Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

‘Araḳ belürse ruḫuñda gül-āb-ı terden yeg
Ḥalāveti lebünüñ şehd ile şekerden yeg
Senüñ içün didiler ‘āşıḳını ḳatl eyler
Daḫı ne ola cihān içre bu ḫaberden yeg
Çü söze başlayasın la‘l-i nābile ne ola
Ki gūş-ı cāna irişmege bu dürerden yeg
Gözüñ marīżine la‘l-i lebüñle eyle ‘ilāc
Ki ḫaste olana olmaya gül-şekerden yeg
N'olaydı ‘Adli'ye bir ẕerre deñlü meyl itseñ
Çü rūşen oldı yüzüñ şems ile ḳamerden yeg

In English

1. If sweat appears on your cheek, it is better than fresh rose water; the sweetness of your lip is better than honey and sugar.

2. They said of you, "He kills his lover"; what in the world could be better than this news? (For the lover, dying at the beloved's hand is the greatest happiness. Manuscript OR reads "abandons" instead of "kills".)

3. When you begin to speak with your pure ruby lip, what could be better than these pearls for reaching the ear of the soul? (The beloved's words are like pearls; the couplet also suggests the words touching the ear of the soul like an earring.)

4. Cure the one your eye has made sick with your ruby lip; for to the sick there is nothing better than gülşeker. (Gülşeker is a sweet made of rose petals and sugar and given to the sick.)

5. What harm if you showed Adlî a mote's worth of favour; for it has become plain that your face is better than the sun and the moon.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has five couplets and is written in the müctes pattern "mefâ‘ilün fe‘ilâtün mefâ‘ilün fe‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "-den yeg" (better than), and the rhyme is the sound "-er": ter, şeker, haber, dürer, gülşeker, kamer. According to Bayram's 2008 article on spelling, "yeg" means "preferable, better" in Old Anatolian Turkish; the redif sets up a comparison in every couplet and ranks something belonging to the beloved above the most precious things in the world. According to Bayram's apparatus the ghazal is found in all five manuscripts (OR, T, M1, M2, İBB). OR reads "terk" for "ḳatl", and T reads "yüzin" for "yüzüñ". 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 ghazal is from beginning to end a ranking of superiority. In the opening couplet the sweat on the beloved's cheek is held above fresh rose water, and the taste of the lip above honey and sugar. Since the cheek is likened to the rose in divan poetry, sweat appearing on it calls up rose water; there is congruence of images (tenasüp) among rose, rose water and cheek. In the second line sweetness is compared with honey and sugar.

The second couplet describes the lover's seemingly strange joy. The news that the beloved kills his lover is for the lover the best news in the world, because dying at the beloved's hand means nearness to him. This is a familiar idea in divan poetry expressing the lover's readiness to sacrifice himself for the beloved. The reading "abandons" in manuscript OR changes the meaning of the couplet: the news found gladdening is then the news that the lover will be abandoned, and the couplet carries a more bitter irony.

In the third couplet speech is likened to pearls. In their dictionary senses "dürer" means pearls and "la‘l-i nâb" pure, shining ruby, which in divan poetry describes the red lip. When the beloved begins to speak with the ruby lip, pearls pour from the mouth; these pearls reach the ear of the soul. The connection between ear and pearl also suggests the image of an earring. The phrase "ne ola" in the first line of the couplet stands between question and wish, and the couplet cannot be read with full clarity; the rendering has therefore been given in the form of a question.

The fourth couplet treats the motif of illness and cure. The beloved's eye is "sick"; the languid, half-closed eye counts as beauty in divan poetry, and the lover on whom this eye looks also falls sick. The poet asks the beloved to cure with his lip the lover whom his eye has made sick. Gülşeker is a paste made of rose petals and sugar and, in its dictionary sense, is known as a sweet medicine given to the sick. The red and sweet lip matches both the colour and the taste of gülşeker. The words eye, sick, cure and gülşeker create congruence of images.

The closing couplet sets the mote against the sun. Adlî asks the beloved for a mote's worth of interest. The mote, visible in sunlight, is thought of in divan poetry as the lover of the sun; here the mote is the lover, and the face brighter than the sun and moon is the beloved. This comparison also occurs in the second couplet of Ghazal 58.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2018, p. 100, poem no. 62 (manuscript information in the footnote on p. 100).
  • 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 "yeg", pp. 129-130).

Online sources