Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ḳaşlaruña bir ḳadīmī bendedür beñzer hilāl
Kim dü tā itmiş durur ḳaddin mürūr-ı māh u sāl
Ne ta‘alluḳ leblerüñ yāḳūt ḫaṭṭın ḳılsa nesḥ
Bu muḥaḳḳaḳdur ki reyḥān oldı ḫaṭṭuñdan mis̱āl
Bir zavallu āftāb u māh ise bir kej-dehen
Nice ḳılsunlar senüñle da‘vi-i ḥüsn ü cemāl
Ḳaşlaruña nisbet itdümse hilāli iy ḳamer
Eyledüm bārik fikir ü baġladum nāzük ḫayāl
‘Adliyā aḥvālüñe vāḳıf degül ṣanma nigār
Her ġazel kim yazdum oldı yāre benden ‘arż-ı ḥāl

In English

1. The crescent moon looks like a slave who has long served your eyebrows; the passing of months and years has bent his stature double.

2. If your lips abrogate (nesh, render void) the ruby script (the ruby-red line), it is no wonder; it is certain that the reyhânî script (and the sweet basil, reyhan) took its model from the down on your face. The words "yâkût", "nesh", "muhakkak" and "reyhân" in the couplet are also terms of the art of calligraphy, so the couplet is read both through beauty and through writing. The phrase "Ne ta‘alluk" at the beginning of the first line is obscure; it has been taken here in the sense "what does it matter, what of it".

3. If the sun is a poor wretch and the moon a crooked-mouthed thing, how could they dispute with you the claim to beauty and loveliness of face?

4. O moon-faced one, if I have likened the crescent to your eyebrows, I have thought a fine thought and formed a delicate image.

5. Adlî, do not think the beloved is unaware of your state; every ghazal I wrote became a petition (arzuhal, a written statement of one's condition) from me to the beloved.

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 "-âl": hilâl, sâl, misâl, cemâl, hayâl, hâl. In Bayram's edition it is number 79 and it is found in all five manuscripts (OR, T, M1, M2, İBB). T reads "hattuñ" instead of "hattın", OR and T read "aldı" instead of "oldı", and in the fourth couplet OR and İBB read "itdiyse" instead of "itdümse". The word "kej-dehen" (crooked-mouthed) in the third couplet appears as "kec-dehen" in T, M1 and M2, and as "kej-zebân" (crooked-tongued) in OR and İBB. It is not known to whom or when it was written. The comparison of crescent and eyebrow is also worked in ghazal 76, a few pages earlier in the edition.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet likens the crescent to an aged slave. The thin, curved crescent is like a servant whose back has been bent by years of service; "dü tâ", in its dictionary sense, means twofold, bent double. In the phrase "the passing of months and years" ("mürûr-ı mâh u sâl") the word "mâh" means both month and the moon in the sky; since the crescent is itself a phase of the moon, the word finds its place in the couplet in two ways. This is a usage close to double entendre (tevriye). The crescent's being a slave to the eyebrow carries simile (teşbih) and the figure of poetic aetiology (hüsn-i talil) together: the curve of the crescent is given a poetic cause, as if it had bowed for years before the beloved's eyebrow.

The second couplet is the densest in the ghazal and is built from the language of calligraphy. According to the article "Aklâm-ı Sitte" in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, the six classical scripts are tevkî‘ and rikā‘, muhakkak and reyhânî, sülüs and nesih; reyhânî is the small size of muhakkak, and the contribution of Yâkūt el-Müsta‘sımî, regarded as a turning point in the history of calligraphy, is seen above all in the perfecting of muhakkak and reyhânî. In the couplet all these names also appear with a second meaning. "Yâkût" is both the red gemstone, the ruby, and this famous calligrapher; since the lip is ruby-red, "the ruby script of your lips" reads both as the red line of the lip and as the writing of Yâkut. "Nesh", in its dictionary sense, means to annul a ruling, to render it void, and it is also the name of the nesih script. "Muhakkak" is both "certain" and a script. "Reyhân" is both a fragrant herb, sweet basil, and the reyhânî script. "Hat" is both writing and the down on the beloved's face. According to the poet, the reyhânî script and the basil took their model from the beloved's down. The meeting of so many terms in two senses within a single couplet is an example of double entendre (tevriye) and congruence of images (tenasüp) used together.

That this couplet is built on the terms of calligraphy deserves separate mention. The TDV and TEİS record that Bayezid took calligraphy lessons from Şeyh Hamdullah in Amasya; according to the article "Aklâm-ı Sitte", Şeyh Hamdullah of Amasya perfected all the scripts that belong to the six classical scripts. The sources say nothing of any connection between this ghazal and Hamdullah or the Amasya years. The couplet therefore shows only that a poet who had himself learned the art of calligraphy uses these terms precisely.

The third couplet makes the sun and the moon too small to enter a contest of beauty with the beloved. The "wretched" sun and the "kej-dehen" (crooked-mouthed) moon are an interesting pair: the moon in its crescent phase looks like a crooked mouth, whereas in divan poetry the beloved's mouth is small and well formed. The fourth couplet comments on poetry itself. The poet says that because he has likened the crescent to the beloved's eyebrow he has thought a "bârik fikr" (fine thought) and formed a "nâzük hayâl" (delicate image). "Bârik", in its dictionary sense, means both thin and subtle; since the crescent is thin too, the word also fits the comparison itself.

The final couplet also takes poetry as its subject. The poet says that every ghazal he wrote was an "arz-ı hâl" presented to the beloved. Arz-ı hâl, in its dictionary sense, is a statement of one's condition, a petition submitted to a superior. That a sultan, who stood at the head of the office that received petitions, should call his own ghazals petitions handed to the beloved is an irony that lies plainly in the couplet: here it is the poet who submits the petition, and the beloved who reads it and decides.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018, p. 117, poem no. 79 (manuscript information in the footnote on p. 117). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

Books

Online sources