Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Diler ki baġlana göñlüm o zülf-i pür-tāba
Ne cān virür göre miskīn bend ü ḳullāba
Gözüñ ġamında marīż-i seher olalı göñül
Müjeñ ḫayāli anı ḳor mı bir nefes ḫᵛāba
Ḳılıcuñ üstine cān u göñül ki cān atdı
‘Aceb mi cān vire ger teşne bir içim āba
Cüvāniken beni derdüñ ġamuñla pīr itdi
Naṣīḥat oldı işüm cümle şeyḫ ile şāba
Yüzini ‘Adli işigüñde pāy-māl itdi
Yazılsa levḥ-i müẕehheb revā durur bāba

In English

1. My heart wishes to be bound to that lock full of curls; how readily the poor thing gives up its life when it sees the bond and the hook (the coils of the lock).

2. Ever since the heart fell sick with sleeplessness from the grief of your eye, does the image of your eyelash let it go to sleep for a single breath.

3. Soul and heart have thrown their life upon your sword; is it any wonder if a thirsty man gives his life for one sip of water. (The sheen of a sword is called "âb", water; the soul thirsts for the water of the sword.)

4. While I was young, your pain and grief made me old; now my whole occupation has become giving advice to old and young alike.

5. Adlî has laid his face beneath the feet at your threshold; were (this face) inscribed as a gilded panel, it would befit that door. The couplet can be read in two ways: the face trampled at the threshold is worthy of a gilded inscription panel to be hung above the door; or this devotion deserves to be written on a gilded panel and hung on the door.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has five couplets and is written in the müctes metre "mefâ‘ilün fe‘ilâtün mefâ‘ilün fe‘ilün". The rhyme rests on the sound "-âb", and the redif (refrain word) on the dative suffix (-a): pür-tâba, kullâba, hᵛâba, âba, şâba, bâba. It stands as no. 124 in Bayram's edition and is found in all five manuscripts (OR 28b, T 37b-38a, M1 39b, M2 31b, İBB 20a). The variants are small; the most notable is in the second couplet: İBB gives this line as "marîz olalı gönül cânâ", and OR reads "şehr" instead of "seher". To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first couplet of the ghazal rests on the familiar relation between hair and captivity. The beloved's lock is "pür-tâb"; "tâb", in its dictionary sense, means both twist, curl and brightness. The heart wishes to be bound to this lock; the coils of the lock are seen as "bend" (bond) and "kullâb" (hook). The poor heart gives up its life whenever it sees the bond and the hook; being taken captive is for it not a punishment but a desire. There is congruence of images (tenasüp) among lock, bond and hook.

In the second couplet the edition's transliteration makes a fine distinction. In the same edition the word "seher" in the sense of dawn is written "seḥer", with ḥ; in this couplet, however, the word is given without ḥ, as "seher". In this form the word, in its dictionary sense, means sleeplessness, and "marîz-i seher" means sick with sleeplessness. This reading also agrees with the word sleep (hᵛâb) at the end of the line: the heart has fallen into sleeplessness from the grief of the beloved's eye, and the image of his eyelashes does not let it sleep even for a breath. In divan poetry the beloved's eye is also called sick and languid; the lover of the one whose eye is sick has himself fallen sick. Thinking of the eyelash as a piercing arrow also explains why sleep does not come.

The third couplet carries a hüsn-i ta‘lîl (poetic aetiology, an imagined cause). "Âb", in its dictionary sense, means both water and the sheen, the "water", of a sword. Soul and heart have thrown themselves upon the beloved's sword; the poet likens this to a thirsty man giving his life for a sip of water. The "water" of the sword merges with the real water that would quench thirst; in this way the conduct of the lover who runs to his death is attributed to thirst. There is congruence of images among sword, giving one's life, thirst and water.

The fourth couplet is built on an antithesis (tezat) of age. "Cüvân" means young and "pîr" old; the pain of love has made the lover old while still young. "Şeyh ile şâb" at the end of the line also means, in its dictionary sense, old and young. The lover who aged early has become one who gives advice to old and young alike; the experience that love gave him has earned him the role of an adviser before his years. In the couplet the contrasts of cüvân and pîr, şeyh and şâb are interwoven.

The closing couplet joins the lover's humility at the threshold with an image of writing. Adlî has laid his face beneath the feet at the beloved's threshold. "Levh-i müzehheb" means a panel adorned with gilding; it is said that such an inscription would befit that door. A comparison between the face and the panel can be sensed: the face laid on the threshold turns into an ornate inscription to be placed above the door. There is congruence of images among threshold, door (bâb) and panel. There is also an antithesis of low and high between the face left beneath the feet at the threshold and the gilded panel rising above the door.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018, p. 162, poem no. 124 (manuscript information in the footnote on the same page). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr