Original Persian Text

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

Çirā ġulġul koned her dem ‘anādil
Ki dāred bī-tu pur-derd u ‘anā dil
Biyā tā yek demet gīrem der-āġūş
Ki der-hecr-i tu pur-ḫūn şod merā dil
Dilem bordī vu ġaflet mī numāyī
Kocā bīned diger ez-tū vefā dil
Be-vaṣl-i çun tu ḫūbī dārem ummīd
Vegerne çun keşed dā’im cefā dil
Çirā ber-āh-i ‘Adlī nīst raḥmet
Meger sengest cān-i men turā dil

In English

1. Why do the nightingales keep crying out every moment? Because without you they have a heart full of pain and distress. ("‘Anâdil" means in its dictionary sense nightingales; the "‘anâ dil" at the end of the second line, on the other hand, reads as "a distressed heart". "Gulgul" is the sound of clamour and warbling.)

2. Come, let me hold you in my arms for a moment, for in separation from you my heart has filled with blood.

3. You carried off my heart and now you pretend not to know; where then is the heart to find faithfulness from you?

4. I hope for union with a beauty like you; otherwise how could the heart go on suffering cruelty forever?

5. Why do you have no pity for Adlî's sighs? Or, my dear, is your heart made of stone? ("Cân-i men", that is "my soul, my dear", is an address to the beloved.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is Adlî's sixth Persian ghazal. It has five couplets and is written in the hezec metre "mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün fe‘ûlün". The redif (refrain word) is "dil" (heart), and the rhyme is the sound "-â": ‘anâ, merâ, vefâ, cefâ and turâ. The ghazal is number 159 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. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Fatih Başpınar corrects two places in this ghazal. In the third couplet Bayram had read "kocâ bended ger"; Başpınar recalls that in ta‘lik script the dots of the letters "be" and "ye" can be joined and written like three dots, and shows that the correct reading is "kocâ bîned diger" (where then is it to find). In the closing couplet the spelling of the manuscript lends itself to the reading "seg-nîst" (is not a dog), but this reading makes no sense. Başpınar proposes with the same letters the word "sengest" (is stone), and as an example of the idea of a heart of stone he cites Nahîfî's couplet "İy seng-dil itmez mi senüñ kalbüñe te’sîr / Hârâları hâkister iden âteş-i âhum". The text given here includes these corrections.

Bayezid's writing of Persian poetry can be considered together with the court's openness to poetry. Âşık Çelebi writes that in his time most of the learned men and the choicest of the dignitaries of state composed poetry and spent their time on verse and prose; he says the sultan himself, whenever he grew weary of the affairs of rule, would "condescend" (tenezzül) to poetry, that is, descend from the height of sovereignty into the valley of verse.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The most striking place in the ghazal is the opening couplet. The first line ends with the word "‘anâdil" (nightingales), the second with the phrase "‘anâ dil" (distressed heart). The same sounds carry two different meanings; this is an example of cinas (pun on identical sounds), and the couplet rests on this play of sound as it ties the nightingales' cries to the distress in their hearts. Here the nightingales' cry is tied to the distress of being apart from the beloved; nature too is thus made to share the lover's state. In this first couplet the redif "dil" works as though it were directly part of the rhyme.

From the second couplet onwards the redif "dil" names the lover's heart in every couplet. In the second couplet the heart has filled with blood through separation, and the lover asks for a moment's embrace. In the third couplet the beloved has carried off the heart and then behaves as if nothing had happened; there is a contrast between "gaflet" (heedlessness) and "vefâ" (faithfulness). The fourth couplet explains why cruelty is endured: the heart lives on the hope of union. "Ümîd" (hope) and "cefâ" (cruelty) are the two poles of this couplet.

The closing couplet sets Adlî's sighs against the beloved's heart of stone. The idea that the sigh is burning enough to melt even stone is also seen in the couplet by Nahîfî that Başpınar cites; in Adlî's couplet it is put in the form of a question. Addressing the beloved as "my dear", the lover asks whether the beloved's heart is stone. The intimacy shown to the beloved and the reproach directed at the beloved make up the two faces of the couplet.

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). 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

Academic studies

  • Fatih Başpınar, "Sultan II. Bayezid'in Farsça Şiirleri Üzerine", Divan Edebiyatı Araştırmaları Dergisi 8 (2012), pp. 37-66, poem no. 6 (text and translation p. 55; correction in the third couplet p. 46, correction in the closing couplet and Nahîfî's couplet pp. 47-48). Bayram 2008, p. 363, poem no. 159.

Online sources