Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün

Sünbülüñ sāye ṣalar üstine berk-i semenüñ
Devr ider dā’ire-i verd-i teri yāsemenüñ
Çīn-i zülfine gelür būy alur uġrı diyü
Ṣaldılar ḥabse ṭutup ḳahr ile miskin ḫutenüñ
Çünki vīrāneleri eylerimiş cāy perī
Sen perīsin n'ola göñlüm olur ise vaṭanuñ
Ṣaldı pertev yüzüñ eflāke çün iy bedr-i münīr
‘Aks-i ḫurşīd ü ḳamer oldı o vech-i ḥasenüñ
Gūş şīrīn-suḫanuñ işidür ammā ne ‘aceb
Gözlerüm diḳḳat idüp görmedi hergiz dehenüñ
Çīn idüp ḫalḳaların murġ-ı dili itmege ṣayd
Gül-i ter üzre ṣalar dāmeni müşgīn resenüñ
Ḥaşre dek derd ü ġamın cān u dilüñ itmege şerḫ
Sīneñ üzre dil ola ‘Adli biten her çemenüñ

In English

1. Your hyacinth (your hair) casts its shadow over the jasmine petal (your white skin); your jasmine (your skin) circles round the ring of the fresh rose (your cheek). (The couplet can be understood in this way: the white skin encircles the red cheek on every side. OR reads "dûr" for "devr", and T "tarî" for "teri".)

2. Saying that it came to the curl of your locks and took its scent, they seized the musk of Khotan as a thief and threw it into prison with wrath. (Khotan is, according to the dictionaries, a Central Asian city known for its musk deer. The word "miskin" can be read both as "the musk of Khotan" and as "wretched"; T reads "müşgin", "musk-scented". The keeping of musk in a pouch may have been imagined as imprisonment.)

3. Since fairies, they say, make ruins their dwelling, and you are a fairy, what wonder if my heart becomes your homeland? (The lover's heart is a ruin laid waste by love.)

4. O shining full moon, ever since your face cast its light upon the heavens, the sun and the moon have become the reflection of that fair face. (OR and İBB read "nûr" for "pertev" (light), and M1 and M2 "çü" for "çün".)

5. The ear hears your sweet speech, but how strange that my eyes, though they looked closely, have never seen your mouth. (In divan poetry the beloved's mouth is so small that it is counted as invisible.)

6. Your musk-scented lasso (your hair), coiling its rings to hunt the bird of the heart, lets its hem fall over the fresh rose (your cheek). (The manuscripts differ in this line: T reads "dâmen-i müşgîn", M1 "dâmen-i miskîn", İBB and M2 "miskîn" or "o miskîn".)

7. Adlî, to recount the pain and grief of your soul and heart until the Day of Resurrection, let every blade of grass that grows upon your breast be a tongue. (The couplet can be understood in this way: after the lover's death, even the grass growing on his grave, over his breast, will tell of his pain. T reads "haşrda" for "haşre dek", M1 and M2 "gama" for "gamın", and T "gamuñ".)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has seven couplets and is written in the remel pattern "fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is the suffix "-üñ / -uñ" (your), and the rhyme is the sound "-en": semen, yâsemen, Huten, vatan, hasen, dehen, resen and çemen. Most of the rhyme words come from the world of the garden and of scent. In the edition the ghazal is found in all five manuscripts (OR, T, M1, M2, İBB) and stands in the section of the divan for refrains ending in the letter "kef". The manuscript variants in this ghazal are many; in particular, the second line of the sixth couplet is read a little differently in each manuscript and wavers between "müşgîn" (musk-scented) and "miskîn" (wretched). Since the two words are written very much alike, this divergence is not surprising. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens with a garden picture. The hair is likened to the hyacinth, the skin to jasmine, the cheek to the fresh rose; with these flower names the beloved's face is drawn from beginning to end as a metaphor. "Semen" and "yâsemen" are, in their dictionary sense, names of the same flower, jasmine, and they are heard side by side at the ends of the two lines. In the second couplet the word "Çîn" means both curl and the land of China; Khotan, according to the dictionaries, is the Central Asian city known for its musk deer. The musk that steals scent from the curl of the locks is therefore taken for a thief and thrown into prison. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among Çîn, Huten and musk. The possibility of drawing the word "miskin" toward both musk and wretchedness adds a double entendre (tevriye) to the couplet.

The third couplet rests on the belief that fairies live in ruins. The beloved is a fairy; the lover's heart is a ruin laid waste by love. For this reason it is not surprising that the beloved should settle in the heart. The couplet is an example of hüsn-i talil: the poet ties a state of affairs not to its real cause but to a fair and imaginary one. In the fourth couplet the beloved is a shining full moon, and this face has cast its light upon the heavens. The sun and the moon are only the reflection of this face. There is a congruence of images among bedr (full moon), hurşîd (sun), kamer (moon) and eflâk (the heavens).

The fifth couplet builds the motif of the tiny mouth through the senses. The ear hears the beloved's sweet words, but however closely the eye looks, it cannot see the mouth. The antithesis between ear and eye, hearing and seeing, carries the meaning of the couplet. In the sixth couplet the hair turns into a lasso (resen). Coiling its rings to hunt the bird of the heart, it lets its hem fall over the rose of the cheek. There is a congruence of images among lasso, ring, bird and hunt; the sound of "dâm" (snare) heard within the word "dâmen" (hem) also suits the hunting scene.

The closing couplet carries the garden world of the ghazal to the grave. Adlî's pain is so great that it must be told until the Day of Resurrection; for this, every blade of grass that grows upon his breast must become a tongue. In the couplet the word "dil" is used in two different senses: in the first line it is Persian "heart", in the second Turkish "tongue". The use of the same sound in two senses is a perfect pun (cinas). Read together with the hyacinth, jasmine and rose at the beginning of the ghazal, the grass growing upon the breast carries the garden image through to the end of the poem.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2018, p. 93, poem no. 55 (manuscript variants in the footnote on p. 93).

Online sources