Original Persian Text

Metre: Fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün (remel)

Hest gūyā nergis ez-ḫayl-i ġulāmāneş ki ū
Düşmeneşrā her zemān ber-farḳ-i şeşper mī zened
Geşt duşmen ḫāricu’l-merkez ez-ān rū rumḥ-ı tū
Ḫvīşrā ber-ḳalb-i ū çun ḫaṭṭ-i miḥver mī zened

In English

1. The narcissus seems to belong to the army of his servants, for at every moment it strikes his enemy on the head with a mace. ("Şeşper" means in its dictionary sense a mace with a six-flanged head. Başpınar explains "narcissus" in brackets as "eye"; in divan poetry the narcissus stands for the eye.)

2. Because your spear has driven itself into the enemy's heart like the line of an axis, the enemy has been left outside the centre. ("Hâricü'l-merkez" means in its dictionary sense lying outside the centre; "mihver" is axis and "hatt" line. The word "kalb" means both heart and, in its dictionary sense, the centre division of an army.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is Adlî's only Persian kıt‘a (fragment). It has two couplets and is written in the remel metre "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The kıt‘a is a short verse form with no opening couplet, in which only the second lines of the couplets rhyme; here too the first line of the first couplet does not enter the rhyme. The redif (refrain word) is "mî zened" (strikes), and the rhyme is the sound "-er" in the words "şeşper" and "mihver". The poem is number 168 in Bayram's 2008 edition. According to the table in Bayram's 2018 edition it is found, of the five manuscripts, only in M2, copied by Ali Emîrî Efendi. Bayram states plainly that the kıt‘a and matlas in the section of M2 where Ali Emîrî collected Bayezid's Persian poems are not found in the other manuscripts. To whom and on what occasion it was written is not stated in the sources.

The second couplet of this kıt‘a is one of Fatih Başpınar's examples of metrical errors. In Bayram's text the second line began with the word "Hûbeşrâ" (his beautiful one). According to Başpınar this word was misread first in terms of metre and then of meaning; it must be "hvîşrâ" (itself), whose spelling in Arabic letters is very similar. The readings "Kuşt" and "ez-ân red" in the first line are likewise corrected to "Geşt" and "ez-ân rû". In Başpınar's article this poem is referred to as "the only Persian kıt‘a in Adlî's divan".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The language of the kıt‘a is the language of war. In the first couplet the narcissus is imagined as a soldier from someone's army of servants and strikes the enemy on the head with a mace. In divan poetry the narcissus stands for the eye; the couplet therefore also suggests that the glance of the beloved, or of the person praised, strikes down the enemy like a weapon. Who the person referred to in the third person as "his" is, the kıt‘a does not say.

In the second couplet the address shifts to the second person: "your spear". The couplet is built with terms of geometry. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between the words "merkez" (centre), "mihver" (axis) and "hatt" (line). The spear has been driven into the enemy's heart like the line of an axis, and the enemy has fallen "outside the centre". The word "kalb" can be read here in both its senses: the enemy's heart and the centre of an army. The spear piercing the enemy's heart and scattering the centre of his army are thus expressed in the same words. This double meaning creates a tevriye (double entendre) in the couplet. The phrase "hâricü'l-merkez" also evokes both a geometrical deviation from the centre and the breaking of the enemy's order.

Since it is not known to whom the kıt‘a was written, it cannot be said with certainty whether its images of war are directed at a eulogy or at a beloved. The words mace, spear, army and enemy recall the praise of a ruler or a commander; the sense of the narcissus as the eye, on the other hand, points to the world of love poetry.

Bibliography

  • Fatih Başpınar, "Sultan II. Bayezid'in Farsça Şiirleri Üzerine", Divan Edebiyatı Araştırmaları Dergisi 8 (2012), pp. 37-66, kıt‘a no. 1 (text and translation p. 64; correction in the second couplet pp. 40-41). Bayram 2008, p. 373, poem no. 168.
  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018, pp. 30 and 33 (Table 4; the Persian section in M2 p. 33). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Online sources