Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātün mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātün

Dīdāre ṭālib olan olmaz cināne muḥtāc
Cānāne iḥtiyāc it gel olma cāne muḥtāc
Ḳaşuñla kirpügüñden ḳatlüme ġamze besdür
Şemşīrzenler olmaz tīr ü kemāne muḥtāc
Ol āftābuñ itsem ḫāk-i derinde mesken
Bir ẕerre olmaz idüm ḳaṣr-ı cināne muḥtāc
Çün mā-cerā bilindi başuñdan itme taḳrīr
Ol nesne kim ‘ayāndur olmaz beyāne muḥtāc
‘Adlī nigāre ḥālüñ ‘arż it niyāz birle
Dervīş olanlar olur şāh-ı cihāne muḥtāc

In English

1. One who longs to see the beloved's face has no need of the gardens of paradise; come, be in need of the beloved, and do not be in need of your soul (your own life).

2. To slay me there is no need of your eyebrow and your lash; your glance (gamze) is enough; swordsmen have no need of arrow and bow. (The eyebrow is likened to a bow, the lash to an arrow, and the languid glance to a sword.)

3. Were I to make my dwelling in the dust at the door of that sun, I, a mote, would not need the palace of paradise in the least. ("Bir ẕerre" refers both to the lover as a mote of dust dancing in a sunbeam and to the sense "not a whit, not in the least".)

4. Since your story is already known from what has befallen you, do not recount it; a thing that is plain to see needs no explaining.

5. Adlî, lay your state before the beloved with entreaty; those who are dervishes are in need of the king of the world.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets. Its metre is the aruz (quantitative metre) pattern "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātün mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātün"; because the pattern repeats itself, the line is divided into two equal halves in the middle. The redif (refrain word) is "muḥtāc" (in need of), and the rhyme is the "-āne" sound of "cināne, cāne, kemāne, beyāne, cihāne"; the rhyme word "cināne" is used twice, in the first and third couplets. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is number 14 in Bayram's edition; it is found in the OR, T, M1 and M2 manuscripts and is absent from İBB. It is not known to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is built on who is in need of what, and who is in need of nothing. In each couplet the redif weighs a relation of need, and in most of them it declares something unnecessary. In the last couplet, however, need is admitted, and the ghazal closes with an entreaty.

The first couplet is woven with sound play. The words "cinān" (gardens of paradise), "cān" (soul) and "cānān" (beloved) carry very similar sounds; this closeness also carries the thought of the couplet. One who wants to see the beloved's face has no need of paradise; the lover, therefore, should not cling to his soul, that is, his own life, but should be in need of the beloved alone. The word "dīdār" means face, or the sight of a face, and in religious language also denotes the vision of God's beauty; the couplet can therefore be read both as a word of human love and as the word of a Sufi who longs to see God more than paradise.

In the second couplet the features of the beloved's beauty are each a weapon. The eyebrow is a bow, the lash an arrow, and the glance (gamze) a sword. To slay the lover there is no need of eyebrow and lash, the glance is enough; for one who wields a sword needs no arrow and bow. In the first line eyebrow and lash are named in that order, and in the second their counterparts, arrow and bow, come in reverse order (lash-arrow, eyebrow-bow). Naming in one line the counterparts of things listed in another is called leff ü neşr in divan poetry. The second line supports the verdict of the first with a truth everyone would accept.

The third couplet rests on the relation between the sun and the mote. The beloved is the sun; the lover, like a mote of dust dancing in a sunbeam, lives in the dust at her door. The expression "bir ẕerre olmaz idüm" carries two meanings: "I, being a mote, would not be in need" and "I would not be in need in the least". These two sides of the word form a double entendre (tevriye); there is also a congruence of images (tenasüp) among sun, mote and dust. The dust at the beloved's door is held above the palace of paradise, and the thought of the first couplet is repeated in a new image.

The fourth couplet comes close to the phrasing of a proverb: "Ol nesne kim ‘ayāndur olmaz beyāne muḥtāc", a thing that is plain needs no explaining. The words "‘ayān" (plain, visible) and "beyān" (explanation) stand side by side. What has befallen the lover is already known, and there is no need to tell it. In the T manuscript "yaşuñdan" (from your tears) is read in place of "başuñdan" (from what has befallen you); with this reading the lover's story is understood from his tears, and the couplet gains a more concrete image. In the M1 and M2 manuscripts "oldı" is read in place of "itme", and the line becomes a statement instead of a prohibition.

In the last couplet the poet addresses himself: he must lay his state before the beloved with entreaty, for dervishes are in need of the king of the world. Here the beloved is "şāh-ı cihān" (king of the world) and the lover a dervish. For the lover to call himself a dervish and the beloved a king is common in divan poetry; in this couplet, however, the poet who calls himself a dervish in need of a king was in reality a king of the world. Paradise, which is not needed in the first couplet of the ghazal, gives way in the last to the need felt for the beloved. "Olma" in the first couplet appears in T as "itme", and "derinde" (at her door) in the third couplet appears in M1 as "derdinde" (in her pain).

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2018, p. 52, poem no. 14; manuscript variants in the footnotes on the same page.

Online sources