Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ruḫlaruñ şem‘i virür nūrını şems ü ḳamerüñ
Yüzüñüñ şevḳıyile ẓulmeti gider seḥerüñ
Ol mehüñ mihr-i cemāline muḳābil olıcaḳ
İy güneş olmayısar ẕerrece senüñ es̱erüñ
Dil ü cāndan yoluña ḫāk oluram işideli
Kīmyā eylerimiş ḫāke olursa naẓaruñ
Rāh-ı ‘ışḳa ḳademüñ baṣma göñül olmazsa
Arḳaña ḫırḳa-i ġam bilde ḳanā‘at kemerüñ
Görine gözlerine gün gibi gündüzde şehā
Ḳanġı a‘māya k'ide küḥl-i cilā ḫāk-i derüñ
Çīn-i zülfi ḳoḫusın almasañ iy nāfe-i Çīn
Misk olup bulmaz idi raġbeti ḫūn-ı cigerüñ
‘Adli şi‘r ü ġazeli terk idüben defteri dür
Çünki şerḥ olmaz imiş ḥaşre degin derd-i serüñ

In English

1. The candle of your cheeks gives its light to the sun and the moon; through the radiance of your face the darkness of dawn departs. (The couplet can be read in two ways: "şevk" can be taken here as light, radiance, or as longing for your face.)

2. O sun, when you stand facing the sun-like beauty of that moon-faced one, not a speck of a trace of you will remain.

3. Ever since I heard that your glance, if it falls on earth, turns it into the elixir, I have become with heart and soul the dust of your path. (The elixir, kîmyâ, is the substance believed to turn earth and copper into gold.)

4. O heart, do not set foot on the path of love unless you wear the cloak of grief on your back and the belt of contentment round your waist.

5. O king, whichever blind man the dust of your door serves as a brightening kohl, to his eyes all will appear like the sun in daylight.

6. O musk pod of China, had you not caught the scent of the beloved's curling locks, the blood of your liver would not have become musk and won such esteem. (It was believed that the blood collecting in the pod at the navel of the musk deer turned into musk.)

7. Adlî, give up poetry and the ghazal and roll up your notebook; for the ache in your head, it seems, could not be told in full even until the Day of Judgement.

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 rhyme is the sound "-er" (kamer, seher, eser, nazar, kemer, der, ciger, ser); the suffix "-üñ" that follows it serves as the redif (refrain word). According to Bayram's apparatus the ghazal is found in all five manuscripts (OR, T, M1, M2, İBB). The variants cluster in the third and fifth couplets: M1 and M2 read "cāna" for "ḫāke", İBB reads "irürse" for "olursa"; M1 and M2 read "günden de" for "gündüzde"; M2 reads "ola" and M1 "k'ola" for "k'ide". In the edition it stands in the section of poems ending in the letter kef (Ḥarfü'l-kâf). To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first two couplets of the ghazal are built on light. In the opening couplet the beloved's cheeks are a candle, and the sun and moon take their light from that candle; the source of the lights of heaven becomes the beloved's face. This is a fanciful aetiology (hüsn-i talil) that ranks the beloved above the lights of the sky: the shining of the sun and moon is detached from its real cause and tied to the beloved. The second couplet addresses the sun. Before the beloved's beauty not "a speck" of the sun's trace will remain. The pairing of the sun and the mote is a familiar one in divan poetry, since motes in the air become visible in sunlight; here, however, the sun itself is reduced to less than a mote. The moon (meh) and the sun (mihr) are used together for the beloved's face and create congruence of images (tenasüp) between the two couplets.

The third couplet contains the image of alchemy. In its dictionary sense "kîmyâ" is the elixir that turns base metal or earth into gold. The lover has heard that the beloved's glance turns earth into the elixir, and so he has become the dust of the beloved's path; a single glance will make him precious too. The fourth couplet addresses the heart and describes the path of love as if it were a dervish path. The cloak (hırka) and the belt (kemer) are parts of the dress of a Sufi order; the poet makes the cloak of grief and the belt of contentment. Whoever sets out on the path of love must shoulder grief and know how to be content with little.

In the fifth couplet the beloved is addressed as "şehâ", "O king". The dust of the beloved's door becomes kohl for the eyes and makes even the blindest eye see daylight as bright as the sun. In its dictionary sense "kühl" is kohl, which was believed to brighten and strengthen the eyes. That the poet, himself a ruler, calls the beloved a king and longs to put the dust of his threshold on his eyes is an irony often met in Adlî's poems. In the sixth couplet the word "Çîn" is used in two different senses: in "Çîn-i zülf" it means curl or fold, in "nâfe-i Çîn" the country of China. This paronomasia (cinas) carries the musk image of the couplet. The nâfe is the musk pod at the navel of the musk deer, and musk was thought to be blood in origin. The poet reverses the source of the scent: the musk of China has won its value from the scent of the beloved's locks.

The closing couplet ends with advice the poet gives himself. Adlî should give up poetry and the ghazal and roll up his notebook and put it away, for the ache in his head could not be told in full even until the Day of Judgement. "Rolling up the notebook" means giving up a task. In its dictionary sense "şerh" means explaining, writing a commentary; there is congruence of images among poetry, ghazal, notebook and commentary. The impossibility of telling the pain is expressed through the vow to give up poetry itself.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2018, p. 96, poem no. 58 (manuscript information in the footnote on p. 96).

Online sources