Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ruḫlarına ol sitem-ger sünbül-i pür-çīn ṣalup
Fitne ṣaldı dīne iki kāfir-i bī-dīn ṣalup
Vādi-i ġamdan geçemez zülf ü ḫaddüñ fikr ile
‘Āşıḳuñ şeb-dīz-i āh u eşk-i gül-gūnın ṣalup
Gözleri cellādına virmiş müje ḫançerlerin
Düzd-i dil aṣmaġa iki kākül-i miskīn ṣalup
Dür dişüñ yādıyla bīdārem şeb-i hicrüñde ben
Gözlerümden ṣubḥ olınca ḫūşe-i Pervīn ṣalup
Ṣabr ile ġam naḳdidür ‘ālemde varı neylesün
‘Adli geldi ḫāk-i pāyuña yoġ u varın ṣalup

In English

1. That cruel beauty let her curling, hyacinth-like locks fall over her cheeks; letting loose two faithless infidels (her two dark tresses), she let loose sedition upon the faith.

2. Thinking of your tress and your cheek, the lover cannot cross the valley of grief, even when he spurs on the night-black steed of his sighs (Şebdîz) and the rose-coloured steed of his tears (Gülgûn). (A sigh is dark as smoke; tears mixed with blood are rose-red. The two epithets recall the famous horse names of the story of Hüsrev and Şîrîn.)

3. Her eyes have handed the daggers of her lashes to their executioners, and she has let down her two musk-scented locks (like ropes) to hang the thief of hearts.

4. On the night of separation from you I lie awake remembering your pearl-like teeth, shedding from my eyes until morning tears like the cluster of the Pleiades.

5. All he owns in this world is the ready coin of patience and grief; what can he do? Adlî has come to the dust beneath your feet, casting away all he has and has not.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets. Its metre is the remel pattern of aruz (quantitative metre), "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "ṣalup" (letting go, letting fall), and the rhyme is the "-īn" sound of "pür-çīn, bī-dīn, miskīn, Pervīn"; in the second and fifth couplets this sound is caught as a short "-ın" in "gül-gūnın" and "varın". The ghazal is number 9 in Bayram's edition and stands at the head of the section of the divan given to ghazals ending in the letter b (Ḥarfü'l-bā’); it belongs there because "ṣalup" in the redif ends with the letter be in the Arabic script. It is found in the OR, T, M1 and M2 manuscripts and is absent from İBB. It is not known to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The skill of the ghazal lies in its redif. The verb "salmak" is used with a different meaning in each couplet: in the first line hair is let fall over the cheeks, in the second sedition is let loose; in the second couplet a horse is spurred on, in the third a lock is let down like a rope, in the fourth tears are shed, and in the last everything one has is cast off and left behind. Changing the meaning of the same word from couplet to couplet keeps the redif from becoming a monotonous repetition.

The first couplet describes the beloved's hair from two sides. The curling dark hair is first likened to hyacinth; in the second line the two tresses become "two faithless infidels". In divan poetry the darkness of the tress evokes unbelief and the brightness of the face evokes faith; hair falling over the face thus appears as sedition let loose upon religion. Between "dīn" (faith) and "bī-dīn" (faithless) there is both a closeness of sound and a contrast.

The second couplet is the richest in the ghazal. "Şeb-dīz" means "night-coloured, jet-black" and "gül-gūn" "rose-coloured". The sigh rises from the lover's breast black as smoke; the tear is red because it is mixed with blood. The poet attaches these two epithets to things that are spurred on like horses, and sigh and tear become two steeds trying to carry the lover across the valley of grief. Şebdîz is the name of the legendary horse of Hüsrev Pervîz, the Sasanian ruler of Iran; in the story of Hüsrev and Şîrîn as shaped by Nizâmî, this horse is one of four blessings promised to Hüsrev, and Şîrîn sets out on Şebdîz to find him. The name Gülgûn is also mentioned together with Şebdîz: one of the unfinished works of Âhî, a poet of the reign of Bayezid II, bears the title "Rivâyet-i Gülgûn u Şebdîz". The two epithets in the couplet therefore also call to mind two famous horses for a reader who knows the story, and form a double entendre (tevriye). For all this speed, the lover cannot cross the valley of grief. In the T manuscript "kim gice gündüz" is read in place of "şeb-dīz-i āh u"; with this reading the line means "shedding rose-coloured tears night and day", and the image of the horse is lost.

The third couplet is a scene of execution. The beloved's eyes have handed the daggers of her lashes to their executioners; because the heart has committed theft, the locks are let down like a rope to hang it. A congruence of images (tenasüp) is built among eye, lash, lock, executioner and dagger. The word "miskīn" can mean both "musk-scented" and "wretched, humble"; the first meaning suggests the scent of the hair, the second its hanging down to the ground.

In the fourth couplet the lover lies sleepless on the night of separation and weeps until morning, thinking of the beloved's pearl teeth. Pervîn is one of the names used in literary texts for the star cluster of the Pleiades (Ülker, Süreyyâ). In divan poetry these bright stars, arranged in two rows, are likened to an ear of grain, a cluster of grapes, a necklace and the beloved's teeth. Adlî joins these two comparisons: the tears that recall the pearl teeth fall row upon row like the cluster of the Pleiades. There is also a congruence of images among night, sleeplessness and star.

The pen name appears in the last couplet. All the lover owns in the world is patience and grief; the word "naḳd" (ready coin) turns these two feelings into capital held in hand. The phrase "yoġ u var" can be understood both as "whatever he has and has not" and as "existence and non-existence". Adlî casts all of these away and comes to the dust beneath the beloved's feet; the beloved who lets her hair fall in the first couplet is answered in the last by the lover who lets go of all he has.

The manuscript variants are limited. In the first couplet "sünbül" appears in T as "kākül" (forelock), and in the fourth couplet "Pervīn" appears in M1 as "Perdīn".

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications, 2018, p. 47, poem no. 9; manuscript variants in the footnotes on the same page.

Academic studies

Online sources