Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘ilün fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün

Firāḳ u ḥasret-i rūy-ı nigārı mı diyelüm
Cefā vü cevr-i ġam-ı rūzgārı mı diyelüm
Belā vü miḫnet-i bī-ḥaddi mi beyān idelüm
Ya bu ġam u sitem-i bī-şümārı mı diyelüm
Ṣafā-yı verd-i ruḫı şevḳıyile bülbülvār
Bu her gün itdügimüz āh u zārı mı diyelüm
Henūz vaṣlı güline irişmedin çekin
Firāḳ elinden iren zaḫm-ı ḫārı mı diyelüm
Egerçi fürḳat-i dil-dāre ṣabr ider ‘Adlī
Bu fi‘line biz anuñ iḫtiyārı mı diyelüm

In English

1. Shall we speak of separation from the beloved's face and the longing for it, or of the torment and cruelty of the grief that the times (fortune) bring?

2. Shall we tell of boundless affliction and trouble, or shall we speak of this countless grief and injustice?

3. Shall we speak of the sighs and laments we utter every day like the nightingale, longing for the delight of the rose of that cheek?

4. Shall we speak of the wound of the thorn that reached us from the hand of separation, before we had even reached the rose of union? The meaning of the word "çekin" in this line is not clear; as printed in the edition the line appears to be two syllables short for the metre, so the rendering is approximate.

5. It is true that Adlî bears separation from the beloved with patience; but shall we say that he does this of his own free choice? The couplet implies that Adlî's patience is not something chosen but comes from helplessness.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has five couplets and is written in the müctes metre "mefâ‘ilün fe‘ilâtün mefâ‘ilün fe‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "mı diyelüm", "shall we say", and the rhyme is the sound "-ârı": nigârı, rûzgârı, bî-şümârı, zârı, hârı, ihtiyârı. In Bayram's edition it is number 84 and it is found only in the manuscripts M1 and M2; it is absent from OR, T and İBB. The variants recorded in the edition are in the opening couplet: M2 reads "nigâr" instead of "nigârı" and "rûzgâr" instead of "rûzgârı". The first line of the fourth couplet ("Henûz vaslı güline irişmedin çekin") has thirteen syllables as printed in the edition, whereas the metre requires fifteen; the footnotes give no explanation for this line. It is not known to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Every couplet of the ghazal is built on the same question pattern: "shall we speak of…?" The lover says he has so many sorrows to tell that he does not know where to begin. The pattern is a question of choice, but its real aim is to show how many the sorrows are. In the first two couplets the sorrows are listed one after another: separation and longing, torment and cruelty, affliction and trouble, grief and injustice. The adjectives "bî-hadd" (boundless) and "bî-şümâr" (countless) stress that the sorrows are beyond measure. This accumulating manner of expression sets out the subject of the ghazal clearly in its first two couplets.

The third and fourth couplets pass to the motif of the rose and the nightingale. "Verd" means rose; the beloved's cheek is the rose, and the lover the nightingale. Just as the nightingale sings for the rose, the lover sighs every day for the rose of the cheek. The fourth couplet shows the other face of this motif: there is no rose without a thorn. Before reaching the rose of union, the lover has already been wounded by the thorn of separation. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among rose, thorn and wound, and antithesis between union (vuslat) and separation (firak). Because of the deficiency of the line in the edition the meaning of the word "çekin" cannot be fully determined, but the general sense of the couplet is clear.

The final couplet turns the question pattern on the poet himself. Adlî appears to bear separation patiently, but the poet asks whether this patience is behaviour chosen by "ihtiyâr", that is, by his own will. The question carries its answer within it: the patience is shown not willingly but because there is no other way. "İhtiyâr", in its dictionary sense, means choice, will. This relation between patience and free choice sets the couplet apart from the rest of the ghazal; the lover who has been counting his sorrows ends by saying that his own patience is a sorrow too.

Bibliography

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018, p. 122, poem no. 84 (manuscript information in the footnote on p. 122). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr