Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Var iken tende benüm rūḥ-ı revānumdan es̱er
Ḥamdülillāh bir daḫı ḳıldum cemālüñe naẓar
Ḫākümüñ her ẕerresi raḳṣ ura yārüñ mihrile
Ger ide zülfi nesīmi ḳabrüm üstine güẕer
Öykünürse zülfüñe sünbül siyeh rūlıḳ idüp
Beñzerem dirse lebüñe kellelik eyler şeker
Seyr iderken ḥüsn ilin çeşminden iy dil ki ṣaḳın
Eylemek lāzım durur çünkim ḥarāmīden ḥaẕer
Āteş-i āhum yaḳar her gice şem‘i ṣubḥa dek
Bülbüli nālān ider feryād u āhum her seḥer
Eyledüm dilde ḫayāl-i çeşmüñe baġrum kebāb
Dōstum ma‘ẕūr ola ḫayrü'ṭ-ṭa‘ām-ı mā-ḥażar
Gözlerinden ‘Adli-i dil-ḫastenüñ şevḳ-i lebüñ
Dāġ-ı ḥasretle döker yaş yirine ḫūn-ı ciger

In English

1. While some trace of my departing soul still remained in my body, praise be to God, I looked upon your beauty once more.

2. Should the breeze from the beloved's curls pass over my grave, every mote of my dust would dance with love for the beloved (with the beloved's sun). (Mihr means both "love" and "sun"; the image is of motes of dust playing in a sunbeam.)

3. If the hyacinth imitates your curls, it only blackens its own face (disgraces itself); if sugar says "I resemble your lip", it is being insolent. (The dark colour of the hyacinth is tied to the phrase "siyeh-rû", and the name "kelle" given to sugar in loaves to the word "kellelik", insolence.)

4. O heart, as you travel through the land of beauty, beware of his eye; for one must be on guard against a highway robber.

5. The fire of my sighs burns the candle every night until morning; my cries and sighs set the nightingale lamenting every dawn.

6. In my heart I roasted my liver for the image of your eye; my friend, forgive me, the best food is whatever is at hand. (The lover offers the guest who comes to him as an image whatever he has, namely his burnt liver.)

7. From the eyes of heartsick Adlî, longing for your lip, with the wound of yearning, pours liver's blood instead of tears.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a ghazal (gazel) of seven couplets. It is written in the remel pattern "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". It has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme rests on the sounds "-er/-ar": eser, nazar, güzer, şeker, hazer, seher, hazar, ciger. The ghazal is found in the OR, T, M1 and M2 manuscripts and not in İBB. Yavuz Bayram's footnotes record only two variants, both in the third couplet: M1 has "revnak" (brilliance, show) in place of "rûlık", and M1 and M2 have "ider" in place of "idüp". To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens with the thanks of a lover close to death who has seen the beloved one last time. The "hamdülillâh" (praise be to God) of the first couplet gives this gratitude in the plain language of prayer and prepares the ground for the images of death, the grave and the burnt liver in the rest of the poem. In the second couplet the lover is already in his grave; yet if the wind of the curls should pass over it, the motes of his dust will dance. There is tenasüp (congruence of images) between "zerre" (mote) and "mihr": in the older poetry the motes of dust whirling in sunlight are imagined as motes in love with the sun. Because "mihr" means both sun and love, the couplet also carries a tevriye (double entendre).

The third couplet builds two similes in reverse. Even if the hyacinth wished to be likened to the curls and sugar to the lip, the likeness would only make them ridiculous; the beloved's beauty admits no comparison. Two plays on words stand out here. "Siyeh-rû" means both dark-coloured and black-faced, that is, disgraced, and suits the dark colour of the hyacinth. "Kellelik" means defiance, not knowing one's place, but the fact that sugar in loaf form is called "kelle" ties the word to sugar.

In the fourth couplet beauty is a country, and the beloved's eye a robber who waylays travellers in it; the heart is warned as a traveller on this road. In the fifth couplet the lover's sigh acts on the candle and his cry on the nightingale: the candle burns all night, the nightingale sings at dawn. The lover presents his own pain as the cause of the behaviour of these two traditional figures of the lover; this is a hüsn-i ta‘lîl (fanciful aetiology). The sixth couplet is the most striking place in the ghazal. The phrase "hayrü't-ta‘âmı mâ hazar" in the second line is an Arabic saying meaning "the best food is what is at hand". The lover makes a guest of the beloved's eye, which comes to him as an image, and serves it roasted liver; the saying, spoken by way of apology, expresses the modest hospitality of a host. In this way the best-known image of the pain of love, "bağrı kebap olmak" (to have one's liver roasted), is turned into a scene at table. In the couplet with the pen name (mahlas) liver's blood takes the place of tears; "dâğ-ı hasret" (the wound of yearning) and "hûn-ı ciger" (liver's blood) close the image of the burnt liver that has run through the ghazal from the beginning.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018, p. 60, poem no. 22 (manuscript variants in the footnote on p. 60). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr