Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ger müyesser ide ṭāli‘ zülfüñe hemserligi
Başa iletür cihān içinde ol serverligi
Gül firāḳında gül öksüzi geçer bülbül velī
Āteşüm kār eylese göreydi ḫākisterligi
İy viṣāl ehli mey-i vaḥdet içeñ zer cām ile
Bezm-i miḥnetde sifāl eyler bize sāġarligi
Gözlerüm yaşından alur ebr-i bārān dökmegi
Lāleye ḫūnīn ciger ta‘līm ider micmerligi
Tācverler senden ögrensün efendi begligi
Bendeler ‘Adlī'den ögrensün gelüp çākerligi

In English

1. If fortune granted me to be head to head with your tress, that headship (leadership) in the world would be carried to completion. ("Hem-ser", in its dictionary sense, means companion, equal, one who is head to head; "server" means head, leader. The couplet counts closeness to the beloved's tress as the highest headship; its exact meaning is not certain.)

2. The nightingale spends its days as the rose's orphan in separation from the rose; but if my fire took hold of it, it would see what it is to become ash. (What the nightingale suffers is little beside what the lover suffers.)

3. O people of union, drink the wine of oneness from golden cups; in our gathering of suffering a potsherd serves us as a goblet.

4. The rain cloud learns its pouring from the tears of my eyes; the bloody liver teaches the tulip to be a censer. (The red of the tulip and its black centre must be likened to a censer with embers burning inside; the source of the likeness is the lover's bloody liver.)

5. Let crowned rulers learn lordship from you, my master; and let servants come and learn servitude from Adlî. (The couplet can also be read as "let them learn the lordship of a master from you".)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has five couplets and is written in the remel metre "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The rhyme rests on the sound "-er" and the redif (refrain word) on the suffix "-ligi": hemserligi, serverligi, hâkisterligi, sâgarligi, micmerligi, çâkerligi. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. It stands as no. 139 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 33b, T 43a, M1 43b, M2 34a-34b, İBB 23b); the first line of the third couplet is missing in OR. The main variants are these: in the first couplet T reads "iletür rûy-ı" and OR, İBB and M1 read "iletürdi"; T has "göreydi ol" in the second couplet; M1 and M2 read "ebr ü bârân" instead of "ebr-i bârân" in the fourth. In his 2008 article on the spelling of the British Library manuscript of the divan (OR), Bayram, showing that the letter kef is kept when a suffix beginning with a vowel follows the suffix "-lik", also gives the words "hemserligi", "sâgarligi" and "micmerligi" from this ghazal as examples. This is why the redif is written "-ligi" rather than "-lığı" as in today's pronunciation. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The redif of the ghazal carries in every couplet a noun formed with "-lik", that is, a state, a rank or a function: companionship, leadership, turning to ash, serving as a goblet, being a censer, lordship and servitude. This redif turns the ghazal into a kind of ranking of "who learns what from whom"; especially in the last two couplets the verbs "ta‘lîm itmek" (to teach) and "ögrenmek" (to learn) come to the fore.

In the opening couplet the word "ser" (head) is played on in three forms: "hem-ser" (one who is head to head, companion), "server" (leader) and the idiom "başa iletmek" (to carry to completion, literally to bring to the head). A congruence of images (tenasüp) is created among these words, and the couplet presents closeness to the beloved's tress as the highest degree of leadership in the world. Since the different readings in the manuscripts slightly alter the construction of the line, the meaning of the couplet is not fully settled.

In the second couplet the motif of the rose and the nightingale is turned in the lover's favour. Parted from the rose, the nightingale becomes "the rose's orphan", but this pain cannot be compared with the fire inside the lover; if that fire touched the nightingale it would turn it to ash. There is a congruence of images between "âteş" (fire) and "hâkister" (ash). In the third couplet those who have attained union and those who endure suffering face each other. The contrast between "zer câm" (golden cup) and "sifâl" (in its dictionary sense, an earthen vessel, a potsherd) shows the difference between the two gatherings. "Mey-i vahdet" is, in its dictionary sense, the wine of oneness; it can also be read as an expression for union with God in Sufism.

The fourth couplet is built of two instances of hüsn-i ta‘lîl (poetic aetiology, an imagined cause). The rain cloud has learned its pouring from the lover's tears; the red of the tulip, too, is a "censer-hood" learned from the lover's bloody liver. "Micmer", in its dictionary sense, is a censer, the vessel in which fragrant substances are burned.

The last couplet openly carries the irony often found in Adlî's poems. Crowned heads, that is, rulers, should learn lordship from the beloved, and servants should learn servitude from Adlî. The contrast between "tâcver" (crowned) and "bende" (servant), between "beglik" (lordship) and "çâkerlik" (servitude), is the mainstay of the couplet. The man who wrote these words was himself a crowned ruler; the couplet places him not among the rulers but as the teacher of servants.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2018, p. 177, poem no. 139 (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 -lik, p. 122).

Online sources