Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Olmadı ‘ālem içinde bir nefes ḫurrem göñül
Olmadı bir laḥẓa bī-ġam olana hem-dem göñül
Her kime göñlüm ġamın didüm ġamından ġam yidüm
Ġālibā yoḳdur cihān içinde bir bī-ġam göñül
Ḫāk-i ādem ġam ile taḫmīr olupdur ġālibā
Bī-ġam olan olmaya cins-i benī-ādem göñül
Ġuṣṣa-i devrāndan bir dil ḫalāṣ olmuş degül
Sen degülsin mübtelā-yı ġam hemān epsem göñül
Şāhid-i şādī cemālin ‘arż ide bir gün ola
Böyle ḳalmaz ġam yime ḥāl-i cihān her dem göñül
Salṭanat ġavġāsıdur ‘Adlī seni dil-teng iden
Ḫırḳa-pūş olanda vardur var ise ḫurrem göñül
Ḳo ra‘iyyet ġuṣṣasını memleket ḳayġusını
‘Āḳil iseñ ḥālüñ añup eylegil mātem göñül

In English

1. The heart has not been glad for a single breath in this world; not for a moment has it been the companion of anyone free of grief.

2. To whomever I told the grief of my heart, I took on grief from his grief; it seems there is no heart free of grief in the world.

3. It seems the clay of man was kneaded with grief; O heart, among the sons of Adam none is to be found free of grief.

4. No heart has escaped the sorrow of the times; you are not the only one afflicted with grief, so be silent now, heart.

5. A day will come when the beauty of joy will show its face; the state of the world does not stay like this, heart, do not grieve at every moment.

6. Adlî, what oppresses your heart is the strife of sovereignty; if there is a glad heart anywhere, it is among those who wear the cloak (the dervishes).

7. O heart, leave the sorrow of the subjects and the care of the realm; if you are wise, think of your own state and mourn.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has seven couplets and is written in the remel metre "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "gönül" (heart), and the rhyme is the sound "-em": hurrem, hem-dem, bî-gam, âdem, epsem, her dem, mâtem; "hurrem" from the opening couplet returns as a rhyme in the sixth. In Bayram's edition it is number 73 and it is found in five manuscripts (OR, T, M1, M2, İBB), but not complete in every one: the fifth couplet is missing in M2 and the seventh in T. In T the ghazal therefore ends with the pen-name couplet; in the other manuscripts one more couplet follows the pen name (mahlas). M1 spells "epsem" as "ebsem", and T reads "cemâlüñ" instead of "cemâlin". It is not known to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The subject of the ghazal is grief, and the word "gam" (grief), counting "bî-gam" (free of grief), occurs nine times in the first five couplets; in the fourth and seventh couplets "gussa" (sorrow) is added to it. The first four couplets build up step by step the idea that grief is universal. In the opening couplet the heart has not been glad for a single moment. In the second couplet the poet goes to others to tell his trouble, but listening to each one's grief adds grief to his own. In the line "gamın didüm, gamından gam yidüm" the threefold repetition of the same word makes this accumulation audible as well. The third couplet ties the source of grief to creation: in its dictionary sense "tahmîr" means to leaven, to knead; with an allusion to man's creation from clay, it is said that Adam's clay was kneaded with grief. For that reason no one free of grief is found among the sons of Adam. The repetition of "âdem" and "benî-âdem" binds the two lines of the couplet together.

The word "epsem" in the fourth couplet means "silent" in Old Anatolian Turkish; Bayram counts it among the old words in the divan's British Library manuscript. The poet reminds his heart that it is not the only one afflicted with grief and tells it to be silent. In the fifth couplet the tone changes: "şâhid-i şâdî", the beauty of joy, is imagined as a beloved who will show her face. Giving joy a person's form is personification (teşhis), and it is joined to the thought that the state of the world will not always stay the same.

What sets this ghazal apart from the others is its last two couplets. In the pen-name couplet the poet addresses himself and says that what oppresses his heart is the "strife of sovereignty". "Dil-teng", in its dictionary sense, means narrow-hearted, distressed. A glad heart, if there is one, is to be found among the "hırka-pûş", those who wear the cloak, that is, the dervishes. Sovereignty and the cloak stand here for two different lives, and there is antithesis between them. In the last couplet "raiyyet gussası" and "memleket kaygusu", the sorrow of the subjects and the care of the realm, are named as burdens to be laid down; the wise man should think of his own state and mourn. Coming from the mouth of someone who governs a realm, these words read like a direct confession. Withdrawal from worldly affairs is a common theme in divan poetry, but in this couplet the words "raiyyet" and "memleket" express that theme through the concrete names of the burden of rule.

Âşık Çelebi writes that whenever Adlî grew weary of the business of sovereignty and tired of the affairs of the realm, he would descend "from the lofty tower of sovereignty into the valley of poetry"; TEİS quotes this remark as an indication that the poet looked on poetry as a refuge when he was oppressed by affairs of state. The TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi also states that during his reign Bayezid turned to worship and charitable works. This information agrees with what the ghazal says, but it does not show in which years the ghazal was written. To conclude from the word "saltanat" that the poem was written after his accession would be an interpretation; neither the edition nor the biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire) contain any separate record about this ghazal.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018, p. 111, poem no. 73 (manuscript information in the footnote on p. 111). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Yavuz Bayram, "Sultan İkinci Bâyezîd-i Velî (Adlî) Dîvânı'nın British Library Nüshasında İmlâ Husûsiyetleri", Turkish Studies 3/6 (Fall 2008), pp. 109-142 (the meaning of the word "epsem" p. 129).
  • Yavuz Bayram, "Adlî (Sultan Bâyezîd-i Velî bin Fatih Sultan Mehmed)", Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü (TEİS), https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/adli-sultan-bayezid-i-veli-bin-fatih-sultan-mehmed (Âşık Çelebi's assessment, quoted from Kılıç 1994: 54).

Academic studies

Online sources