Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Olur mı şād göñül kim ġam içre zār degül
İder mi vaṣla heves ol ki dil-figār degül
Fiġāne ṣaldıyise kūhı nāle-i Ferhād
Fiġāne ṣalmışam āfāḳı kūhsār degül
Başuma gün mi ṭoġar kim yüzüñ firāḳında
Ḳara ṣaçuñ gibi ‘ālem gözüme tār degül
Eger dürüst ola Leylī viṣāl-i va‘desine
Ṣınursa kāsesi Mecnūn'a inkisār degül
Ne deñlü çoġ ise ‘ışḳ ehli olurlar bīzār
Şu ‘ömrden ki ġaraż aña vaṣl-ı yār degül
Viṣāl ümīdiyile hicri iḫtiyār itdi
Ne çāre eyleye ‘Adlī ki baḫtı yār degül

In English

1. Does a heart that does not moan in grief find joy? Does one whose heart is not wounded long for union?

2. If Ferhad's moaning set the mountain crying out, I have set not the mountain but all the horizons (the whole world) crying out.

3. Does the sun rise over my head, that in separation from your face the world should not look dark to my eyes like your black hair? (As long as I am parted from your face the world darkens before my eyes like your hair; no sun rises over my head.)

4. If Leylâ keeps her word in her promise of union, even if Mecnun's bowl is broken it brings him no hurt.

5. However long (life) may be, the people of love grow weary of this life whose aim is not union with the beloved. (The couplet can also be read this way: however many the people of love may be, all of them grow weary of such a life.)

6. In the hope of union he chose separation; what can Adlî do, since his fortune is not his friend?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has six couplets and is written in the müctes pattern "mefâ‘ilün fe‘ilâtün mefâ‘ilün fe‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "degül" (is not) and the rhyme is the sound "-âr": zâr, dil-figâr, kûhsâr, târ, inkisâr, yâr. The negative refrain says in each couplet that something is not so, and gives the ghazal an air of objection. According to Bayram's apparatus the ghazal is found in all five manuscripts (OR, T, M1, M2, İBB). In T "kim" is missing from the first line of the opening couplet, and in the second couplet T reads "geldiyise" for "ṣaldıyise"; in the fifth couplet T, M1 and M2 have "oldılar" for "olurlar". The edition has no separate section for the letter lâm; this ghazal, which ends in lâm, stands towards the end of the kef section (Ḥarfü'l-kâf), before the section of mim. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens with the idea that love cannot be won without suffering. In the opening couplet two questions follow one another: does a heart that does not moan in grief find joy, does one whose heart is not wounded desire union? The answer to both is plain, and the couplet says that joy is found only by passing through grief, and union only by passing through the wound. There is antithesis between şâd (joyful) and zâr (moaning).

The second couplet contains an allusion to Ferhad. In divan poetry Ferhad is the lover who pierced the mountain to win Şirin, and the greatness of love is measured by him. The poet competes with Ferhad: his moaning made only the mountain cry out, while the poet's own cry has made all the horizons do so. The lover's placing himself above great lovers such as Ferhad and Mecnun is a familiar form of boast in divan poetry. "Kûh" (mountain) and "kûhsâr" (mountainous land) come from the same root, and the latter is used again at the end of the second line.

In the third couplet daylight and darkness are compared. The words "Başuma gün mi ṭoġar" form a question whose answer is negative: no sun rises over the head of the lover parted from the beloved's sun-like face. The world looks to him as dark as the beloved's black hair. The face is paired with the sun, the hair with darkness; there is also antithesis between day and black.

The fourth couplet is an allusion to Leylâ and Mecnun. If Leylâ is "dürüst" in her promise of union, that is, if she keeps her word, the breaking of Mecnun's bowl is not counted as a hurt for him. According to Bayram's 2008 article on orthography, the verb "ṣı(n)-" means to break, to be broken in Old Anatolian Turkish. "İnkisâr" in its dictionary sense means both breaking and a broken heart, resentment. So the couplet ties the breaking of the bowl to the breaking of the heart: as long as Leylâ is faithful, the broken bowl does not break Mecnun's heart. The word "dürüst" too in its dictionary sense means both true and sound, unbroken, and forms a contrast with the broken bowl.

The fifth couplet says that a life whose aim is not union seems meaningless to the lover. The subject of the words "ne deñlü çoġ ise" is not clear; both the length of life and the number of lovers can be understood. Since the word "yâr" is also a rhyme in the fifth couplet, a pun (cinas) is formed between the two couplets: in the fifth couplet yâr is the beloved, while in the closing couplet's "bahtı yâr değil" (his fortune is not his yâr) it means helper and friend. Adlî has chosen to endure separation in the hope of union, but fortune is not on his side. The antithesis between union and hicir (separation) ties the ghazal back to the idea of grief and union in the opening couplet.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2018, p. 106, poem no. 68 (manuscript information in the footnote on p. 106).
  • 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 the verb "ṣı(n)-" on p. 129).

Online sources