Original Persian Text

Metre: Mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün (hezec)

Ser-i zulfeş çu ber-‘āriż futāde
Nişān-i ve’ḍ-duḥā ve’l-leyl dāde
Tuyī ān şeh-suvār-i kişver-i husn
Ki hestend cumle ḫūbānet piyāde
Eger sāḳī tu bāşī ‘āşiḳānrā
Ki nūşed ġayr-i ḫūn der-cāy-i bāde
Şehā ne dōst mī dārem ruḫet men
Heme kes dōst dāred rūy-i sāde
Be-‘Adlī kon guzer k’ū ez-ser-i mihr
Ruḫ-i iḫlāṣ ber-rāhet nihāde

In English

1. When the tip of your curl fell upon your cheek, it showed the sign of "ve'd-duhâ ve'l-leyl". (Başpınar refers here to verses 1-2 of the sura Duhâ. "Duhâ" means in its dictionary sense the forenoon, the bright hour of the day, and "leyl" night. The bright cheek shows the forenoon, and the dark curl falling on it shows the night.)

2. You are the master horseman, the champion rider of the realm of beauty; beside you all the beauties go on foot. ("Şeh-süvâr" means in its dictionary sense the finest of riders, the master horseman; "piyâde" means one on foot.)

3. If you are the cupbearer of the lovers, who will drink anything but blood in place of wine? (What falls to the lovers' share from the cup the beloved offers is the blood of the heart instead of wine.)

4. O shah, I do not love your face; for everyone loves a plain face. (The couplet can be understood in two ways: Başpınar gives two equivalents, "your face/your outward form" and "plain/beautiful face". "Rûy-i sâde" means in its dictionary sense both a beardless face on which the down has not yet appeared and a simple, unadorned face. The lover says he loves something beyond the appearance everyone loves.)

5. Pass by Adlî once; for out of his love he has laid the face of sincere devotion upon your road. ("Laying one's face on the road" means humbling oneself on the beloved's path, rubbing one's face in the dust; "ihlas" is heartfelt devotion.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is Adlî's eleventh Persian ghazal. It has five couplets and is written in the hezec metre "mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün fe‘ûlün". The ghazal has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is the sound "-âde": futâde, dâde, piyâde, bâde, sâde and nihâde. The ghazal is number 164 in Bayram's 2008 edition. According to the table in Bayram's 2018 edition it is found only in the T manuscript in the Egyptian National Library. According to Başpınar, Bayezid's Persian poems make up roughly one tenth of all his poems; T is also the only manuscript that gives all fourteen Persian ghazals together. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Fatih Başpınar prints the phrase "ve’d-duhâ ve’l-leyl" in the opening couplet in italics and cites verses 1-2 of the sura Duhâ in a footnote. In his text the second "d" in the word "ve’ḍ-duḥā" is printed without its dot; the text has been kept as it is here. The fourth couplet is one of Başpınar's examples of places "that should have been emended but were not". In Bayram's text the line began "Ne şehâ dûst mî-dârem ruhet men" and did not fit the metre. Başpınar shows that the negative "ne" and "şehâ" (O shah) must change places; the line thus fits the pattern "mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün fe‘ûlün" in the form "Şehâ ne dōst mî dârem ruhet men".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet describes the beloved's face with a fragment of a Qur'anic verse. The curl falling on the cheek sets light and darkness side by side. The brightness of the forenoon corresponds to the cheek, the darkness of night to the curl. Taking a fragment of a verse into a poem is the figure called iktibas (quotation from scripture); there is also a contrast (tezat) between light and darkness. The beloved's face thus appears as a scene by which two times are sworn at once.

The second couplet makes the beloved the champion rider of the realm of beauty and leaves all other beauties on foot beside the beloved. The words "şeh" (shah), "süvâr" (rider) and "piyâde" (on foot), while expressing the difference between the one on horseback and those on foot, also recall the king and pawn of chess. The congruence of images (tenasüp) between realm, rider and foot soldier sets up the world of beauty like an order of sovereignty and war. The third couplet uses the image of the cupbearer: if the beloved offers the lovers a cup, in their cup the blood of the heart takes the place of wine. The likeness in colour of wine and blood is the basis of this couplet.

The fourth couplet is the subtlest of the ghazal. The lover addresses the beloved as "O shah" and says he does not love the beloved's face, for everyone loves a plain face. Başpınar's paired translations show the two sides of the couplet: "rûy" means both face and outward form, "sâde" both beardless and simple. The lover's love is directed beyond the appearance everyone sees. The couplet uses this claim to heighten the degree of love. When one remembers that the poem's author was a sultan, his addressing the beloved as "şehâ" is also an example of the exchange of servant and shah seen in Adlî's ghazals.

The closing couplet ends with an invitation. Out of his love Adlî has laid the face of sincere devotion on the beloved's road and asks the beloved to pass by him. Laying the face on the road, considered together with the image of the rider in the second couplet, produces the scene of a lover laying his face on the road where the mounted beloved will pass.

Bibliography

  • Fatih Başpınar, "Sultan II. Bayezid'in Farsça Şiirleri Üzerine", Divan Edebiyatı Araştırmaları Dergisi 8 (2012), pp. 37-66, poem no. 11 (text, translation and the footnote citing the sura Duhâ p. 60; correction in the fourth couplet pp. 48-49). Bayram 2008, p. 369, poem no. 164.
  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018, pp. 30-32 (descriptions of the manuscripts and Table 4). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Online sources