Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün (remel). The edition does not record the metre of this Galata ghazal; the name given here is ours.

Bir güneş yüzlü melek gördüm ki ‘âlem mâhıdur
Ol kara sünbülleri ‘âşıklarınuñ âhıdur
Karalar geymiş meh-i tâbân gibi ol serv-i nâz
Mülk-i Efrengüñ meger kim hüsn içinde şâhıdur
‘Ukde-i zünnârına her kimse kim dil bağlamaz
Ehl-i îmân olmaz ol ‘âşıklaruñ güm-râhıdur
Gamzesi öldürdügine lebleri cânlar virür
Var ise ol rûh-bahşuñ dîn-i ‘Îsâ râhıdur
‘Avnîyâ kılma gümân kim saña râm ola nigâr
Sen Sitanbul şâhısuñ ol [da] Kalâtâ şâhıdur

In English

1. I saw an angel with a face like the sun who is the moon of the world; those black hyacinths (his locks) are the sighs of his lovers.

2. That graceful cypress is like a shining full moon dressed in black; he must be the king of the land of the Franks in beauty.

3. Whoever does not bind his heart to the knot of his zünnar (girdle) is not one of the faithful; he is the one who has lost the way among lovers.

4. His lips give life to the one his glance has killed; if that life-giver has a religion, it is the way of Jesus.

5. O Avnî, do not suppose that beauty will submit to you; you are the king of Istanbul, and he is the king of Galata.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal is among the most frequently cited poems of the divan, and it owes this fame to its final couplet. Across five couplets in remel, the redif is the suffix "-dur" and the rhyming words "mâhı, âhı, şâhı, güm-râhı, râhı, şâhı" share the ending "-âhı". The entry of the word "şâh" (king) into the rhyme twice, in the second and fifth couplets, hints that the ghazal is moving towards a comparison of sovereignties. The word "[da]" in the final couplet was added by the edition for the sake of the metre.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In this ghazal the beloved is openly a Christian. He is dressed in black, which Doğan explains by the black cassock of Christian clergy; he wears the zünnar at his waist; the life-giving power of his lips is tied to the way of Jesus; in beauty he is the king of the land of the Franks. In divan poetry the "Christian boy" (tersâ-beçe) or "Frankish" beloved is a type of unattainable beauty that tests the lover's faith and reason, and Avnî uses this type with all its elements. In the opening couplet the sun-faced angel is the moon of the world; the hyacinth locks falling on either side of his cheeks are the black smoke of the lovers' sighs rising to heaven at dawn. The words "'âlem mâhıdur" can also be understood as "the world is his moon"; then all other beauties become dim moons that take their light from him.

The third couplet is a daring reversal. In books of doctrine, tying the zünnar, the sign of Christianity, around the waist is counted among the acts that lead to unbelief; in the couplet, however, it is said that whoever does not bind his heart to the knot of the zünnar is not one of the faithful. For Doğan such expressions find their real meaning in the figurative world of Sufism: the religion of love goes beyond the outward measures of the law. His glance kills and his lip revives in the fourth couplet; the miracle of Jesus, who raised the dead, is therefore his religion.

Historical Context

The final couplet carries the poet's identity into the poem. Avnî tells himself not to hope that this beauty will submit to him, for he is the king of Istanbul and the beloved the king of Galata. Galata was the quarter on the far shore of the Golden Horn known, even after the conquest, for its Christian population, made up mostly of Genoese and other Latin merchants; according to Doğan it was also called Frengistan, the land of the Franks. Another ghazal of the divan (61) says that whoever sees Galata will not set his heart on Paradise. In this comparison the two sovereignties are not equal: the king of Galata, counted the capital of the land of beauty, does not bow to the king of Istanbul. That the ruler who conquered the city and accepted the surrender of Galata should show himself, in a love couplet, as lower than Galata is the ghazal's most remembered subtlety. Whether the beloved was a real person is not known; Doğan also stresses that drawing firm conclusions about Mehmed II's private life from his poems runs against the figurative order of divan poetry.

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 14, pp. 171-174 (manuscript: Millet, Ali Emîrî Manzum 305, fol. 5b). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx

Online sources