Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

‘Ārıżuñ hicrinde çünkim eyleyem gül-geşt-i bāġ
Lālenüñ baġrında ḳoyam dāġınuñ üstine dāġ
Ẓulmet-i zülfüñde yüzüñ nūrın ister cān u dil
Cem‘ olur pervāneler her gice kim yansa çerāġ
Āstānuñda sifāl-i seglerüñle mey içüp
Cām-ı Cem'den taḫt-ı Keykāvūs'dan itdüm ferāġ
Bī-baṣardur nūr-ı ḥüsn-i yāri zāhid göremez
Būy-ı ‘ışḳı nice idrāk ide ḫuşk olan dimāġ
Ḫār-ı hicrān ile ḫūy eyle hemān kim ṭutdılar
Gülşen-i kūyın nigāruñ ‘Adliyā būm ile zāġ

In English

1. When, in separation from your cheek, I go out to walk among the roses of the garden, I lay a further wound upon the scar in the breast of the tulip. (The dark spot at the centre of the tulip is likened to a wound branded with fire.)

2. Soul and heart seek the light of your face within the darkness of your curls; every night, when a lamp is lit, the moths gather round it.

3. Drinking wine at your threshold from the earthen bowl of your dogs, I renounced both the cup of Cem and the throne of Keykâvus.

4. The ascetic is blind and cannot see the light of the beloved's beauty; how could one whose brain is dry perceive the scent of love?

5. Adlî, grow used to the thorn of separation, for the owl and the crow have taken over the rose garden of the beloved's street. (These birds, held to be of ill omen, stand for 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". It has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is the sound "-âġ": bâġ, dâġ, çerâġ, ferâġ, dimâġ, zâġ. In the opening couplet both lines rhyme, and the word "dâġ" is used twice in the second line. In the edition the ghazal is found in all five manuscripts (OR, T, M1, M2, İBB) and opens the section of the divan for refrains ending in the letter "gayn". The third couplet is missing from the M2 manuscript; no other manuscript variant is recorded. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens and closes with images of the garden. In the opening couplet the lover, parted from the beloved's cheek, goes to the rose garden but finds no consolation there; when he sees the dark spot at the centre of the tulip he is reminded of his own wound and lays another wound over that spot. "Dâġ" means, in its dictionary sense, both the scar of a wound made with a red-hot iron and a stain; this is why the dark centre of the tulip is seen in divan poetry as a burnt heart. The second couplet rests on the antithesis (tezat) between night and light. The darkness of the curls is the night, the light of the face the lamp burning in that night; soul and heart are the moths circling the lamp. The moth (pervane) is the night insect that flies towards the light and at last burns in it; it expresses the lover's self-destruction for the beloved's sake.

The third couplet is the most striking place in the ghazal. At the beloved's threshold the lover drinks wine from the earthen bowl from which the beloved's dogs drink, and in exchange renounces the cup of Cem and the throne of Keykâvus. According to the dictionaries, Cem is the ruler held in Iranian legend to be the owner of the world-revealing cup; Keykâvus too is one of the legendary shahs of Iran. The most worthless vessel and the most precious cup, the dust of the threshold and a ruler's throne, are set against each other; the antithesis carries the whole meaning of the couplet. The irony frequent in Adlî's poems is plainly present here: the lover who says he has renounced the throne is in reality a prince or a sultan. The couplet can therefore also be read as a ruler's view of his own throne, but there is no information linking it to a particular period.

The fourth couplet treats the familiar figure of the zahid (ascetic) in divan poetry. The zahid is the pious man bound to outward rules and closed to love. The poet calls him blind and "dry-brained". "Dimâġ" means, in its dictionary sense, both the brain and the sense of smell; this is why "dry brain" and "the scent of love" meet in the same line. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between seeing and smelling, light and scent. The closing couplet takes the ghazal back to the garden: the owl and the crow have taken over the rose garden in the beloved's street, that is, the rivals have taken the nightingale's place there. The poet counsels himself to grow used to the thorn of separation. The opposition between rose and thorn, between nightingale and owl and crow, is felt in the couplet without being stated.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2018, p. 84, poem no. 46 (manuscript variants in the footnote on p. 84).

Online sources