Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün

Her ṣubḥ güneş gelse ḳapuña ‘aceb olmaz
Ma‘ẕūr ola iy şeh ki gedāda edeb olmaz
‘Uşşāḳa müjeñ tīrini her dem ne çekersin
İy rūḥ-ı revān çünki melekde ġażab olmaz
Cān āfeti çeşmüñ gibi ḫūn-rīz bulınmaz
Dil uġrısı ḫālüñ gibi düzd-i ‘Arab olmaz
Göñlüm evini yıḳalı ‘ālemde ṣafā yoḳ
Bir ḫāne ki vīrān ola ‘ayş u ṭarab olmaz
Sidre'yle boyuñ nisbetini ṣorana Cibrīl
Ḳaddüñ gibi dir ṭoġrısı ‘ālī-neseb olmaz
Rıḍvān lebüñi görse diye bāġ-ı cinānda
Bunuñ gibi şīrīn-ter ü rengīn ruṭab olmaz
Kūyından anuñ sür ki raḳībi göre ‘Adlī
Cennet'de eger itse mekān Bū-Leheb olmaz

In English

1. If the sun comes to your door every morning, it is no wonder. My king, forgive it; a beggar has no manners. (The morning light striking the door is likened to a beggar coming to the same door every morning.)

2. My soul, why are you forever drawing the arrow of your eyelashes at the lovers? For there is no anger in an angel.

3. As a bane to the soul, none sheds blood like your eye; and as a thief of hearts, there is no Arab thief like your beauty spot. (The black beauty spot is called an "Arab" because of its colour.)

4. Since you pulled down the house of my heart there has been no joy in the world; in a ruined house there is no revelry or delight. (M1 and M2 read "in my soul" in place of "in the world"; the couplet is absent from T.)

5. If anyone asked Gabriel how your stature compares with the Sidre, he would say: "Truly, nothing is as high-born as your stature."

6. If Rıdvan saw your lips, he would say: "In the garden of Paradise there is no fresh date sweeter or more richly coloured than this."

7. Adlî, wherever you see the rival, drive him from the beloved's street; for if Abu Lahab were to take a place in Paradise, it would not do. (T, M1 and M2 read "gide" for "göre" and "‘ayān" for "eger": "it would not do for Abu Lahab openly to take a place in Paradise.")

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has seven couplets and is written in the hezec pattern "mef‘ûlü mefâ‘îlü mefâ‘îlü fe‘ûlün". The redif (refrain word), as in the preceding ghazal, is "olmaz"; the rhyme is the sound "-eb": ‘aceb, edeb, gazab, ‘Arab, tarab, neseb, rutab, Bû-Leheb. In the edition it is found in all five manuscripts (OR, T, M1, M2, İBB); T lacks the fourth couplet. The variants fall in the fourth couplet (M1 and M2 "cânumda" for "‘âlemde"), the fifth (M1 "‘âleme" for "‘âlî"), the sixth (OR "cinândan" for "cinânda") and the makta. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is built on the familiar relation between king and beggar. The beloved is the "şeh", the king; and the sun is a beggar who comes to the beloved's door every morning. The first light of morning striking the door is thus likened to a beggar knocking at the same door every day, and the poet apologizes to the beloved for the sun's persistence: one does not look for manners in a beggar. To count even the sun as a beggar at the beloved's door is an exaggeration (mübalağa) that sets the beloved's beauty above the sun. That the beloved is called "king" in the couplet carries the irony often seen in Adlî's poems, since the man who wrote the poem really was a ruler.

In the second couplet the eyelashes are arrows, and the beloved draws them at the lovers every moment. The lover finds this contrary to the beloved's nature: the beloved is like an angel, and in an angel there is no anger. In the third couplet two similar images stand side by side. The eye, as a bane to the soul, is a shedder of blood; the black beauty spot is a thief who steals hearts. The beauty spot is called an "Arab" because of its blackness; "düzd-i ‘Arab" means, in its dictionary sense, "Arab thief", that is, a desert brigand who robs on the road, and in the couplet it joins the beauty spot's colour to its thievery. In the fourth couplet the heart is a house, and since the beloved pulled it down there has been no joy left in the world; in a ruined house there is no delight.

The fifth and sixth couplets measure the beloved's beauty against Paradise and the heavens. The Sidre is, in its dictionary sense, the Sidretü'l-müntehâ, the tree held to stand at the furthest boundary of the heavens. Were Gabriel asked to compare this tree with the beloved's stature, even he would rank the stature higher. The word "togrısı" means both "truly, in truth" and "that which is perfectly straight", and forms a double entendre (tevriye) pointing to the straight, tall stature; the "‘âlî" (high) in "‘âlî-neseb" (high-born) also recalls the height of the stature. In the sixth couplet Rıdvan, the keeper of Paradise, compares the beloved's lips with the dates in the garden of Paradise; "rutab" means, in its dictionary sense, a ripe, fresh date.

The makta ends with a harsh judgement on the rival. The beloved's street is Paradise; the rival is likened to Abu Lahab, who is named in the Qur'an and known for his hostility to Islam. Since Abu Lahab can have no place in Paradise, the rival too must be driven from that street. The religious frame built from the fifth couplet onward with the words Paradise, Rıdvan, Sidre and Gabriel continues into the makta and binds the last three couplets of the ghazal together.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2018, p. 71, poem no. 33 (manuscript variants in the footnote on p. 71).

Online sources