Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün

Ṭūbā boyuñ ki vaṣf idicek müntehā ḳılam
Medḥ-i lebüñde sözlerümi cān-fezā ḳılam
‘Işḳuñ kerāmetinde raḳībi helāk içün
Zülfüñ ‘aṣā-yı Mūsa gibi ejdehā ḳılam
Cān virmek ise ‘ışḳ işinüñ ger nihāyeti
‘Işḳ ehli intihāsını ben ibtidā ḳılam
Ḫāk-i vücūdumı ne ḳadar bī-behāyise
İksīr-i ḫāk-i pāyuñ ile kīmyā ḳılam
Bir kerre iltifāt ile ḳulum durur diseñ
‘Adlī'yi milk-i ‘āleme ben pādşā ḳılam

In English

1. When I set out to describe your stature, which is like the Tûbâ tree of Paradise, let me raise it to the highest point that can be reached (müntehâ); and in praising your lip, let me make my words words that put new life into the soul.

2. To destroy the rival through the miraculous power of love for you, let me turn your curling lock into a dragon, like the staff of Moses.

3. If the end of love's business is to give up one's life, then let me make the end that the people of love arrive at my starting point.

4. However worthless the dust of my being may be, let me use the dust of your feet as an elixir and turn it into alchemy (the product of the old art that turns earth into gold).

5. If just once you show me favour and say "he is my servant", I will make Adlî sovereign over the realm of the world; that is, to be counted your servant is worth to me as much as the rule of the whole world.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has five couplets and is written in the muzâri metre "mef‘ûlü fâ‘ilâtü mefâ‘îlü fâ‘ilün". Its redif (refrain word) is "kılam" (let me make), and the rhyme is the sound "-â": müntehâ, cân-fezâ, ejdehâ, ibtidâ, kîmyâ, pâdşâ. It is number 92 in Bayram's edition and is found in all five manuscripts (OR, T, M1, M2, İBB). The variants recorded in the edition are few: in the fourth couplet İBB reads "bî-behâya pes" instead of "bî-behâyise", and in the final couplet "‘Adlî'mi" instead of "‘Adlî'yi"; in T the word "ben" in the last line is replaced by "bir". 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 verbal mood, a language of intention and promise ending in "let me make". The lover lists what he could do for the beloved, and in each couplet he speaks of turning something ordinary into something extraordinary: words into something that puts new life into the soul, the lock of hair into a dragon, the end into a beginning, dust into gold, the servant into a sovereign.

The opening couplet begins with images of Paradise. Tûbâ is, in the Islamic tradition, the name of a tree in Paradise, and in divan poetry it serves as an object of comparison for the stature of the beloved or of the person being praised. In divan poetry Tûbâ is often mentioned together with the Sidre, another tree of Paradise; the name Sidretü'l-müntehâ ties the word "müntehâ" to the same circle of images. Ahmed Paşa's couplet "Tûbâ boyun çü cennet-i kûyunda salına / Cibrîl sidreden diye doğrusu müntehâ" and Cem Sultan's couplet in which he uses the words sidre and "müntehâ" for the beloved's stature are other examples from the period of the same congruence of images (tenasüp). In Adlî's opening couplet, too, "Tûbâ" and "müntehâ" stand side by side; describing the beloved's stature is equated with climbing to the highest limit of Paradise.

The second couplet alludes to the staff of the Prophet Moses. In the Qur'an the staff of Moses turns into a serpent before the sorcerers, and this miracle is a frequently used element in Islamic-Turkish literature. The poet likens the beloved's curling lock to the creature the staff became and wishes to turn it into a dragon that will destroy the rival. The word "keramet" recalls the extraordinary powers of saints, and "asâ-yı Mûsâ" a prophet's miracle; there is a congruence of images between these words.

The third couplet is built on antithesis. "Nihâyet" and "intihâ" mean end, "ibtidâ" means beginning. If the final point the people of love reach is giving up their lives, Adlî says he will make this the first step of his own love. The fourth couplet uses the language of old alchemy: "iksir", in its dictionary sense, is the substance believed to turn metals into gold, and "kîmyâ" in the same circle denotes the art of obtaining gold and its product. The lover's being is worthless dust, but when the dust of the beloved's feet takes the place of the elixir, this dust turns into something precious. The repetition of the word "hâk" (dust) in both lines brings out the contrast between worthless dust and precious dust.

The closing couplet (makta) plainly carries a situation often found in Adlî's poems. The lover asks only that the beloved once say "he is my servant", and in return says he will count himself "sovereign over the realm of the world". In the usual language of divan poetry the beloved is the shah and the lover the servant; here, however, the one who wrote the couplet really was a sovereign. Placing servitude above sovereignty therefore awakens a second meaning in the reader. The phrasing "let me make Adlî sovereign" is also worth noting: the poet speaks of himself in the third person and presents sovereignty as something to be won by a single word from the beloved.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018, p. 130, poem no. 92 (manuscript information in the footnote on the same page). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

Online sources