Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Şems-i ruḫuñı eylemege şemse-i ġarrā
Çekdi ḳalem-i ḳudret aña ḫaṭṭ-ı semen-sā
Ḫaddüñ varaḳına yazılan ḫaṭṭ-ı ġubāruñ
Ḫoş virdi yüzüñ safḥasına zīnet-i zībā
Ṣan sūre-i İncīl idi ḫaṭṭuñ ki yazıldı
Göstermek içün la‘l-i lebüñ mu‘ciz-i ‘Îsā
Reyḥān ḫaṭuñı yazduġı bu kātib-i ḳudret
Tā āyet-i ḥaḳ ola cemālüñde hüveydā
Cān menzili olmaġa revāyiḥle mu‘aṭṭar
Müşgīn ṣaçuña oldı maḥal cennet-i ‘ulyā
Çün bāġ-ı behişt oldı benefşeyle müzeyyen
Gülzār-ı ruḫuñ olsa n'ola ḫaṭṭuña me’vā
Mecnūn olalı Leyli-i zülfüñ hevesinde
Sevdā-yı ḫaṭuñ itdi mekān ‘Adli'ye saḥrā

In English

1. To make the sun of your face into a radiant şemse, the pen of Divine Power drew around it a jasmine-scented line. (The şemse is the sun-shaped ornament used on book covers and in illumination. "Hat" means both writing and the down on the cheek; the face is likened to an illuminated page, and the down to a line drawn around it. The M2 manuscript reads "yazdı" (wrote) instead of "çekdi" (drew).)

2. The gubâr script written on the leaf of your cheek has given the page of your face a fine and lovely adornment. (Gubâr is the name of a calligraphic script written in letters as fine as specks of dust; since the word also means "dust", it points to the fine down on the cheek.)

3. It was as if the down on your cheek were a sura of the Gospel, written to display the miracle of Jesus in your ruby lips. (Jesus is known for raising the dead; the beloved's lips, which give life to the lover, are likened to the breath of Jesus. The red lips are compared to ruby, the down to the writing of the Gospel, the book of Jesus.)

4. This Scribe of Power wrote your reyhânî script so that the sign of God might be plainly visible in your beauty. (Reyhânî means both basil-scented and greenish and is also the name of a calligraphic script. The OR manuscript reads "âyine-i hak" (the mirror of God) instead of "âyet-i hak" (the sign, or verse, of God).)

5. So that the dwelling of the soul might be perfumed with sweet scents, the highest Paradise became the place of your musk-scented hair. (The couplet can be read in two ways: the place of the hair is the highest Paradise, that is, above the paradise-like face; or even the highest Paradise has become a lodging for the hair. The OR manuscript reads "miskîn" instead of "müşgîn".)

6. Since the garden of Paradise has been adorned with violets, what wonder if the rose garden of your cheek becomes a home for the down? (The greenish down is likened to violets, the red cheek to a rose garden.)

7. Ever since Adlî became a Majnun in longing for the Layla of your locks, his passion for the down on your cheek has made the desert his dwelling. (In the story of Layla and Majnun, Majnun loses his mind for love and wanders into the deserts. "Sevdâ" means both passionate love and the colour black; the dark down and love meet in the same word.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a ghazal (gazel) of seven couplets. The metre is the "mef‘ûlü mefâ‘îlü mefâ‘îlü fe‘ûlün" pattern of the hezec family of aruz (quantitative metre). The ghazal has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is built on the sound "-â": ġarrā, semen-sā, zībā, ‘Īsā, hüveydā, ‘ulyā, me’vā, ṣaḥrā. Most of the rhyme words are Arabic and Persian, and the long "â" gives each couplet an open, broad close.

The ghazal stands fifth in the edition and belongs to the section of ghazals ending in the letter elif. It is found in the OR, T and M2 manuscripts and is absent from M1 and İBB. In M2 the 2nd and 6th couplets are missing; in T the 5th and 6th couplets appear in reversed order. There is no record of to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

All the couplets of this ghazal turn around a single subject: the down on the beloved's cheek, called "hat" in divan poetry. Because the word means both "writing" and "down", the poet is able to describe the beloved's face like the page of a book. In the first couplet the face is likened to a şemse and the down to a line drawn by the pen of Divine Power. In the second couplet the cheek becomes a "varak" (leaf, page) and the face a "safha" (page), and the down is written in gubâr, the finest of calligraphic scripts. In the fourth couplet the script is named reyhânî, and its writer is the "kâtib-i kudret", that is, God. The congruence of images (tenasüp) among the words kalem (pen), hat, varak, safha, gubâr, sûre, âyet, kâtib and reyhânî weaves the ghazal from beginning to end in the language of a calligrapher's workshop.

Religious allusions are added to this image of writing. In the third couplet the down is likened to a sura of the Gospel, and it is said to have been written to display the miracle of Jesus in the lips. The idea that Jesus raised the dead and that the beloved's lips likewise give life to the lover is very common in divan poetry; here the word "la‘l" (ruby) conveys the redness of the lips, and "mu‘ciz-i ‘Îsâ" their life-giving power. In the fourth couplet the beloved's beauty is a script displaying the sign of God, that is, the mark of His power. In the reading "âyine-i hak" of the OR manuscript, the face becomes a mirror in which God appears. In both readings beauty is seen as the sign of the one who created it.

In the fifth and sixth couplets the imagery moves from writing to the garden. The musk-scented hair finds its place in Paradise; the down is likened to the violets that adorn the garden of Paradise and makes its home in the rose garden of the cheek. The contrast between rose and violet, between red and a dark greenish hue, describes the down on the cheek in terms of colour. The question "n'ola" (what wonder is it?) in the sixth couplet is a formula often used in divan poetry to say that something is just as it should be.

The closing couplet alludes to the story of Layla and Majnun. The beloved's locks are likened to Layla; because the name "Layla" is related in Arabic to the word for "night", it suits dark hair well. The poet, who has become a Majnun for love of the locks, has wandered into the deserts out of passion for the down. The word "sevdâ" recalls passionate love, the colour black, and, in old medicine, the black bile that drives a person to madness; for this reason there is a strong bond among the words Mecnun (Majnun), sahrâ (desert) and sevdâ.

According to Bayram's introduction, Bayezid took calligraphy lessons from the famous calligrapher Şeyh Hamdullah while he was governor (sancakbeyi) in Amasya. That the ghazal is built entirely on the terms of the art of writing is striking in the light of this information. However, since the date of the ghazal is unknown, no direct link can be drawn between the two.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018, p. 43, poem no. 5; introduction p. 16 (calligraphy lessons from Şeyh Hamdullah). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr