Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ārzū-yı cān u dil cānā viṣālüñdür senüñ
Görinen her laḥẓada gözde ḫayālüñdür senüñ
Rūz u şeb devr eyleyüp yiryüzini pür-nūr iden
Ay ile gün pertevi ‘aks-i cemālüñdür senüñ
Tīr-i āhum her nefes eflāke irgüren benüm
Ḳaşlaruñ yāyın ḳurup ‘arż-ı hilālüñdür senüñ
Dōstum ‘öẕrin diler beñzer dimişler ḥüsnüñe
İzüñe yüzin sürer gün pāy-mālüñdür senüñ
Gözlerüñ ḫançer çeküp her laḥẓa ḳanlar dökdügi
Fitne-i āḫir-zamānsın mekr ü ālüñdür senüñ
Bedr olup gün yüzine ḳarşu iñen lāf urma kim
Eyde iy meh bir gice ḥüsn-i kemālüñdür senüñ
Ol meh-i bedrüñ bilin ‘Adlī der-āġūş eylemek
Her gice tā ṣubḥa dek fikr-i muḥālüñdür senüñ

In English

1. O beloved, the desire of soul and heart is union with you; what appears in the eye at every moment is your image.

2. The light of the moon and the sun, which turn night and day and fill the face of the earth with light, is the reflection of your beauty.

3. What sends the arrow of my sigh up to the heavens with every breath is your drawing the bow of your brows and displaying your crescent.

4. My friend, they said the sun resembles your beauty; the sun begs pardon for it and rubs its face on your footprint; it is now a thing trampled beneath your feet.

5. Your eyes drawing daggers and shedding blood at every moment show that you are the turmoil of the end of time; this is your guile and your trickery.

6. O moon, do not boast too much when you become full against his sun-like face; for the perfection of your beauty lasts one night in a month. (The word "eyde" appears as "k'ide" in manuscript T; the text can be understood here in the sense of "one night in a month".)

7. O Adlî, to embrace the waist of that full moon is an impossible fancy you think of every night until morning.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has seven couplets and is written in the remel pattern "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "-üñdür senüñ", and the rhyme is the sound "-âl": visâl, hayâl, cemâl, hilâl, pây-mâl, âl, kemâl, muhâl. In the redif the second-person possessive suffix and the word "senüñ" (your) follow one another, and in every couplet the speech is turned back to the beloved. According to Bayram's apparatus the ghazal is found in all five manuscripts (OR, T, M1, M2, İBB), but the variants are many: OR and İBB read "cāvidān" (eternal) for "cān u dil"; T, M1 and M2 read "āhın" for "āhum", "izin sürer" for "‘öẕrin diler", and "mekr-i ḫālüñdür" (the guile of your mole) for "mekr ü ālüñdür"; OR reads "sürerken" and T "sürdigün" for "sürer gün"; T reads "k'ide" for "eyde"; and İBB reads "bilmez" for "bilin". 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 main subject of the ghazal is the contest between the beloved's face and the moon and sun. In the opening couplet union and image stand opposite each other: the lover's desire is union, but what stands before his eyes at every moment is only the beloved's image. In the second couplet the light of the moon and sun that turn night and day is counted as the "aks", the mirrored reflection, of the beloved's beauty. This idea, which says that the heavenly bodies take their light from the beloved, is a fanciful aetiology (hüsn-i talil).

The third couplet uses the terms of archery. The brow is likened to a bow and the sigh to an arrow: whenever the beloved draws the bow of the brows and shows the crescent, the lover's sigh rises like an arrow to the heavens. There is congruence of images (tenasüp) among arrow, bow, brow and crescent; the crescent calls up both the shape of the brow and the sky, and is tied to the sigh reaching the heavens. The fourth couplet personifies the sun. When it is said that the sun resembles the beloved's beauty, the sun is ashamed, begs pardon and rubs its face on the beloved's footprint. In its dictionary sense "pây-mâl" means trampled underfoot. There are many variants in this couplet and the reading is not certain; the rendering above follows the text of the edition.

In the fifth couplet the beloved's eyes are warriors who draw daggers and shed blood. The beloved is called "fitne-i âhir-zamân", the great turmoil expected to appear near the end of the world. In divan poetry the fair one setting people against each other with eyes and glances is a frequently used motif. "Mekr ü âl" means guile and deceit; the reading "mekr-i hâl" in T, M1 and M2 instead lays the mischief on the mole on the beloved's face.

The sixth couplet addresses the moon and tells it not to boast. When the moon is full it swaggers before the sun-faced beloved, but its perfect beauty lasts only one night in a month. According to Bayram's 2008 article on spelling, "iñen" means "very, much, more" in Old Anatolian Turkish; the phrase "iñen lāf urma" in the line therefore means "do not boast too much". There is congruence of images among moon, sun and night; the moon's one-night perfection is compared with the beloved's never-waning beauty. This idea recalls the wish, in Ghazal 59, for a sun that never sets in place of the moon's "kem", deficient, beauty.

The closing couplet joins the moon image with the motif of the slender waist. The beloved is "meh-i bedr", the full moon, and the lover thinks every night until morning of embracing that waist. In divan poetry the beloved's waist is so slender as to be almost nonexistent; embracing it is therefore "muhâl", impossible. The words night, morning and full moon carry the ghazal's heavenly images through to the end.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2018, p. 99, poem no. 61 (manuscript information in the footnote on p. 99).
  • Yavuz Bayram, "Sultan İkinci Bâyezîd-i Velî (Adlî) Dîvânı'nın British Library Nüshasında İmlâ Husûsiyetleri", Turkish Studies 3/6 (Fall 2008), pp. 109-142 (meaning of "iñen", p. 129).

Online sources