Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

İy ṭabībüm derdmendem derdüme bir çāre ḳıl
Şehr ü kūy içre ṣabā gibi yeter āvāre ḳıl
S̱ābit oldum rāh-ı ‘ışḳuñda baña raḥm it diyü
Dimedüm kim gözlerümüñ yaşını seyyāre ḳıl
Tevbe nef‘ itmez riyāyile olıcaḳ zāhidā
‘Işḳı iḫlāṣ ile cürmüñ maḥvına keffāre ḳıl
Ḥādis̱e def‘ini ḳılmaz medreseyle ḫānḳah
‘Ārif iseñ ilticā-yı kūşe-i ḫummāre ḳıl
‘Adli ol serv-i revānı itmek isterseñ kenār
Nisbetini eşk-i çeşmüñüñ revān enhāre ḳıl

In English

1. O my physician, I am sick, find a cure for my pain; enough that you have made me wander like the morning breeze through city and street. (The line can also be read: "make me wander like the morning breeze from city to city, street to street; that too is enough for me.")

2. I stood firm on the path of your love so that you would say "have pity on him"; I did not say "make the tears of my eyes wander like the planets". (In their dictionary sense "sâbit" means both steadfast and a fixed star, while "seyyâre" means a planet; the lover has stood fixed in his place and did not wish his tears to wander and flow.)

3. O ascetic, repentance is of no use when it is done for show; make sincere love the atonement that wipes out your sin.

4. Neither the madrasa nor the dervish lodge can avert the calamity that befalls one; if you are a knower (ârif), take refuge in a corner of the tavern.

5. Adlî, if you wish to take that swaying cypress into your embrace, make the tears of your eyes equal to flowing rivers. (The cypress grows on the bank of a river; if the tears become a river, the cypress will come to its bank.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has five couplets and is written in the remel metre "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "kıl" (make, do), and the rhyme is the sound "-âre": çâre, âvâre, seyyâre, keffâre, hummâre, enhâre. In Bayram's edition it is number 74 and it is found in all five manuscripts (OR, T, M1, M2, İBB). The variants come to two words: İBB reads "ref‘ini" (its removal) instead of "def‘ini" (its averting), and OR "çeşmümüñ" (of my eye) instead of "çeşmüñüñ" (of your eye). It is not known to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet the beloved is a physician and the lover a helpless patient. In divan poetry love is a sickness, and the beloved is both the cause of this sickness and its only remedy. The lover asks his physician for a cure; in the second line he likens himself to the morning breeze (saba). In divan poetry saba is the wind that carries the beloved's scent and blows and wanders without rest; the lover, like it, wanders aimlessly through city and street. The word "yeter" (enough) gives the line two senses: enough that you have made me wander, or make me wander, that is enough for me. The couplet can be read in two ways.

The second couplet is a play on words built with the terms of the old astronomy. "Sâbit" is used for the fixed stars, "seyyâre" for the planets that wander across the sky. The lover has been fixed, that is, steadfast, on the path of love; he did so that the beloved would take pity on him, and he did not wish his tears to wander like planets. There is both antithesis and a congruence of images (tenasüp) between the two words; the likeness between tears and stars is also frequent in divan poetry.

The third and fourth couplets turn to the ascetic (zahid) and the madrasa. Repentance made with hypocrisy, that is, for show, is of no use; the atonement that wipes out sin is love sincerely felt. In the fourth couplet the madrasa and the hankah, the place of learning and the dervish lodge, are judged incapable of averting the calamity that befalls one; the knower (ârif) should take refuge in the "kûşe-i hummâre", the corner of the tavern. In its dictionary sense "hummâre" means tavern. Setting the tavern of the rind against the ascetic and the institutions is one of the familiar oppositions of divan poetry; the tavern is named here as the place of sincerity and love.

The final couplet is built on a double entendre (tevriye). "Kenâr" means both embrace and bank. In divan poetry the cypress grows at the water's edge, and the beloved's stature is likened to a cypress. The poet tells himself that if he wants to take that swaying cypress into his embrace, he must shed his tears like rivers; for if the tears become a river, the cypress will grow on its bank, that is, in his embrace. The repetition of "revân" between "serv-i revân" (swaying cypress) and "revân enhâr" (flowing rivers) also binds the two lines together in sound.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018, p. 112, poem no. 74 (manuscript information in the footnote on p. 112). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr