Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Uykuda dün gice cânum gibi cânân gördüm
Ten-i efsürdede kalkup eser-i cân gördüm
Leblerün hasta iken ağzuma aldum billâh
Ey tabîb-i dil ü cân derdüme dermân gördüm
Edrine gerçi güzeller yiridür ey hem-dem
Bursa’da dahı nice dilber-i fettân gördüm
Nâgehân kadre irüp dün gice ben Kapluca’da
Bir gümişden yapılı serv-i hırâmân gördüm
Ey Murâdî şeh-i devrân iken el’ân seni
Zülfine kılmış esîr ol şeh-i hûbân gördüm

In English

1. Last night in my sleep I saw the beloved, dear to me as my own soul; in my numbed body life stirred, I saw a sign of life.

2. While sick I took your lips into my mouth, by God; O physician of heart and soul, I found the cure for my pain (in them). The line can also be understood as "while your lips were sick (languid)".

3. O companion, Edirne is indeed the home of beauties; but in Bursa too I saw many a charming beauty who stirs up trouble.

4. Last night at Kaplıca, suddenly reaching a joy like the Night of Power, I saw a swaying cypress-tall beauty as if made of silver.

5. O Murâdî, while you are now the sultan of the age, I saw that sultan of the beauties holding you captive in his locks.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Dream, Two Cities

Among the poems attributed to Murad II, this dream ghazal alone names places. Edirne and Bursa are mentioned side by side in the couplet as homes of beauties; then comes Kaplıca. That Kaplıca is named right after Bursa suggests that one of Bursa's famous thermal baths is meant, but the text does not say so explicitly. Murad II's life passed between these two cities: in Edirne he built the Üç Şerefeli Mosque and died there, in Bursa he founded his mosque complex (külliye) and, by his will, was buried in Bursa beside his son Alâeddin Ali. That Istanbul is not mentioned at all also fits the mid-fifteenth century, when the city had not yet been conquered. This observation is not found in the sources and does not prove that the poem is Murad II's; a later poet could also have named the old capitals.

The frame of the ghazal is a dream. In the matla (opening couplet) the poet sees the beloved in his sleep and life comes to his numbed body; the closeness of sound and meaning between "cân" (soul) and "cânân" (beloved), a form of paronomasia and derivation (cinas and iştikak), carries this revival into the words. In the second couplet the beloved's lip becomes a remedy for illness. In divan poetry the beloved's lip is held to be a source of healing that grants life and revives the dead, and the address "tabîb-i dil ü cân" (physician of heart and soul) leans on this conventional image (mazmun). The oath "billâh" (by God) in the same couplet stresses the sincerity of the words.

The Silver Cypress and the Captive Sultan

The fourth couplet is the most vivid picture in the ghazal. "Kadre irmek", to reach the Night of Power (Kadir gecesi), means to attain a great and unexpected grace; the poet likens the beauty he saw at Kaplıca to such a blessed night. In the simile "gümişden yapılı serv-i hırâmân" the beloved's stature is likened to a cypress and the skin to silver; "hırâmân" means walking with a sway, coquettishly. The setting of the baths gives the image of the silver-skinned beauty an added reality.

The final couplet closes with a witticism fitting in a sultan's mouth. Murâdî is the sultan of the age (şeh-i devrân), but the sultan of the beauties (şeh-i hûbân) has made him captive in his locks. The correspondence between the two "şeh" is an instance of repetition and antithesis (tekrir and tezat): the ruler of the world is a captive in the land of love. The likening of the locks to a chain and the lover to a captive is one of the well-known conventional images of divan poetry.

Attribution and Form

Naming Edirne and Bursa is not enough to settle who wrote the poem. With no trace in the sixteenth-century tezkires, the dream ghazal has reached us through Sultanların Şiirleri, Şiirlerin Sultanları, published in 2012, and the dictionary entry that quotes from it; the citation does not say which manuscript it comes from. İsen's caution on language, that not every piece credited to Murad II fits the fifteenth century, covers this ghazal as well. Because the pen name is shared, the poet who addresses himself as "Ey Murâdî" in the final couplet may also be Murad III.

In this five-couplet ghazal the redif is "gördüm" (I saw), and the rhyme rests on "-ân" in "cânân, cân, dermân, fettân, hırâmân, hûbân". The remel pattern "fâilâtün feilâtün feilâtün fa'lün" fits the lines; no source says so, and the pattern comes from our own scansion. To whom it was written and who the beauty at Kaplıca was are not known. Murad II's other poems can be read in Murâdî (Sultan Murad II): Poet and Works, his life in Murad II: The Sultan Born in Amasya Who Took the Throne Twice.

Bibliography

Online sources