Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Yaḳduġına şem‘üñ içün nār-ı ‘ışḳ ile fetīl
Eşk-i çeşmi ḥāline olmış durur rūşen delīl
Yād-ı la‘lüñ ḳūt-ı cāndur hicr içinde nitekim
Dūzaḫ ehline revān-baḫş olsa āb-ı selsebīl
Zāhid añmaz kendünüñ ḫalvetde esrārın görüñ
‘Āşıḳı içer diyü taḫfīf idermiş ol s̱aḳīl
Aġlamasa gözlerüm kūyına yol virmez nigār
Oldı rūşen bu ki hergiz cennete girmez baḫīl
Māl u milk ü salṭanatla ḳadr bulmaz ādemi
‘Adliyā ‘izzet gerekse işiginde ol ẕelīl

In English

1. That the wick burns with the fire of love for your candle, the tears flowing from its eye have become a clear proof of its state. (The lover is likened to the wick, the beloved to the candle; the drops running down the candle are the wick's tears.)

2. In separation the memory of your ruby lip is the sustenance of the soul, just as the water of Selsebil would give life to the people of hell.

3. See, the ascetic does not mention his own secret doings in seclusion; that dreary man, it seems, looks down on the lover because "he drinks".

4. If my eyes did not weep, the beloved would not let me into his street; so it has become clear that the miser never enters paradise. (Whoever grudges his tears cannot enter paradise, which is the beloved's street.)

5. Man does not gain worth through wealth, possessions and sovereignty; Adlî, if you want honour, be abased at his threshold.

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". It has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is the sound "-îl": fetîl, delîl, selsebîl, sakîl, bahîl, zelîl. In Bayram's edition it is number 77 and it is found in all five manuscripts (OR, T, M1, M2, İBB). In the opening couplet T reads "meş‘al" (torch) instead of "şem‘üñ" (your candle). In the third couplet OR and İBB say "tahkîk eyler imiş" instead of "tahfîf idermiş"; in this reading the ascetic does not look down on the lover but investigates whether he drinks. T has "böyle" instead of "bu ki", and OR "mülk" instead of "milk". It is not known to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet rests on the bond between candle and wick. The beloved is the candle and the lover its wick; the wick burns with the fire of love, and the drops running down the candle are its tears. These tears are the "rûşen", that is, the clear proof that the wick burns with love. "Rûşen", in its dictionary sense, means both bright and evident; the light of the candle and the clarity of the proof meet in one word, and this is an example of double entendre (tevriye). There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among candle, fire, wick and tears.

In the second couplet separation is likened to hell and the memory of the beloved's lip to the water of Selsebil. Selsebil occurs in the Qur'an (al-Insân 76/18) as the name of a spring in paradise. For the lover separation is the torment of hell; within that torment the memory of the lip gives life like the water of paradise reaching the people of hell. "Kût-ı cân", in its dictionary sense, means the sustenance of the soul. The antithesis between hell and the spring of paradise carries the simile of the couplet.

The third couplet turns to the ascetic (zahid). The ascetic does not mention his own secrets in seclusion, but looks down on the lover for drinking wine. "Sakîl", in its dictionary sense, means heavy, disagreeable, tiresome; it is customary in divan poetry for the ascetic to be named with such adjectives. The fourth couplet thinks of tears as a kind of generosity. If the lover's eyes do not weep, the beloved does not open the way to his street; whoever does not weep, whoever grudges his tears, is counted a miser, and the beloved's street is a paradise. The judgement in the second line, "the miser never enters paradise", closes this thought like a proverb; since the claim of the first line is supported by a general judgement in the second, the couplet contains irsâl-i mesel (the use of a proverbial saying as proof). Miserliness is a trait severely condemned in Islamic ethics; according to the article "Cimrilik" in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, the hadiths state that the feeling of miserliness and faith cannot exist together.

The final couplet is the most striking one in the ghazal when it is read as coming from the mouth of a ruler. Wealth, possessions and sovereignty do not give a man worth; whoever seeks honour must be "zelîl", that is, abased, at the beloved's threshold. The antithesis between "izzet" (honour, eminence) and "zelîl" (abased, despised) carries the couplet. This is one of the clear examples of the irony seen in Adlî's poems: the possessor of sovereignty says that sovereignty confers no worth and counsels himself to abase himself at a threshold. The reading "mülk" in OR covers the same ground as "milk", wealth and property; both words are, together with wealth and sovereignty, names for worldly possessions in the couplet.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018, p. 115, poem no. 77 (manuscript information in the footnote on p. 115). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

Online sources