Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Şol gedā kim dil-berini kendüye ġam-ḫᵛār ider
Yeg durur ol şāhdan kim yāri andan ‘ār ider
Her ne deñlü yolına ṣaçdum gözüm gevherlerin
Mā’il olmaz ṣanasın cān naḳdini iş‘ār ider
Çeşm-i zaḫmı baġrumı çāk eyledi ol kāfirüñ
Bir Müselmān yoḳ mı ‘ālemde baña tīmār ider
Zülfüñüñ zünnārına bil baġlamaz īmānı yoḳ
Zāhid anuñçün günāhın bilüp istiġfār ider
Şeş-der-i hicrāna düşdi Ka‘beteyn-i cān u dil
Nerd-i ġamze ol maḳāmı pīşe-i bīzār ider
Ẓulmet-i hicrüñde bilmez ‘adl ü ẓulmin ‘ālemüñ
Ol ḳadar kim ‘Adli'yi zülfüñ ġamı efkār ider

In English

1. A beggar who has made his beloved the companion of his sorrows is better than a king whose beloved is ashamed of him.

2. However many pearls of my eyes (my tears) I scatter on the beloved's path, the beloved does not turn to me; it is as if the beloved were letting me know that the price asked is the coin of the soul.

3. The wound opened by that infidel's eye has torn my breast; is there no Muslim in the world who will dress my wound and care for me?

4. One who does not bind his waist with the zünnar of your curls has no faith; that is why even the ascetic recognises his sin and asks forgiveness. (The zünnar is the cord girdle worn by Christian priests, and in divan poetry it is likened to the beloved's hair.)

5. Soul and heart, like two dice, have fallen into the şeşder of separation; the backgammon played by the glance makes that place the lot of the weary and disgusted. (Ka‘beteyn evokes both "two dice" and "two Kaabas"; the şeşder in backgammon is a block of six closed points that leaves no way out. The second line is written very differently in the manuscripts, and its meaning is uncertain.)

6. In the darkness of separation from you one can no longer tell the world's justice from its injustice; so deeply does the sorrow of your curls sink Adlî in brooding thoughts.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a ghazal (gazel) of six couplets. The redif (refrain word) is "ider" (makes, does), and the rhyme is the sound "-âr": gam-hâr, ‘âr, iş‘âr, tîmâr, istiğfâr, bîzâr, efkâr. The metre is the remel pattern "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The ghazal is found in the OR, T, M1 and M2 manuscripts and not in İBB. Its situation in the manuscripts is complicated: according to Yavuz Bayram's footnotes, the first four couplets are absent from M1 and M2, while in M2 the fifth and sixth couplets stand under the heading "kıt‘alar" (fragments). The complete six-couplet form of the ghazal rests on the OR and T manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

The second line of the fifth couplet differs markedly between the manuscripts. The text of the edition is "Nerd-i gamze ol makâmı pîşe-i bîzâr ider"; M1 and T read "Nerd-i gamda ol makâm-ı pîşe-bîni zâr ider", and M2 "Nerd-i gamda ol harâmî pîşe-bîni zâr ider". In these latter readings the backgammon belongs to sorrow instead of the glance. The other variants are minor: T has "gûyiyâ" in place of "sanasın" in the second couplet and "zulmüñ" in place of "zulmin" in the sixth; M1 has "inkâr" in place of "efkâr" in the last couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is built on the contrast between king and beggar. A beggar whose beloved shares his sorrows is better than a king whose beloved is ashamed of him. The relation of king and servant that is frequent in Adlî's poems here becomes a statement of judgement: in love, what determines worth is nearness to the beloved. Because the one who says this was himself a sultan, the couplet gains a meaning of its own.

The third and fourth couplets work with the antithesis between faith and unbelief. The beloved is an "infidel" because he shows the lover no pity; the lover seeks a "Muslim" who will dress his wound and heal him. The word "tîmâr" in this couplet means tending and dressing a wound; the same word is also the name of the land grant given to a cavalryman (sipahi) in the Ottoman order. In the fourth couplet the zünnar, the girdle of priests, is likened to the beloved's hair. The poet reverses the familiar order: whoever does not bind himself to the beloved's zünnar has no faith, and that is why even the ascetic understands his sin and repents. The idiom "bel bağlamak" means both to tie a girdle round the waist and to put one's trust in something.

The fifth couplet uses the terms of backgammon (nerd). "Ka‘beteyn" denotes two dice and at the same time evokes "two Kaabas"; soul and heart are the two holy places towards which the lover turns. "Şeş-der" is the block of six closed points in backgammon that leaves no way out; soul and heart are trapped in the şeşder of separation. The words nerd, ka‘b and şeş-der form a tenasüp (congruence of images). The meaning of the second line remains uncertain because of the manuscript variants.

In the last couplet the meaning of the pen name (mahlas) enters the wordplay. "‘Adl ü zulm", justice and injustice, stands in the same couplet as the pen name "‘Adlî". Latîfî writes that Bayezid took the pen name "‘Adlî" because in matters of justice he was like Khosrow (Kisrâ). In the couplet, however, the lover who has fallen into the darkness of separation can no longer tell justice from injustice; the poet who bears the name of justice has lost this distinction through the sorrow of the beloved's curls. That "zulmet" (darkness) and "zulm" (injustice) come from the same root, together with the darkness of the curls, strengthens the inner connections of the couplet.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018, p. 59, poem no. 21 (manuscript variants in the footnotes on p. 59); introduction p. 11, note 46 (Latîfî's explanation of the pen name "‘Adlî"). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr