Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün

Bize bir ḳāmeti nihāl gerek
Bize bir kaşları hilāl gerek
Meh gibi kem cemāli neyleyelüm
Bize bir mihr-i bī-zevāl gerek
Āl ile degme dil-ber almaz dil
Zülfi ḳara yañaġı al gerek
Ṭūṭi gibi şeker-efşān oluban
Leb-i la‘lini ḫoş-maḳāl gerek
Levḥ-i dilden ġubārı maḥv içün
Ḫaṭṭ-ı reyḥānı bī-mis̱āl gerek
‘Āşıḳuñ ḳāmetin ḫam itdügine
Ser-i zülfini aña dal gerek
Bili vaṣfında ḳıl yarar olsañ
‘Adliyā incerek ḫayāl gerek

In English

1. We need a beauty whose stature is a sapling; we need a beauty whose brows are crescent moons.

2. What shall we do with a beauty that wanes like the moon? We need a sun that never sets. (The moon waxes and wanes, so its beauty is deficient; the sun's light is whole.)

3. Not every charmer can win a heart by guile; the hair must be black and the cheek red.

4. Scattering sugar like a parrot, the ruby lip must be sweet of speech.

5. To wipe the dust from the tablet of the heart, the basil-like down of the face must be beyond compare. (Hat means the fine down on the face; the same word also means script. Details are in the commentary.)

6. That he has bent the lover's stature, the tip of his curl must be a "dâl" to it. (The couplet can be read in two ways: the curling lock is the proof that he has bent the lover's stature; or the tip of the curl resembles the curved Arabic letter dâl and becomes the sign of the bent stature.)

7. O Adlî, even if you are equal to a thought as fine as a hair in describing his waist, a still finer fancy is needed. (The beloved's waist is thinner than a hair; describing it calls for a fancy finer than a hair.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has seven couplets and is written in the hafif pattern "fe‘ilâtün mefâ‘ilün fe‘ilün"; with its short lines and the repeated "bize bir" (we need a…), it is a fluent poem. The redif (refrain word) is "gerek" (is needed, must be), and the rhyme is the sound "-âl": nihâl, hilâl, bî-zevâl, al, hoş-makâl, bî-misâl, dal, hayâl. According to Bayram's apparatus the ghazal is found in all five manuscripts (OR, T, M1, M2, İBB), and the edition records no variants. 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 poem lists, part by part, the beauty the lover desires: stature, brow, face, hair, cheek, lip, facial down, curl and waist. Enumerating the beloved's features in this way is common in divan poetry; here the redif "gerek" following each item gives the poem the air of a list of wishes. In the opening couplet the stature is likened to a sapling (nihâl) and the brow to the crescent moon. The second couplet compares the moon and the sun: because the moon wanes and fills again, its beauty is "kem", deficient; the lover wants a sun that never sets (mihr-i bî-zevâl). In its dictionary sense the same word also means "evil", but the main sense in the couplet is deficiency.

The third couplet is built on a play of sounds. "Âl" in the first line means guile, "al" in the second means red; the verb "almaz" (does not win) carries the same sound. This paronomasia (cinas) says that the beloved cannot win the heart by guile, only with black hair and a red cheek. In the fourth couplet the beloved's speech is likened to the parrot (tûtî) scattering sugar. In divan poetry the parrot is associated with sugar and is a symbol of sweet, skilful speech.

The fifth couplet is woven from words taken from the art of calligraphy. In their dictionary senses "levh" is a tablet for writing, "gubâr" is dust, "hat" is both script and the fine down on the face; "reyhânî" means resembling basil, and there is also a style of script known by the same name. Gubâr is likewise known as the name of a minute script. The couplet can thus be read on two levels: the fine down on the beloved's face wipes the sorrow from the tablet of the lover's heart; at the same time, congruence of images (tenasüp) based on calligraphy is created among tablet, dust, script and reyhânî. According to Bayram's introduction, Bayezid took an interest in calligraphy through Şeyh Hamdullah during his post in Amasya and received lessons in calligraphy from him. There is, however, no source that links this couplet to the poet's own calligraphy.

In the sixth couplet the word "dal" is the Arabic letter dâl, known for its curved shape. In another ghazal of the divan (poem 69, couplet 2) the curl is also likened to the letter dâl. In its dictionary sense "dâl" also means "indicating, pointing to". Two meanings are therefore interwoven in the couplet: the curved tip of the lock is the proof that it has bent the lover's stature, and the bent stature in turn resembles the letter dâl. The closing couplet speaks of the difficulty of describing the beloved's slender waist. "İncerek" means finer; the waist is thinner even than a hair, and describing it calls for a fancy finer than a hair. The congruence of images among hair, fine and fancy, together with the sapling stature of the opening couplet, brings the beloved's slenderness to the fore.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2018, p. 97, poem no. 59 (manuscript information in the footnote on p. 97; calligraphy lessons from Şeyh Hamdullah in the introduction, pp. 15 and 25; for the comparison of the curl to the letter dâl, p. 107, poem no. 69).

Online sources