Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün (remel). Doğan's edition names no metre; the pattern was found by weighing the lines.
Çün sabâ fasl-ı hazânda gülşene dîbâ döşer
Hak budur her nakşı yirinde olup zîbâ düşer
Niçe tenhâ âsitânın öpmege fursat bulam
Kûyına ‘azm eylesem sâyem baña hem-pâ düşer
Zülfüñüñ vasfında tûmâr eylesem eş‘ârumı
Kaşlaruñ vasfında olan cümleye tuğrâ düşer
Mihr ü meh âb içre ‘arz-ı hüsn iderlermiş saña
Lîk kadri anlaruñ bu işden aşağa düşer
Bâğa servini hırâmân itse ol ruhsârı gül
Na‘ra-ı bülbülle gülşen sahnına gavgâ düşer
Ehl-i [dehre] ‘âlemüñ ma‘mûresin ‘arz itseler
Ehl-i fakruñ hissesine mülk-i istiğnâ düşer
‘Avnîyâ dil virmek ol dildâra düşmezdi baña
Bir düşecek yir arayuban göñül ammâ düşer
In English
1. When in the autumn season the morning breeze spreads a carpet of coloured silk over the rose garden, the truth is that every pattern falls into its proper place and falls beautifully.
2. How am I to find a chance to kiss her threshold in solitude? If I set out for her street, my shadow falls in as my companion.
3. If I made a scroll (a decree) of my poems describing your locks, the couplets describing your brows would fall upon them all as the tughra.
4. The sun and the moon, it is said, show you their beauty from within the water; but for this their worth falls low.
5. If that rose-cheeked beloved should let her cypress stature sway in the garden, uproar would fall into the midst of the rose garden with the cries of the nightingales.
6. If the habitable places of the world were shared out among the people of the age, the realm of self-sufficiency (istiğnâ) would fall to the share of the people of poverty (fakr).
7. O Avnî, giving my heart to that beloved did not befit me (did not fall to me); but the heart seeks a place to fall, and goes and falls there.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Structure of the Poem
The redif "düşer" (falls), as the verb "geçer" did in an earlier ghazal, takes on a different meaning in each couplet: a pattern falling into place, a shadow falling in as companion, a tughra falling upon a decree, worth falling low, uproar breaking out, a share falling to someone, and in the final couplet, in two separate senses, the heart falling at a door. The rhyme is the sound "-â" in the words "dîbâ, zîbâ, hem-pâ, tuğrâ, aşağa, gavgâ, istiğnâ, ammâ". The metre throughout the seven couplets is remel.
In the first line of the sixth couplet a word is missing in the manuscript; the metre calls here for a word of one closed and one open syllable. Saffet Sıtkı put the word "cümle" (all) at the beginning of the line and joined the following words as "ehl-i 'âlemüñ", while Kemal Edip Ünsel added the word "dehre" (of the age) after "ehl". Doğan takes into the text, in square brackets, "dehre", which he finds more in keeping with the couplet as a whole.
Meaning and Figures of Speech
An autumn scene opens the ghazal. The many-coloured leaves fallen from the trees have covered the floor of the rose garden; the poet sees this as the breeze spreading a carpet of coloured silk on the ground. In Doğan's interpretation this carpet is a pâyendaz spread for the sultan of spring, or the king of roses, who will come after the autumn. The second couplet is a small joke: the lover wants to kiss the beloved's threshold unseen, but every time he sets out his shadow walks with him and will not leave him alone.
The third couplet builds a comparison from the chancery of the palace. The poems describing the beloved's long, wavy hair are likened to a decree in the form of a long scroll; the tughra drawn at the head of the decree, which with its arched shape resembles a brow, is the couplets describing the brows. Since the tughra stood in place of the sultan's signature, the praise of the brows sets a seal on all the poems. The fourth couplet explains the reflection of the sun and moon in water through hüsnütalil: the sun and moon, having dared to compete with the beloved in beauty, have for that reason fallen into the water, that is, fallen low. Behind the couplet Doğan also finds the idea that while the sun and moon set and lose their worth, the beloved's face never sets.
The sixth couplet carries a Sufi concept. "Fakr" in the dictionary means poverty; in Sufism it is the seeker's knowledge that he owns nothing and that the true owner of all things is God; one who reaches this awareness needs no one but God, and this state is called "istiğnâ" (self-sufficiency). While the people of the world share out the prosperous cities, there falls to the share of the people of poverty the realm of self-sufficiency, in Doğan's words the little hut of contentment. The final couplet uses the redif in two different senses: in the first line "düşmek" means to befit, to suit; in the second line it means to fall at a door like a beggar. Giving his heart to the beloved did not befit the lover, but the heart looked for a door to fall at and has fallen there.
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 13, pp. 163-166 (manuscript: Millet, Ali Emîrî Manzum 305, fol. 5a). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx
Online sources
