Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef'ûlü fâilâtü mefâîlü fâilün (muzâri). The muzâri pattern does not appear in the edition; the identification is ours.

Ebr-i müjem ayağuña gevher-nisârdur
Mir’ât-ı dil cemâlüñe âyîne-dârdur
Dil hânesine kılsa hayâlüñ şehi nüzûl
Yüzüm bisâtı ayağına zer-nigârdur
Zehr-i firâk gerçi dili haste eyledi
Vasluñ şerâbına yine ümmîd-vârdur
Cânum ümîdvâr-durur tîğ-i gamzeñe
Gözüm izüñ türâbına pür-intizârdur
Bî-ihtiyâr yârini kendüye râm ider
‘Avnî anuñ ki tâli‘i vü bahtı yârdur

In English

1. The cloud of my eyelashes scatters pearls at your feet; the mirror of my heart holds a mirror up to your beauty.

2. If the king of your image should lodge in the house of my heart, the carpet of my face would become a gold-embroidered spread beneath his feet.

3. The poison of separation has made my heart sick, yet the heart still hopes for the wine of union with you.

4. My soul hopes for the sword of your glance; my eye waits with longing for the dust of your footprint.

5. O Avnî, whoever has fortune and luck as a friend binds his beloved to himself without even trying.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal builds no story; its five short couplets, each closed in itself, move forward through one comparison after another. The metre is the "mef'ûlü fâilâtü mefâîlü fâilün" pattern of muzâri. The suffix "-dur" serves as redif; the rhyme falls on "-âr", as in "nisâr, dâr, nigâr, vâr, intizâr, yâr".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first two couplets draw on two customs. The opening couplet has the lover's eyelashes, like a cloud, scatter pearls at the beloved's feet; Doğan sees here an allusion to the custom of scattering coins and sweets (saçı) at a bride's feet and to the bride being adorned before a mirror by the woman called "meşşâta". The tears become the scattered gifts, and the heart the mirror held up while the bride is adorned. Next the beloved's image comes as a guest to the house of the heart like a king. To entertain this exalted guest, the lover spreads his face, yellowed by the pain of love, beneath his feet like a gold-embroidered carpet. Doğan links this to the custom of "pâyendaz", the spreading of precious cloths beneath the hooves of the sultan's horse when he came to a place. The likeness in colour between the yellow of gold and a face yellowed by sickness is the basis of the comparison.

The third couplet sets poison against wine: the poison of separation has made the heart sick, but its cure is the wine of union. The fourth couplet holds two kinds of waiting. The soul waits for the sword of the beloved's glance; made of tempered steel, the sword calls up water in divan poetry, and in Doğan's explanation the lover burning in the fire of separation wants it like water to quench his thirst. The eye waits for the dust of the beloved's footprint; for that dust takes the place of kohl (tutya), which brightens the eye.

The final couplet ends with a verdict resting on fate. Binding the beloved to oneself comes not through effort but through luck; whoever has fortune as a friend will have the beloved as a friend too. Since the word "yâr" means both beloved and helper, the end of the line carries both senses at once.

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 12, pp. 158-160 (manuscript: Millet, Ali Emîrî Manzum 305, fol. 4b). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx

Online sources