Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

‘Āşıḳuñ ‘ışḳ yolında gözi nemnāk gerek
Dāmen-i ‘ışḳa yapışan yaḳası çāk gerek
Yansalar ‘ışḳ u vefā ehli ben evvel yanaram
Lā-cerem āteşe evvel ḫas u ḫāşāk gerek
Ḫavf-ı aġyār ile ‘ışḳ ehli viṣāle iremez
Varmaġa ‘ışḳ yolın ‘āşıḳ-ı bī-bāk gerek
Āftāb-ı ruḫ-ı dil-dār ṭulū‘ın dileyen
Āh u eşk ile aña encüm ü eflāk gerek
Yer ü gök şöhret-i ‘ışḳumla pür olsun diyenüñ
Āhınuñ yiri felek kendüsinüñ ḫāk gerek
Ṭūr-ı ‘ışḳ içre tecellī dileseñ Mūsāvār
Meşrebüñ āb-ı revān gibi revān pāk gerek
Degme Etrāk ne bilsün ġam-ı ‘ışḳı ‘Adlī
Sır-ı ‘ışḳ añlamaġa ḫaylice idrāk gerek

In English

1. On the path of love the lover's eye must be wet with tears; whoever clings to the skirt of love must have a torn collar.

2. If the people of love and faithfulness are to burn, I shall burn first; surely the fire needs straw and brushwood first. (The poet likens himself to the brushwood that first sets the fire alight.)

3. The people of love cannot attain union for fear of rivals; to walk the path of love a fearless lover is needed.

4. Whoever wishes for the rising of the sun of the beloved's cheek must prepare for it, with sighs and tears, heavens and stars. (The couplet can be understood this way: the sun rises in the heavens among the stars; the lover's sigh rising to the sky forms the heavens, his falling tears form the stars.)

5. Whoever wishes earth and sky to be filled with the fame of his love, the place of his sigh must be the sky, and his own place the dust.

6. If, like Moses, you desire a theophany on the Sinai of love, your disposition must be flowing and pure like running water.

7. Adlî, how should every Turk know the grief of love? To understand the secret of love a good deal of understanding is needed.

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 "gerek" (is needed, must be), and the rhyme is the sound "-âk": nemnâk, çâk, hâşâk, bî-bâk, eflâk, hâk, pâk, idrâk. According to Bayram's apparatus the ghazal is found in five manuscripts (OR, T, M1, M2, İBB). The second couplet is missing entirely from İBB, and its second line is missing from OR; M1 and M2 read "irmez" for "iremez". 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 lists the qualities the lover who walks the path of love must possess, and the redif "gerek" sets a condition in every couplet. In the opening couplet the tearful eye and the torn collar are the first signs of love. Since the skirt (dâmen) and the collar are parts of the same garment, there is congruence of images (tenasüp) between the two lines: whoever clings to the skirt of love tears his own collar. Tearing the collar is, in divan poetry, a gesture made in helplessness and unbearable pain.

In the second couplet the poet places himself ahead of the people of love. If the people of love and faithfulness are to burn, he will burn first, because fire first catches the straw and brushwood. In its dictionary sense "has u hâşâk" means brushwood, dry weeds. The poet likens himself to worthless brushwood, but this humility puts him first in line to burn. "Lâ-cerem" means surely, without doubt, and the second line of the couplet proves the first with an example. This structure recalls the figure of the proverbial illustration (irsâl-i mesel). The third couplet takes up the fear of rivals (ağyâr): whoever is afraid cannot attain union; only the "bî-bâk", the fearless lover, can walk the path of love.

The fourth and fifth couplets use earth and sky in the same pattern. In the fourth couplet the beloved's cheek is the sun, and for the sun to rise, sky and stars are needed. The lover's sigh rises to the sky, his tears fall like stars; sigh pairs with sky, and tear with star. Since the second line names the stars first and then the heavens, the pairings are in reverse order; this is the figure of convolution and unfolding (leff ü neşr). In the fifth couplet, too, "yer ü gök" (earth and sky) is answered in the second line by "felek" (sky) and "hâk" (dust): the sigh rises to the sky, the lover falls to the dust. Whoever wants the fame of his love to fill earth and sky must abase himself to the point of becoming dust.

The sixth couplet contains an allusion (telmih) to Moses. As related in the Qur'an (al-A‘râf 7:143), Moses wished to see God on Mount Sinai; when God manifested Himself to the mountain, the mountain crumbled and Moses fell unconscious. The poet likens love to a Mount Sinai and sets as a condition for whoever desires a theophany there that his "meşreb", his disposition of heart, be pure like running water. The word "revân" occurs twice in the line: in the first, "âb-ı revân" means running water; in the second, as an adjective, it means flowing, easy.

The closing couplet is the most striking in the ghazal. In its dictionary sense "Etrâk" is the Arabic plural of the word "Türk"; "degme" means any, every in Old Anatolian Turkish. In the couplet the phrase "degme Etrâk" describes ordinary people far from understanding the grief and subtlety of love; the poet presents love as a secret that not everyone can grasp. "Etrâk" and "idrâk" stand side by side as rhymes, and the couplet says that the secret of love can be grasped only with deep understanding. That an Ottoman ruler should say this is striking for the modern reader, but there is no source on which circle or whom the couplet means.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2018, p. 101, poem no. 63 (manuscript information in the footnote on p. 101).

Online sources