Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

O gül bu bülbüli diler çü zār eylemege
Göñül daḫı diler anı hezār eylemege
Ṣaçuñla dil bir idüp ḳaşlaruñ ḳarār itmiş
Ḳarārumı aluban bī-ḳarār eylemege
Çü naḳş-ı dil-keşe meyl eylerimiş ol fettān
Yüz üzre çehremi nakş-ı nigār eylemege
Ḳadüñle zülfüñ ucından elemlerümi benüm
Ḳıyāmete degin olmaz şümār eylemege
Göñül ki ḳan yuduban la‘l ü güher eyledi cem‘
Gözüm diler ayaġuña nis̱ār eylemege
Ṣaçuña ‘Adli göñül cem‘ idüp ki cān atdı
İver mi zülfüñ anı tārmār eylemege

In English

1. Since that rose wishes to make this nightingale moan, the heart too wishes to make it (this moaning) a thousandfold. ("Hezâr" means both a thousand and nightingale; the line can also be understood as "the heart too wishes to make him a nightingale".)

2. Your brows, coming to an agreement (joining) with your hair, have resolved to take away my peace and leave me restless.

3. That enchanter (the beloved), it seems, is drawn to heart-alluring pictures; so (my heart) wishes, laying my face on the ground, to turn my countenance into a picture of the beloved. The couplet is not entirely clear; "yüz üzre" can be understood both as "face down, with the face laid on the ground" and as "in a hundred ways".

4. The sorrows I suffer because of your stature and the tip of your lock cannot be counted until Doomsday.

5. The heart, swallowing blood, gathered rubies and pearls (collected bloody and shining tears); my eye wishes to scatter them at your feet.

6. Adlî gathered his heart and threw his soul onto your hair; is your lock in a hurry to scatter it.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has six couplets and is written in the müctes metre "mefâ‘ilün fe‘ilâtün mefâ‘ilün fe‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "eylemege" (to make, to do); the rhyme rests on the sound "-âr": zâr, hezâr, bî-karâr, nigâr, şümâr, nisâr, târmâr. Because every couplet ends with the same infinitive form, each couplet requires a verb that governs this infinitive; in most couplets it is "dilemek" (diler, wishes), in the second couplet "karâr itmek" (to resolve), and in the fourth "olmaz" (is not possible). It stands as no. 122 in Bayram's edition and is found in all five manuscripts (OR 29a, T 37a, M1 38b-39a, M2 31a, İBB 20a). The variants concern a few words: "anı" in the second line of the opening couplet is "âh u" in M1 and "âh-ı" in T and M2; in the third couplet "ol fettân" reads "figân" in T; the word "kan" in the fifth couplet is missing in OR. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet rests on the motif of the rose and the nightingale. The rose is the beloved, the nightingale the lover; the rose wishes to make the nightingale moan, and the heart wishes to increase that moaning. "Hezâr", in its dictionary sense, means both the number thousand and nightingale, and in the couplet it calls up both senses together: the heart wishes both to multiply the moaning a thousandfold and to turn the lover into a nightingale. This is an example of tevriye (double entendre). The manuscript readings "âh u" and "âh-ı" pull the line towards "the heart too wishes to multiply the sigh a thousandfold" and bring the sense of thousand to the fore. There is congruence of images (tenasüp) among nightingale, rose, zâr (moaning) and hezâr.

The second couplet is notable for using the word "karâr" three times. The brows, joining with the hair, have reached a karâr (decision); this decision is to take away the lover's karâr, that is, his peace, and to make him "bî-karâr" (restless). The placing side by side of words from the same root with different meanings is a play of cinas and iştikak (pun and derivation). The idiom "dil bir etmek", in its dictionary sense, means to come to an agreement, to speak with one mouth; since "dil" also means heart in Persian, the word links up with the theme of the heart in the rest of the couplet.

The third couplet is the most obscure place in the ghazal. The beloved is called "fettân", that is, an enchanter of hearts, and is drawn to heart-alluring pictures. "Nigâr", in its dictionary sense, means both picture, design and beloved; the lover wishes to turn his own face into a picture the beloved will admire. Whether "yüz üzre" describes laying the face on the ground or the number hundred is not clear. The words nakş (design), dil-keş (heart-alluring), çehre (countenance) and nigâr set up a congruence of images from the field of painting.

In the fourth couplet the beloved's stature and the length of his lock are tied to the endlessness of sorrow. The word "kıyâmet" (Doomsday), in its dictionary sense, is from the same root as "kıyâm" (standing upright), and in divan poetry it is mentioned together with the beloved's stature; tall stature and long hair are the counterpart of sorrows whose number will not end until Doomsday. In the fifth couplet the lover's heart gathers rubies and pearls by swallowing blood; bloody tears resemble rubies, white tears pearls. "Nisâr", in its dictionary sense, means money and jewels scattered at the feet of a great person; the eye wishes to scatter these jewels at the beloved's feet.

The closing couplet ends with an antithesis between gathering and scattering. Adlî "cem‘" his heart, that is, gathers it, and throws his soul onto the beloved's hair. In divan poetry the hair is dishevelled and scattered; the line describes a lock ready to scatter the gathered heart. The word "cem‘" from the fifth couplet is used again in the closing couplet and sets up a link between the two: first the tears are gathered and made ready to be scattered, then the gathered heart is left to be scattered by the hair.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018, p. 160, poem no. 122 (manuscript information in the footnote on the same page). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr