Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Dil dilendi derd ile derdā yine dil-dārsuz
Yārelendi yüregüm vā ḥasretā kim yārsuz
‘Aşḳınuñ bīmārıyam dārü'l-belā-i ġamda ḳor
Ol ṭabīb-i cān u dil ben ḥastei tīmārsuz
Ṭūṭi-i ḳudsem velī iy ḫᵛāce-i Hindūstān
Lāl olupdur nāṭıḳam ol la‘l-i şekker-bārsuz
Şīşe-i nāmūsumı ‘aşḳuñda çaldum ṭaşlara
Bu mes̱eldür dōstum ‘āşıḳ gerekdür ‘ārsuz
Eşk-i çeşmi ‘Adli'nüñ her dem revān olmaġiçün
Bir ḳadem ṣalınmaz ol serv-i revān aġyārsuz

In English

1. The heart was cut to pieces by pain, alas, once again without the beloved; my heart was wounded, sadly, without the friend. (The first word can be read in two ways: if "dilendi" is taken as "was sliced, was cut", it matches "was wounded" in the second line; if taken as "to beg", it means "the heart became a beggar through pain".)

2. I am the patient of your love; (love) leaves me in the abode of grief's affliction. That one is the physician of soul and heart; and I am a patient left untended. ("Dârü'l-belâ", the abode of affliction, recalls "dârü'ş-şifâ", the word for a hospital.)

3. I am the parrot of the holy realm; but, master of Hindustan, without that sugar-raining ruby lip my speaking tongue has been struck dumb.

4. In your love I dashed the flask of my honour against the stones; my friend, this is a well-known saying: a lover must be shameless.

5. So that Adlî's tears may flow every moment, that swaying cypress (the beloved) does not take a single swaying step without the rivals.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has five couplets and is written in the remel pattern "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is the suffix "-suz" (-less, without), and the rhyme is the sound "-âr": dil-dâr, yâr, tîmâr, şekker-bâr, ‘âr, agyâr. Five couplets is the number regarded as the lower limit of the ghazal. In the edition this ghazal rests solely on folio 45a of the T manuscript; it is absent from OR, İBB, M1 and M2. Although the neighbouring ghazals stand in T between folios 10b and 12a, this poem is on a much later folio of the manuscript. Since it rests on a single manuscript there is no reading to compare; unusual spellings such as "hastei" in the second couplet have also been left as they are in the edition. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is woven from sound repetitions. In the sequence "Dil dilendi derd ile derdâ … dil-dâr" the d sound, and in the pair "yârelendi … yâr" the y sound and the same stem, are repeated; this is an instance of iştikak (words of a shared root) and alliteration, resting on the repetition of sounds and words. The closeness between "yârelendi" (was wounded) and "yâr" (beloved) forms a pun (cinas): the heart is wounded because it is left without the beloved. In the second couplet the lover is the patient of love, and the beloved the physician of soul and heart. But the physician does not care for his patient; the lover is left "tîmârsuz", untended. The phrase "dârü'l-belâ" (abode of affliction) is built as the opposite of "dârü'ş-şifâ", the word for a hospital: an abode that gives affliction instead of cure.

The third couplet rests on the relation between the parrot and sugar in divan poetry. The parrot is made to speak with sugar; and in divan poetry Hindustan is named as the land of both the parrot and sugar. The lover describes himself as "the parrot of the holy realm", that is, a being whose gift of speech comes from the heavens; but when the sugar-scattering lip, the beloved, is not with him, his tongue is struck dumb. The sound likeness between "lâl" (mute) and "la‘l" (red precious stone, lip) is a pun (cinas). The address "master of Hindustan" is evidently directed at the beloved, who is pictured as the parrot's owner.

In the fourth couplet the expression "to dash the flask of honour against the stone" means, in its dictionary sense, to give up one's good name and standing, to accept disgrace. The lover says he has done this for love and defends himself with a saying: a lover must be "‘ârsuz", shameless. The type of lover who accepts reproach recalls the idea of melâmet (seeking blame). In the makta the word "revân" is used in two senses: for tears to be "revân" is to flow, for the cypress to be "revân" is to walk. The beloved never takes a step without the rivals; the poet interprets this as if it were done so that his own tears would never stop. This is hüsn-i ta‘lîl, the figure that sets aside the real cause and finds a poetic one for an event.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2018, p. 72, poem no. 34 (manuscript information in the footnote on p. 72).

Online sources