Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

İy süvār-ı esb-i nāz olan rikāb-ı cāna baṣ
Ḥüsn meydānı senüñdür ayaġuñ merdāne baṣ

In English

1. O beauty, rider of the horse of coquetry, step upon the stirrup of my soul; the field of beauty is yours, set your foot down boldly, without hesitation. (One who mounts a horse puts his foot in the stirrup; the lover asks the beloved to use his soul as a stirrup when mounting. Merdâne literally means manly, valiant.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a single-couplet matla (opening couplet) written in the remel metre "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "bas" (step); the rhyme rests on the "-âne / -âna" sound in the words "câna" and "merdâne". Of the biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire), Âşık Çelebi, Beyânî and Kınalızâde write the first line as "rikâb-ı câne bas", so that the rhyme of the two lines meets in "-âne". Latîfî, however, reads "câna", as in the edition. In Bayram's edition it is number 149 in the "Matla‘lar" section, and according to the edition's footnote it is found in only one of the five manuscripts, M2 (35b). Although it appears so rarely in the manuscripts of the divan, as related below, it is quoted in four tezkires as an example of Adlî's poetry. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet is built on images of horsemanship and the riding ground. The beloved is a rider mounted on a horse of coquetry; the lover's soul is the beloved's stirrup; beauty is a field, and this field belongs wholly to the beloved. There is a clear congruence of images (tenasüp) among the words süvâr (rider), esb (horse), rikâb (stirrup), meydân (field), foot and stepping. In the phrases "esb-i nâz" (horse of coquetry) and "hüsn meydânı" (field of beauty), abstract notions, coquetry and beauty, are likened to concrete things, a horse and a field. The lover's laying his own soul beneath the beloved's foot is an expression of humility and surrender often met in divan poetry.

Rikâb literally means stirrup. According to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, among the Seljuks and the Ottomans the word was also used for the sultan himself, his presence and his court; for the presence of the padishah the phrase "rikâb-ı hümâyun" was more commonly used. No source states that this second meaning is intended in the couplet. Even so, when one recalls that the couplet was composed by a padishah, it is striking that a word which also denoted the sultan's presence is here given to the lover's soul, and that the beloved is told to "step on it".

The second line is spoken entirely in plain, everyday language: "Hüsn meydânı senüñdür ayaġuñ merdâne baṣ". The term "sehl-i mümteni‘" that Âşık Çelebi uses for this couplet literally means speech that looks easy but cannot be matched. That the couplet keeps ornate phrases and plain diction together may have played a part in its popularity in the tezkires; this is an interpretation, as the tezkires give no reason.

Historical Context

In the tezkires of Latîfî, Âşık Çelebi, Beyânî and Kınalızâde this couplet is chosen as an example of Adlî's poetry. Sehî, on the other hand, gives another matla and the couplet sent to Cem Sultan in his entry on Sultan Bayezid. Latîfî, in the entry on Sultan Bayezid, says that the poet took the pen name "Adlî" because he was as just as Kisrâ at the gate of justice, and that in the manner of the ghazal (gazel) he surpassed his forefathers; he gives this couplet as a "matla‘-ı matbû‘" (an admired matla). Âşık Çelebi, in Meşâirü'ş-şuarâ, relates that whenever weariness came upon the padishah from the burden of rule and the affairs of the realm, he would "condescend" to poetry, and he quotes the couplet saying "sehl-i mümteni‘ vâki‘ olmışdur" (it has turned out to be sehl-i mümteni‘). Beyânî and Kınalızâde also give this couplet in their entries on Sultan Bayezid.

Immediately after this Turkish matla, Âşık Çelebi, Beyânî and Kınalızâde also list a Persian matla by Adlî and the nazires (response poems) that the poets of the age wrote to it. Bayezid's identity as a poet in the tezkires is thus built on two couplets: this Turkish matla, and the Persian matla to which many poets wrote nazires.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018, p. 186, poem no. 149 (manuscript information in the footnote on the same page). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Latîfî, Tezkiretü'ş-Şuarâ ve Tabsıratü'n-Nuzamâ, ed. Rıdvan Canım, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), p. 101 (entry on Sultan Bâyezîd). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Âşık Çelebi, Meşâirü'ş-şuarâ, ed. Filiz Kılıç, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), p. 72 (entry on Sultan Bâyezîd). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Beyânî, Tezkiretü'ş-Şu'arâ, ed. Aysun Sungurhan, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2017 (e-book), p. 14, entry on Sultan Bâyezîd. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi, Tezkiretü'ş-Şu'arâ, ed. Aysun Sungurhan, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2017 (e-book), p. 132, entry on Sultan Bâyezîd. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

Online sources