Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Meyl ḳılmaz ol perī hīç āşinālıḳdan yaña
Muttaṣıl dünyā gibi meyli cüdālıḳdan yaña
Şāhid ü bādeyle dil ülfet ṭutupdur zāhidā
Anuñ içün meyl ḳılmaz pārsālıḳdan yaña
‘Âşıḳa mihr ü vefā ḳılmaḳ nedür bilmez henüz
Yoḫsa ol fettāna söz yoḳ dil-rübālıḳdan yaña
‘Adliyā ol şāh-ı ḫūbāna ḳul olsam bir nefes
Baḳmazidüm salṭanatla pādişālıḳdan yaña
Salṭanat ‘unvānınuñ ġavgāları çoḳdur belī
Bir ‘abāyile hemīn sa‘y it gedālıḳdan yaña

In English

1. That fairy-faced beauty never inclines towards familiarity or closeness; like the world itself, her inclination is always towards separation.

2. O ascetic, the heart has struck up a friendship with the beloved and with wine; that is why it shows no inclination towards abstinence and piety.

3. She does not yet know what it is to show love and faithfulness to the lover; otherwise there is nothing to be said against that bewitching beauty when it comes to stealing hearts. (Her beauty and her power to win hearts are flawless; her only lack is faithfulness.)

4. O Adlî, if I could be a slave to that king of beauties for a single breath, I would not look back towards kingship and its sultanate.

5. Indeed, the title of sultan brings much strife and turmoil; content yourself with a single cloak (the coarse woollen aba worn by dervishes) and strive towards poverty and the dervish life.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets. The ghazal is the verse form of divan poetry devoted to love and beauty: the two lines of the opening couplet rhyme with each other, and the second lines of all following couplets take up the same rhyme; the poet's pen name (mahlas) usually appears in the last or penultimate couplet. Here the pen name comes in the fourth couplet with the address "‘Adliyā", and the final couplet is attached to it as a piece of advice. The metre is the remel pattern of aruz (quantitative metre), "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "-lıḳdan yaña", and the rhyme is the "-ā" sound of "āşinā, cüdā, pārsā, dil-rübā, pādişā, gedā". The Old Turkish word "yaña" means "towards, on the side of", so each couplet arrives at a direction, a choice. The ghazal is number 8 in Bayram's edition and survives in only two of the five manuscripts, OR in the British Library and T in the National Library of Egypt. It is not known to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first three couplets stay on the familiar ground of the ghazal. The beloved shuns closeness and is forever inclined towards separation; the poet likens this trait to the world, which shows no faithfulness to anyone. The faithlessness of the world is one of the most settled ideas of divan poetry, and comparing the beloved to it brings the lover's complaint close to a lesson about life. In the second couplet the scene turns to the ascetic: the heart has grown intimate with the beloved and with wine, and will not turn towards abstinence. The word "meyl" (inclination) is repeated in the first two couplets and sets the beloved's turning towards separation against the heart's turning away from piety. In the third couplet the beloved's fault is reduced to a single point: she has no equal in stealing hearts, and her only lack is faithfulness. The word "henüz" (yet) also holds a hope that this lack may one day be made good.

The weight of the ghazal lies in its last two couplets. For the lover to call himself a "slave" and the beloved "şāh-ı ḫūbān" (king of beauties) is an ordinary conceit of divan poetry, but in this couplet the speaker really is a ruler. Adlî says that, to be a slave to that king of beauties for a single breath, he would not look back at sultanate and kingship. Because "şāh", "ḳul", "salṭanat" and "pādişālıḳ" are drawn from the same field, the couplet shows a clear congruence of images (tenasüp); the contrast between kingship and servitude also takes on a further meaning when the poet's own position is considered. The last couplet turns this choice into advice: the title of sultan brings much strife and noise, and one should be content with a cloak and strive on the path of "gedālıḳ". The aba is the coarse woollen cloak worn by dervishes; gedalık here means less begging than the poverty of the dervish who has given up worldly goods. "Salṭanat" and "gedālıḳ", "‘unvān" (title) and "‘abā" (cloak) are set against each other.

This preference is a common idea in divan poetry, but it is striking when read together with the records of Adlî's life. According to the information quoted in the introduction to Bayram's edition, Bayezid II had a deep interest in Sufism; Talikizâde writes that he lived and worshipped like a member of the Sufi path and benefited from the spiritual depth of Şeyh Vefâ. The same passage also reports that he became a disciple of Şeyh Yavsi, father of Ebussuud Efendi, and spent most of his time fasting. Nevertheless, since it is not known when the ghazal was written, the phrase "salṭanat ‘unvānınuñ ġavgāları" in the fifth couplet cannot be tied to a particular event, such as the struggle for the throne; the couplet can also be read as a general statement placing the dervish life above sovereignty.

The manuscript variants do not change the meaning. In the third couplet "henüz" appears in T as "hemīn" (just, only), and in the last couplet "bir ‘abā" appears in OR as "bu ‘abā" (this cloak).

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2018, p. 46, poem no. 8; manuscript variants in the footnotes on the same page; introduction p. 23 (Bayezid II's interest in Sufism).

Online sources