Original Persian Text

Metre: Fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün (remel)

Ey zi-‘anber raḳamī ber-şeker-i nāb zede
V’ez-ḫam-i zulf-i girih ber-gul-i sīr-āb zede
Tā şebī dīd meh-i nev ḫam-i ebrū-yi turā
Der-ser-i surme ez-ān rū zi-ġameş tāb zede
Kuşte-i ġamze-i ān nergis-i mestem ki niyāz
Pāsbān-i muje her dem reh-i miḥrāb zede
Ḫoş maḳāmīst dil-efrūz furūd ā ki zi-eşk
Manẓar-i çeşm-i merā dil [ki] zi-beyt āb zede
Tā ki ‘Adlī ruḫ-i çun māh-i turā dīd revān
Ṭa‘ne ber-ṭal‘at-i ḫurşīd-i cihān-tāb zede

In English

1. O beloved who has traced a line in ambergris upon pure sugar and tied knots with the curve of your curl upon the fresh rose. ("Anber" means in its dictionary sense a dark, fragrant substance; "rakam" means writing, a line. Sugar suggests the lips and the fresh rose the cheek; the writing in ambergris may point to the dark down around the lips.)

2. One night the new moon saw the curve of your eyebrow; since then, from grief for you, it has stayed curled at the tip of the kohl. (The couplet is obscure. The line has "ebrû", that is eyebrow; Başpınar, however, translates "the curve of your hair". The crescent, having seen the beloved's eyebrow, has bent double with envy.)

3. I am one slain by the glance of that drunken narcissus eye; my supplication turns towards the mihrab, but the guard of the eyelashes bars the way to the mihrab at every moment. (In divan poetry the curved eyebrow is likened to a mihrab, the prayer niche; the eyelashes are the guards keeping watch before this mihrab. Başpınar understands the couplet as "I pray to die by the cruel glance of that drunken eye. But the guard of the eyelashes holds the way to the mihrab at every moment".)

4. The window of my eye is a lovely dwelling that gladdens the heart; come, alight here, for the heart has sprinkled it with water from tears. (The couplet is obscure. Başpınar translates "since the house of the heart took in water from the tears flowing down, the window of our eye has become a lovely, heart-gladdening station; come". "Âb zeden" means in its dictionary sense to sprinkle water; sprinkling water on the place where a guest is to arrive suggests preparing to welcome the guest. The "ki" in square brackets is a word Başpınar added to the text.)

5. As soon as Adlî saw your moon-like face, he reproached the face of the world-illuminating sun.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is Adlî's twelfth Persian ghazal. It has five couplets and is written in the remel metre "fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "zede" (has struck, has made), and the rhyme is the sound "-âb": nâb, sîr-âb, tâb, mihrâb, âb and cihân-tâb. The ghazal is number 165 in Bayram's 2008 edition. According to the table in Bayram's 2018 edition it is found in three manuscripts: OR in the British Library, İBB in Istanbul and T in the Egyptian National Library. It is one of the two Persian ghazals found in three manuscripts; the other is ghazal 157. To whom and when it was written is not known.

The OR manuscript in which the ghazal is found is named in Bayram's TEİS entry as the soundest manuscript of the divan. Bayram, judging by the spelling features of OR, says it may have been written in the early 1500s. This manuscript contains 3 Persian ghazals alongside 134 Turkish ones, and on its first page there are two riddle poems (muamma), one of them in Persian. In İBB only two of the 106 ghazals are in Persian, and this ghazal is one of them. By Fatih Başpınar's count Bayezid's seventeen Persian poems make up roughly one tenth of all his poems. The text is the one he established by correcting the readings of Bayram 2008.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is one of the densest in motifs among Adlî's Persian poems. The opening couplet describes the beloved's face like a picture or a piece of writing. There is a line traced in ambergris upon sugar, and knots of curls tied upon the fresh rose. The words sugar, ambergris and rose bring together the senses of taste, smell and colour. The redif "zede" expresses an action in every couplet: tracing a line, tying a knot, curling, barring the way, sprinkling water and reproaching.

The second couplet is built on an idea close to hüsn-i talil (fanciful aetiology). The curved shape of the crescent is attributed to its having seen the beloved's eyebrow and curled up with grief. Finding an unreal cause for the state of a heavenly body fits the definition of this figure. The third couplet uses the simile of eyebrow and mihrab. The lover has been slain by the glance of the eye, and his supplication turns to the mihrab, that is, the beloved's eyebrow, but the eyelashes bar this way like guards. The words "niyâz" (supplication) and "mihrâb" are taken from the world of worship; this closeness between love and worship is often seen in divan poetry.

The fourth couplet is the most obscure of the ghazal. In Başpınar's translation the house of the heart has taken in water from tears, and the window of the eye has become a lovely station. The dictionary sense of the lines, however, also suggests a scene inviting the beloved to be a guest at the window of the eye. In both readings there is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between eye, tears and house. The closing couplet compares the sun and the moon. On seeing the beloved's moon face, Adlî has reproached even the world-illuminating sun. Holding the moon above the sun is a hyperbole (mübalağa) saying that the beloved's beauty puts in the shade the brightest being of the sky.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • 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; OR manuscript pp. 30-31). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Fatih Başpınar, "Sultan II. Bayezid'in Farsça Şiirleri Üzerine", Divan Edebiyatı Araştırmaları Dergisi 8 (2012), pp. 37-66, poem no. 12 (text and translation p. 61). Bayram 2008, p. 369, poem no. 165.

Books

Online sources