Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün

Ciger tennūr sīnemde dem olmaz kim kebāb olmaz
Gün olmaz rūz-ı hicrüñde gözüm yaşı şarāb olmaz
Göñülde seng-i cevrüñle dilüm bir ḫāneyidi kim
Devām-ı devr-i çarḫ ile zevāl irüp ḫarāb olmaz
Dirīġ itme lebüñ būsın nigārā ḫaste dillerden
Kim anuñ rūz-ı maḥşerde s̱evābına ḥisāb olmaz
Neye ḳılsa naẓar çeşmüm ḫayālüñ görinür anda
Dü ‘ālem ḥā’il olursa ḫayālüñe ḥicāb olmaz
Gözüm yaşı işigüñe gider her laḥẓa sā’ildür
Niçün ebvāb-ı şefḳatden aña bir fetḥ-i bāb olmaz
Ṣatarsañ leblerüñ la‘lin behā cānlar virüp dirler
Cihān içinde bī-ḳıymet bu renge la‘l-i nāb olmaz
Firāḳ odına kūyuñda nigārā ‘Adli'yi yaḳma
Buyurdı çünki Peyġamber behişt içre ‘aẕāb olmaz

In English

1. In my breast my liver is an oven; there is no moment when it is not roasting. In the time of separation there is no day when the tears of my eye are not wine. (Bloody tears are likened to wine; İBB reads "in the gathering of separation" in place of "in the day of separation".)

2. My heart was a house built in the heart with the stones of your cruelty, such that while the turning of the heavens goes on no decline reaches it and it does not fall to ruin. (The couplet is obscure. T, M1 and M2 read "your grief" in place of "my heart"; with this reading the sense becomes "Your grief was a house built in the heart with the stones of cruelty, such that…")

3. Beauty, do not withhold the kiss of your lips from those whose hearts are sick; for on the Day of Judgement there will be no reckoning of its reward (it is beyond counting).

4. Whatever my eye looks at, your image appears there; even if both worlds came between, they could not be a veil to your image.

5. The tears of my eye are a beggar who goes to your threshold every moment; why is no door of compassion opened to them?

6. If you were to sell the ruby of your lips, people would give their lives as the price and say: in the world a pure ruby of this colour does not come cheap. (The couplet can be read in two ways: if "bî-kıymet" is taken as "worthless", it reads thus; if it is taken as "priceless", it means "in the world there is no other priceless pure ruby of this colour".)

7. Beauty, do not burn Adlî in the fire of separation in your street; for the Prophet declared: there is no torment in Paradise.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has seven couplets and is written in the hezec pattern "mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün". The redif (refrain word) is "olmaz", and the rhyme is the sound "-âb": kebâb, şarâb, harâb, hisâb, hicâb, bâb, nâb, ‘azâb. In the edition it is found in all five manuscripts (OR, T, M1, M2, İBB), though T lacks the fifth couplet and omits the word "Peygamber" (Prophet) in the last couplet. Variants are frequent in this ghazal. In the second couplet T, M1 and M2 read "gamun" for "dilüm", İBB reads "mürûr-ı" and OR "o dâma" for "devâm-ı"; in the sixth couplet T reads "satar senün" and OR and İBB "sunarsan" for "satarsan", OR and İBB read "diller" for "cânlar", and T reads "nûruna" for "bu renge". To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet describes the havoc separation wreaks on the lover's body in the vocabulary of the kitchen and the drinking gathering. The breast is an oven, and the liver roasts in it without pause; the bloody tears flowing from the eye are wine. Roast meat and wine are named together in divan poetry as the two basic elements of the gathering; here the gathering's provisions are the lover's own liver and tears. The second couplet is the most obscure in the ghazal. With the edition's reading "dilüm", the heart is a house built of the stones of cruelty that time cannot pull down; with the reading "gamun" found in most manuscripts, the house that has settled in the heart is the grief the beloved gives. In both readings the stones do not destroy the house but strengthen it; the lover's pain does not wear out with time.

The third couplet plays with a religious vocabulary. A kiss from the beloved's lips is like alms given to the sick, and its reward will be too great for reckoning on the Day of Resurrection. In the fourth couplet image and veil (hicâb) stand face to face: even if both worlds, this world and the next, came between, they could not hide the beloved's image. In the fifth couplet the tears are a beggar going from door to door. The word "sâ'il" means, in its dictionary sense, both "begging, asking" and "flowing"; these two senses, both fitting for tears, form a double entendre (tevriye) in the couplet. There is also a congruence of images (tenasüp) between door (bâb) and "fetḥ-i bâb" (the opening of a door).

In the sixth couplet the beloved's lip is a ruby, a red precious stone; those who wish to buy it give their lives as the price. "Nâb" means, in its dictionary sense, "pure, unmixed"; the redness of the ruby recalls the colour of the bloody tears likened to wine in the opening couplet. In the makta the beloved's street is counted as Paradise; by recalling that the Prophet declared there would be no torment in Paradise, the burning of the lover there in the fire of separation is shown to go against that ruling. The poet defends his own case before the beloved like someone claiming his right on the strength of a ruling. The couplet does not specify which report the saying it relies on comes from.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2018, p. 70, poem no. 32 (manuscript variants in the footnote on p. 70).

Online sources