye, and the curved râ falling above it to the brow. The narcissus is already the counterpart of the eye in divan poetry, so the comparison works twice over: the eye is both the narcissus and the first letter of the word narcissus. In the second line the tulip stands for the cheek, and the long lâm with its curled tip for the lock of hair falling on the cheek. There is a clear congruence of images (tenasüp) between eye, brow, face and lock on the one hand and narcissus and tulip on the other.

The second couplet builds a picture out of colours and coins. The fiery sigh rises like a red-leaved banner; the tears are "akçe". Akçe, in its dictionary sense, means both the Ottoman silver coin and whitish; for this reason a contrast of colour can be sensed between "akçe" and "al" (red). The antithesis (tezat) between fire and water, sigh and tears, is the real support of the couplet. It is not clear in which direction the phrase "putting water on the hearth" should be taken; the tears either protect the world by putting out the fire of the sigh, or quench the world's hearth and lay it waste.

The third couplet is an example of hüsn-i ta‘lîl (poetic aetiology, an imagined cause). Musk, in its dictionary sense, is the scent obtained from a pouch in the navel of the musk deer, and in divan poetry it is linked to China and Khotan. The poet assigns his own cause to the fact that musk is found inside a pouch of hide: the musk of China, remembering the beloved's ambergris-scattering down, was ashamed, wrapped itself in a hide and stayed in Khotan. There is congruence of images among the words "âhû" (gazelle), "müşg" (musk), "deri" (hide), "Huten" (Khotan) and "Çîn" (China); that the gazelle-eyed beloved should leave behind the musk, which takes its scent from a deer, adds a subtle mockery to the couplet.

The closing couplet likens the beloved's nails, pink and shining like rose petals, to mirrors. In divan poetry the mirror is the object in which the beautiful one contemplates his own beauty; if the nails are mirrors, it is no wonder to the poet that the coquettish beloved can see himself at every moment. The couplet describes the beloved's admiration of his own beauty with a light teasing.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018, p. 158, poem no. 120 (manuscript information in the footnote on the same page). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr