Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün

Ben ḫāke tecellī ide ger nūr-ı cemālüñ
Her ẕerre-i ḫāküm ṭaleb eyleye viṣālüñ
Engüşt-nümā ḳıldı beni ḫalḳ arasında
Hicrinde nizār olduġum ol ḳaşı hilālüñ
Bir berk-i ḫazān-dīde mis̱ālinde ḳılupdur
Beñzümi ḳadi fürḳati ol tāze nihālüñ
‘Uşşāḳa naṣīb olmadı çün ḫalvet ü ṣoḥbet
Zāhid saña ne ġam varimiş def‘-i melālüñ
Dil-berde vefā olmayıcaḳ fā’ide itmez
‘Adlī sebeb-i vaṣl degül māl ü menālüñ

In English

1. If the light of your beauty were to shine forth upon me, who have become dust, every mote of my dust would seek union with you.

2. Because I have melted away and grown thin in separation from the one with crescent brows, I have become one pointed at with the finger among the people.

3. Separation from the stature of that young sapling (the cypress-tall beloved) has turned my face yellow like a leaf that has seen autumn.

4. Lovers were not granted being alone with the beloved and conversing; O ascetic, what grief do you have that you should seek to dispel your gloom? (The couplet is not fully clear. In one reading, the real deprivation is suffered by the lovers, and the ascetic has no grief to complain of. With the reading "oldı" in the OR manuscript the meaning becomes: seclusion and conversation were granted to the lovers; O ascetic, what do you have to dispel your gloom?)

5. If there is no faithfulness in the beloved, it is of no use; Adlî, your property and wealth are no means to union.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has five couplets and is written in the hezec pattern "mef‘ûlü mefâ‘îlü mefâ‘îlü fe‘ûlün". The redif (refrain word) is the second person singular suffix "-üñ" and the rhyme is the sound "-âl": cemâl, visâl, hilâl, nihâl, melâl, menâl. According to Bayram's apparatus the ghazal is found in all five manuscripts (OR, T, M1, M2, İBB). T reads "bir" for "ben" at the beginning of the opening couplet, and OR and İBB read "görinür" for "ide ger". In the third couplet OR reads "ḳalupdur" for "ḳılupdur" and "ḳodı" for "ḳadi"; in the fourth it reads "oldı" for "olmadı". 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 begins with the marks separation leaves on the lover and ends by saying what union cannot be won with. In the opening couplet the lover counts himself as dust. If the light of the beloved's beauty were to "tecelli" upon this dust, that is, to be reflected and made manifest in it, every mote of the dust would long for union. The idea that the mote seen in a sunbeam is in love with the sun is familiar in divan poetry; here there is congruence of images (tenasüp) among light, dust and mote. Even if the lover dies and becomes dust, he will go on desiring the beloved with every mote of himself.

In the second couplet "engüşt-nümâ" in its dictionary sense means pointed at with the finger. The lover has melted away in separation and become "nizâr", thin and slender; that is why people point at him. The beloved's brow is likened to the crescent moon. The crescent too is a slender moon, and when the new moon is sighted people point it out to one another with their fingers. In the couplet the lover's thinness and the slenderness of the crescent, the lover's being pointed at and the crescent's being pointed out, stand side by side; so the lover too turns into a crescent, like the beloved's brow.

The third couplet moves to a garden image. The beloved is a "tâze nihâl", a young sapling, and the stature is tall and straight like the cypress of divan poetry. The lover is like a leaf that has seen autumn (hazân-dîde); separation has turned his face yellow. There is antithesis between fresh and autumnal, between sapling and withered leaf; the words sapling, leaf and autumn also form congruence of images.

In the fourth couplet the poet confronts the zahid, the ascetic type who has renounced the world. The words "halvet" and "sohbet" are also used in the language of Sufism: halvet is a person's withdrawal into a corner for worship, sohbet the sheikh's conversation with his disciples. For the lover, however, these two words express being alone with the beloved and talking together. This two-sided use of the words gives the couplet the character of a double entendre (tevriye). The second line of the couplet is not clear, and the OR reading "oldı" reverses the meaning; both readings are given in the English prose section.

The closing couplet ends with a plain judgement: if there is no faithfulness in the beloved, property and wealth are no means to union. "Mâl ü menâl" in its dictionary sense means goods and possessions, wealth. A poet who was a sovereign saying that wealth cannot buy love strikes today's reader, but there is no source connecting the couplet with any particular event or person. The couplet expresses an idea often treated in divan poetry, that love depends on faithfulness and cannot be won with money.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2018, p. 105, poem no. 67 (manuscript information in the footnote on p. 105).

Online sources