Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün

Göñül ol ruḫları gülnāre varduñ
Ṣanasın gül uma gülzāre varduñ
Ṣabā ṣan gülşene ḫāşāk iletdi
Yirüñ bekle ki kūy-ı yāre varduñ
Lebi vaṣfında şehd aḳar dilüñden
Meger ol la‘l-i şekker-bāre varduñ
Dişi yanında yaşuñ añma ‘Adlī
Edeb ṣaḳla dür-i şehvāre varduñ
Behey miskīn hevā-yı zülf idersin
Meger müşg almaġa ‘aṭṭāre varduñ

In English

1. O heart, you have come to the one with cheeks like pomegranate blossoms; it is as if you came to the rose garden hoping for a rose.

2. It is as if the morning breeze had carried a bit of chaff into the rose garden; know your place and keep to it, for you have come to the beloved's quarter. (The heart is likened to a worthless piece of chaff blown into the rose garden by the breeze.)

3. Honey flows from your tongue as you describe his lip; have you perhaps come to that sugar-showering ruby (the lip)?

4. Adlî, do not mention your tears beside his teeth; mind your manners, for you have come to the royal pearl. (The teeth are likened to large, precious pearls; the lover's tears are also counted as pearls, but beside them they are not worth mentioning.)

5. Ah, poor wretch, you long for the curl; have you perhaps come to the perfumer to buy musk? (The curl smells like musk; whoever longs for the curl is like someone who has gone to the shop of a perfumer who sells musk.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has five couplets and is written in the hezec pattern "mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün fe‘ûlün". The redif (refrain word) is "varduñ" and the rhyme is the sound "-âre": gülnâre, gülzâre, yâre, şekker-bâre, şehvâre, ‘attâre. The refrain means "you have come" and in every couplet names a place reached by the heart or the poet; the poem therefore moves forward as a series of arrivals. According to Bayram's apparatus the ghazal is found in all five manuscripts (OR, T, M1, M2, İBB). OR reads "gülzāre" for "gülnāre" in the first line of the opening couplet, OR reads "vaṣfuñda" for "vaṣfında", İBB reads "lebüñden" for "dilüñden", and T, M1 and M2 read "misk" for "müşg". 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 describes the heart's arrival in the beloved's presence, using a different comparison in each couplet. In the opening couplet "gülnâr" in its dictionary sense is the pomegranate blossom and stands for the red cheek; "gülzâr" in the second line is the rose garden. The two words are very close in sound, and the reading "gülzāre" in the first line as well in the OR manuscript shows how easily they could be confused. There is congruence of images (tenasüp) between the rose, the pomegranate blossom and the rose garden: the heart that reaches the beloved's face is regarded as having entered a rose garden.

The second couplet continues the same garden image but makes the heart small. The morning breeze has carried chaff (hâşâk) into the rose garden; the heart, too, has come to the beloved's quarter like this chaff, not by its own strength but swept along by the wind. The words "yirüñ bekle" therefore mean both "keep your place" and "know your limits". There is congruence of images among the breeze, the rose garden and the chaff, and a contrast is also drawn between the worthless chaff and the precious rose.

The third and fourth couplets mention the lip and the teeth. Honey flowing from the tongue that describes the lip says that the sweetness of the lip has passed into speech. "Şekker-bâr" in its dictionary sense means "showering sugar"; honey, sugar and the ruby lip are words that call one another up in divan poetry. In the fourth couplet the beloved's teeth are "dür-i şehvâr". In its dictionary sense the phrase means a large pearl fit for a king. The lover's tears too are likened to pearls in divan poetry; the poet says that it would be against good manners to speak of his own pearls of tears beside those royal pearls. This comparison, in which tears and teeth meet in the pearl, is the main conceit of the couplet.

The pen name (mahlas) appears in the fourth couplet; the ghazal does not end with the pen-name couplet, and the last couplet turns to the curl. In its dictionary sense the word "hevâ" means both desire, passion, and air. The passion for the curl can be thought of together with the air that carries the scent of musk; this offers the possibility of a double entendre (tevriye). In divan poetry the curl is likened to musk for its blackness and its scent, and musk is sold at the perfumer's. So the lover who longs for the curl looks like someone who has gone to a perfumer's shop to buy musk. The mildly mocking address "behey miskîn" also creates a closeness of sound between "miskîn" (poor wretch) and "misk".

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2018, p. 102, poem no. 64 (manuscript information in the footnote on p. 102).

Online sources