Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Göñlümi dīvāne ḳılan zülf-i pür-sevdāsıdur
Cānumı pervāne iden şem‘-i bezm-ārāsıdur
Ḳabrüm üzre serv diküñ şem‘ yaḳuñ dōstlar
Çün beni ḫāk eyleyen şevḳ-ı ruḫ u bālāsıdur
Gül yüziyle ẕevḳ u şādīnüñ birin on eyleyen
Gülsitān-ı ḥüsn içinde ḳāmet-i ra‘nāsıdur
Zīnet olmaz gülsitān içinde gül açılmasa
Kūyına revnaḳ viren yārüñ ruḫ-ı zībāsıdur
Tāze ‘āşıḳ tāze dīvāne mes̱el meşhūrdur
Gitdi Ferhād ile Mecnūn ‘ışḳumuñ ġavġāsıdur
‘Adliyā ḥükmüñ anuñçün nāfiẕ oldı ‘āleme
Yazılan ‘unvānda yārüñ ḳaşı ṭuġrāsıdur

In English

1. What drives my heart mad is the beloved's curl, full of passion; what makes my soul a moth is the candle that adorns the gathering (the face that shines like a candle).

2. Friends, plant a cypress on my grave and light a candle there; for what has turned me to dust is my longing for the beloved's cheek and stature. (The cypress recalls the stature, the candle the cheek.)

3. What, with its rose face, turns every single delight and joy into ten is that graceful stature in the rose garden of beauty.

4. A rose garden has no adornment if no rose opens in it; and what lends brilliance to the beloved's street is the beloved's lovely cheek.

5. "A new lover, a new madman" is a well-known saying. Ferhad and Mecnun are gone; the quarrel now is the quarrel of my love.

6. Adlî, this is why your command holds throughout the world: the tuğra (imperial monogram) at the head of what is written is the beloved's eyebrow.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has six couplets and is written in the remel pattern "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is the suffix "-sıdur" ("it is his/her …"), and the rhyme is the sound "-â": sevdâ, ârâ, bâlâ, ra‘nâ, zîbâ, gavgâ, tugrâ. In the edition it rests on the OR, T, M1 and M2 manuscripts. The İBB manuscript begins with the last couplet of this ghazal alone, which means the earlier part of the poem is missing there. The variants fall in the opening and closing couplets: OR has "bezm-âsâ" for "bezm-ârâ" (adorning the gathering); in the makta, OR reads "gelmeñ" and İBB "kilemüñ" for "hükmün". To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet places two well-known images side by side. The curl drives the heart mad; the word "sevdâ" means, in its dictionary sense, both passionate love and blackness, black bile, which is why it suits the dark curl. In the second line the beloved's face is a candle lighting the gathering, and the lover's soul is the moth that circles it and burns. In the second couplet the lover thinks of his own grave and asks his friends to plant a cypress on it and light a candle. The cypress recalls the beloved's stature, the candle the cheek; in the second line of the couplet the same pair comes in reverse order, first cheek and then stature. Naming words in one line and giving their counterparts in the other is called leff ü neşr; since the order is changed here, it is of the irregular (gayr-i müretteb) kind.

The third and fourth couplets are built around the rose garden. The beloved's rose face multiplies joy tenfold, and the graceful stature is the ornament of the garden of beauty. The word "ra‘nâ" means, in its dictionary sense, "graceful, lovely"; the same name, again according to the dictionaries, also denotes a two-coloured variety of rose, so within the rose garden it opens onto both senses at once. The fourth couplet moves by comparison: a garden where no rose opens is left unadorned, and what makes the beloved's street shine is the beloved's cheek. In the fifth couplet the poet cites the saying "tâze âşık, tâze dîvâne" (a new lover, a new madman) and counts as past the two famous heroes of love stories, Ferhad, lover of Şirin, and Mecnun, lover of Leylâ. The quarrel of love now on everyone's lips is his own.

The makta is one of the couplets in which Adlî reverses the relation between servant and king, and here the irony truly lies in the text. Addressing himself, the poet gives the reason why his command holds across the world: the tuğra at the head of the written title is the beloved's eyebrow. The tuğra is the sultan's monogram drawn at the head of his decrees; "unvan" means, in its dictionary sense, the heading of a document, the top part of a decree. A likeness of shape is drawn between the arched eyebrow and the curving tuğra. That a ruler whose decrees really did go forth under his tuğra should tie the power of his command to the beloved's eyebrow is a witticism that places the sultanate at the service of love. Bayram, who says that the divan contains more than forty couplets pointing to the poet's identity as sultan, left the list of those couplets to a section not printed in the e-book; whether this makta is on that list is therefore not known.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2018, p. 68, poem no. 30 (manuscript variants in the footnote on p. 68); on the couplets pointing to the sultan's identity, introduction, p. 13.

Online sources