Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Bāġ-ı dilde ḳāmetüñ servin ḫırāmān eylegil
Bülbül-i cānı yüzüñ şevḳıyle nālān eylegil
İy ṣabā ‘aynuma alman ḫāk-i pāyı ġayrını
İki gözümçün gerek küḥl-i Ṣıfāhān eylegil
Bāġbānā ġonca vü gülden ruḫ-ı dil-dārsuz
Ḫaṭṭ olur mı var anı dāġ ile peykān eylegil
‘Āşıḳuñ dāmen girībān fikrin itmez dōstum
Sīnesin çāk eyleyüp çāk-ı girībān eylegil
Derd ü ġam mersūmını ‘uşşāḳdan men‘ eyleme
Ḳullaruña pādşāhum luṭf u iḥsān eylegil
La‘l-i nābuñ şerbetiyle iy ṭabīb-i cān u dil
‘Āşıḳ-ı dil-ḫastenüñ derdine dermān eylegil
Pādşāhum luṭf idüp ‘Adlī ḳuluñuñ başına
Ḫāk-i pāyuñ tāc idüben Rūm'a ṣulṭān eylegil

In English

1. In the garden of the heart make the cypress of your stature walk swaying; make the nightingale of the soul lament with longing for your face.

2. O morning breeze, I take nothing into my eye but the dust of his feet; for my two eyes, make it into the kohl of Isfahan.

3. O gardener, without the cheek of the beloved can there be any pleasure in the bud and the rose? Go, turn them into a burn mark and an arrowhead. (The rose, with its dark spot in the middle, is likened to a burn mark, and the pointed bud to an arrowhead.)

4. My friend, the lover does not think of hem or collar; rend his breast and tear his collar open.

5. Do not withhold the allotted share of pain and grief from the lovers; my king, show kindness and bounty to your servants.

6. O physician of soul and heart, with the sherbet of your pure ruby lip bring a cure to the pain of the lover sick at heart.

7. My king, be gracious, make the dust of your feet a crown on the head of your servant Adlî, and so make him sultan of Rum.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has seven couplets and is written in the remel pattern "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "eylegil" (make, do) and the rhyme is the sound "-ân": hırâmân, nâlân, Sıfâhân, peykân, girîbân, ihsân, dermân, sultân. The refrain is an imperative, and in every couplet of the ghazal something is asked of the beloved, the breeze or the gardener. According to Bayram's apparatus the ghazal is found in all five manuscripts (OR, T, M1, M2, İBB). T reads "almaz" for "alman", and M2 reads "dil-dārdan" for "dil-dārsuz". In his 2008 article on orthography Bayram gave this ghazal as a sample text from the British Library manuscript (OR 18b). The edition has no separate section for the letter lâm; the ghazal 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 is a sequence of requests; it begins with garden images and ends in the language of the court. In the opening couplet the heart is likened to a garden; the beloved's stature is a cypress swaying in this garden, and the lover's soul is a nightingale longing for the rose of the face. There is congruence of images (tenasüp) among garden, cypress and nightingale. "Hırâmân" in its dictionary sense means walking with a sway, with a graceful gait.

In the second couplet the morning breeze is addressed. In divan poetry the saba is the wind that brings dust and scent from the beloved's path. The lover puts nothing on his eye but the dust of the beloved's feet, and asks the breeze to make this dust into Isfahan kohl for him. In its dictionary sense "kühl" is kohl and "Sıfâhân" is Isfahan; Isfahan kohl is mentioned in divan poetry as a prized kohl. Making the dust of the beloved's feet into kohl for the eye is a familiar image in divan poetry expressing the lover's humility and devotion to the beloved.

In the third couplet the gardener is addressed. Without the beloved's cheek the bud and the rose give no pleasure; let the gardener turn these flowers into things that hurt the lover. In its dictionary sense "dâğ" is a burn mark, the scar of cauterisation, and "peykân" an arrowhead. The pointed bud is likened to the arrowhead and the open rose to the burn mark. The word "anı" (it) in the second line takes up the bud and the rose together; since dâğ answers to the rose and peykân to the bud, the pairings are in reverse order, and the couplet contains a leff ü neşr.

In the fourth couplet "dâmen" (hem) and "girîbân" (collar) are named together. The lover gives no thought to his clothes; he asks the beloved to rend his breast and tear his collar. Tearing the collar is, in divan poetry, a gesture made in the face of unbearable pain. In the phrases "çâk eylemek" and "çâk-ı girîbân" the word "çâk" (rent, slit) is repeated; there is congruence of images among hem, collar and breast.

From the fifth couplet onwards the language of the ghazal turns to the language of the court. In its dictionary sense "mersûm" is a share or allowance officially assigned to someone. The lover asks that his share of pain and grief not be cut off; the kindness and bounty expected from the beloved, who is addressed as king, are this very pain. The words mersûm, king, servant, kindness and bounty come from the life of the state, and there is congruence of images among them. In the sixth couplet the beloved is now a physician; the sherbet of the ruby lip is the medicine for the sick heart. The words physician, sherbet, sick, pain and cure likewise call one another up.

The closing couplet is the most striking couplet of the ghazal. Adlî counts himself the beloved's servant and asks the beloved to make the dust of his feet a crown on his head and so make him "sultan of Rum". There is antithesis between dust and crown: for the lover the dust of the beloved's feet is the highest crown. There is a real irony in the couplet, because Bayezid, the author of the poem, is the sovereign of the Ottoman land called Rum, or, during his years as a prince, a prince who was a candidate for that throne. Expressions such as "Rūm'a ṣulṭān" occur in other poems of the divan as well, but to conclude from them whether the poem was written in the Amasya years or in the years of his reign would be interpretation; there is no information on this in the edition or in the other sources.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2018, p. 108, poem no. 70 (manuscript information in the footnote on p. 108).
  • Yavuz Bayram, "Sultan İkinci Bâyezîd-i Velî (Adlî) Dîvânı'nın British Library Nüshasında İmlâ Husûsiyetleri", Turkish Studies 3/6 (Fall 2008), pp. 109-142 (sample text of the ghazal from OR 18b on p. 137).

Online sources