Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün

İy ḫᵛāce ḳatı muġlaḳ olur ‘ışḳ kitābı
Bābuñ degül añlamaduñ ise ḳo bu bābı
Zülfüñ ḫamı cevrini perīşānlıġumuzdan
Ger unudavüz bāri sen unutma ḥisābı
La‘lüñ ġam ile gözden olur yine revāne
Nūş eyledügince ḳamu ‘ışḳ ehli şarābı
Nāy olalı ġam çengine ḳānūn ile göñlüm
Dem-sāz olup durur aña sīne rübābı
‘Adlī sen anı terk idegör ‘āḳil iseñ ger
Terk itse gerek seni ḳo bu milk-i ḫarābı

In English

1. O master, the book of love is a very obscure book, hard to understand; if you have not understood it, this is not your business, leave this chapter. ("Bâb" is used both for the chapter of a book and in the sense of "one's business, one's competence".)

2. Even if, in our distraction, we forget the torment that the curl of your tress has caused us, at least do not you forget the account.

3. As often as all the people of love drink wine, your ruby flows again from the eye with grief. (The couplet can be read in two ways: the red wine the lovers drink flows back from their eyes as bloody tears because they remember your lip; or the ruby colour of your lip reappears in the bloody tears shed in grief.)

4. Ever since my heart became a reed flute (ney) to the harp of grief, together with the kanun, my breast has become a rebab and accompanies it. (The heart laments like the ney and the breast joins in like the rebab; "çeng" means both a musical instrument and a claw, so the heart has also fallen into the clutches of grief.)

5. Adlî, if you are wise, see that you abandon it; this ruined realm is bound to abandon you anyway, let it go.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has five couplets and is written in the hezec metre "mef‘ûlü mefâ‘îlü mefâ‘îlü fe‘ûlün". The rhyme rests on the sound "-âb" and the redif (refrain word) on the accusative suffix (-ı): kitâbı, bâbı, hisâbı, şarâbı, rübâbı, harâbı. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. It stands as no. 136 in Bayram's edition; according to the edition it belongs to the "Harfü'l-yâ" section of the divan. It is found in all five manuscripts (OR 33a, T 42a, M1 42b-43a, M2 33b, İBB 23a). The variants are limited: OR reads "gamı" instead of "gam ile" in the third couplet, OR and İBB read "yine" instead of "sîne" in the fourth, and OR reads "zübâbı" instead of "rübâbı" in the same couplet. In his 2008 article on the spelling of the British Library manuscript of the divan (OR), Bayram also gives the word "perîşânlıġumuzdan" from the second couplet of this ghazal as an example of how the suffix "-lık" is written. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet addresses a teacher, a "hâce". The words hâce, kitâb (book) and bâb (chapter) evoke the setting of the madrasa and create a congruence of images (tenasüp). Love is a book, but a "muglak" one, that is, in its dictionary sense, obscure and hard to understand. The word "bâb" occurs twice in the second line and in two senses: "bâbuñ degül" means "it is not your business, it is beyond you"; "bu bâbı ko" means leave this chapter of the book, leave this subject. The learned man's knowledge is not enough to solve love; the familiar opposition in divan poetry between reason and learning on the one hand and love on the other is turned here into a classroom scene.

In the second couplet the word "perîşân", mentioned together with the hair, carries two senses at once: the hair is dishevelled, and the lover's state is distraught. The lover may forget, in his own disorder, the torment the hair has caused, but he asks the beloved not to forget this account. By leaving the reckoning to the beloved, the couplet says the lover is in no state even to count his own pain.

In the third couplet the word "la‘l" plays the key role. La‘l, in its dictionary sense, is a red precious stone; in divan poetry it is also used for the lip and for red wine. Wine, lip and bloody tears meet in the same colour; for this reason the couplet cannot be tied to a single definite meaning. OR's reading "gamı" also changes the construction of the sentence slightly.

The fourth couplet is built like a musical gathering. The words nây (ney, reed flute), çeng (harp), kānûn (kanun, zither), rübâb (rebab) and dem-sâz (in its dictionary sense, accompanying, sounding in harmony) form a congruence of images with the names of instruments. There is a tevriye (double entendre) in the word "çeng": in its dictionary sense it means both a harp-like instrument and a claw, so the heart has both become a ney accompanying the instrument of grief and fallen into the clutches of grief. "Kānûn", too, in its dictionary sense means both an instrument and a rule or method. The ney corresponds to the lamenting heart and the rebab to the breast that joins in the lament. OR's reading "zübâb" (in its dictionary sense, a fly) does not fit this series of instruments; the edition has preferred "rübâb".

In the last couplet the word "terk" (abandoning) occurs twice. The poet advises himself to abandon the ruined realm, since that realm is bound to abandon him anyway. "Milk-i harâb", in its dictionary sense, means a ruined property or realm; the couplet does not say plainly whether this is the world or the heart laid waste by love. That the poet who gives himself this advice was the master of a vast realm lends the couplet a weight of its own.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2018, p. 174, poem no. 136 (manuscript information in the footnote on the same page).
  • Yavuz Bayram, "Sultan İkinci Bâyezîd-i Velî (Adlî) Dîvânı'nın British Library Nüshasında İmlâ Husûsiyetleri", Turkish Studies 3/6 (Fall 2008), pp. 109-142 (spelling of the suffix -lık, p. 122).

Online sources