Original Arabic Text

Metre: fâilâtün mefâilün feilün (hafîf). The edition records no metre for the Arabic couplet; we identified the hafîf pattern.

Âh min azmatin bi-gayri iyâb
Âh min hasretin ale’l-ahbâb

In English

1. Alas for a departure with no return; alas for longing for the friends.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This couplet is the only Arabic piece in the edition. It is not found in the Millet manuscript; as Doğan indicates, it stands on page 28 of Ali Emîrî's Cevâhirü'l-Mülûk, a work collecting the poems of sultans. The edition gives the couplet only in Latin script. Since it is not stated which older source Ali Emîrî used, the attribution rests on a late record.

The two lines rhyme with each other: "iyâb" (return) and "ahbâb" (friends) meet in the sound "-âb". Each line begins with the same words, "Âh min" (alas for); this repetition brings the couplet close to the refrain of a lament. The metre is the "fâilâtün mefâilün feilün" pattern of hafîf, a metre also used in Arabic and Persian poetry.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet sets two griefs side by side. The first is "azmatin bi-gayri iyâb", a departure with no return. The word "azm" carries the senses of intention and setting out on a journey; a journey without return is often a figure for death in Arabic poetry, but it may also be exile or a final parting. The second is longing for the friends left behind. The couplet names these two griefs without explaining them, saying only "alas"; there is no record of for whom or on what occasion it was spoken. Unlike the love ghazals of the divan, there is neither beloved nor conceit here; the words are plain and as short as a sentence of mourning. The sources state that Mehmed II knew Arabic well; but there is no other Arabic poem of his with which this couplet can be compared.

Bibliography

  • Fâtih Sultan Mehmed (Avnî), Fâtih Dîvânı ve Şerhi / Dīwān of Sultan Mehmed II with Commentary, ed. Muhammet Nur Doğan, English trans. Michael D. Sheridan, 3rd ed., Istanbul: Türkiye Yazma Eserler Kurumu Başkanlığı, 2023, poem 81, p. 555 (not in Millet 305; Ali Emîrî, Cevâhirü'l-Mülûk, p. 28). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx

Online sources