Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilün

Ḥamdulillâh oldu Âdâbü’l-müeddeb ihtimâm
Oḳuyan iḫvânımız olsun hemîşe feyż-yâb
Baş ḳoyup meyḫâne-i taḥḳīḳa te’lîf eyledim
Sâlikânı baḥr-i ‘aşḳa eyler elbet inciẕâb
İnşirâḥ îrâs̱ eder dâ’im ḳılıp ‘âşıḳa
Bî-keder eyler sülûk-ı erbâbın eyler neş’e-yâb
Müdde‘î eylerse râh-ı Ḥaḳḳ’a ger kim ‘itirâż
Var derûnunda mufaṣsal münkire ḥâżır cevâb
‘Âşıḳāne diñle târiḫ söyledim Mir’ât-nümâ
Oḳu Âdâbü’l-müeddeb elde zîbâ-ḫûb kitâb

In English

1. Praise be to God, Âdâbü'l-müeddeb was completed with care; may our brothers who read it always find grace.

2. Laying my head at the tavern of verification I composed it; it surely draws travellers into the sea of love.

3. It always leaves the lover with ease of heart; it makes the people of the journey free of sorrow and joyful.

4. If the claimant objects to the road of God, within it there is a detailed answer ready for the denier.

5. Mir'ât-nümâ, listen as a lover, I have spoken a chronogram: “Read Âdâbü'l-müeddeb, a fine and lovely book in hand.”

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Book's Last Word

The book's last poem goes in the edition only by the heading “Diger”, another; these five couplets are the work's second chronogram of completion. The metre is the familiar four-foot remel, and the rhymes end in the Persian “-yâb”: feyż-yâb, inciẕâb, neş'e-yâb, cevâb, kitâb. Beneath it, again, stands the note “Sene 1296”.

What the book is for is counted out in a few couplets: it gives grace to the reader, draws travellers into the sea of love, leaves the lover ease of heart and the people of the journey joy. The fourth couplet recalls the polemical side of the book: for the claimant who objects to the road of God, for the denier, there is within it a detailed answer ready. This couplet shows that the sections on rabıta, silent remembrance, the Companions and the sürh-ser were also written as a book of answers.

The “meyḫâne-i taḥḳīḳ”, tavern of verification, of the second couplet returns one last time to the rake's language of the book's ghazals: the poet wrote his work by laying his head at that tavern. The last couplet is the chronogram couplet and ends with a direct call to the reader: “Oḳu Âdâbü'l-müeddeb elde zîbâ-ḫûb kitâb”, read Âdâbü'l-müeddeb, a fine and lovely book in hand. This line too should yield 1296, though the edition does not work out the sum.

Bibliography

Online sources