Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün (remel). The edition does not specify the measure of the eight couplets; we determined the pattern.

Her kaçan seyr ide bâğa ol gül-i ra‘nâ gelür
Na‘ra-i bülbülle bâğuñ başına gavgâ gelür
Seyr-i gülzâr eylese serv-i revânlarla nigâr
Rastî bu kadd(i) anuñ cümleden a‘lâ gelür
Fitnesiyle gözlerüñüñ göñlüme gavgâ düşer
Zülf-i ‘anber-bâruñ ile başuma sevdâ gelür
Göz diküp nergis yola şimşâd durmış muntazır
Seyr-i bâğa gûyiyâ ol gözleri şehlâ gelür
Âteş-i gam yakmasa tañ mı vücûdum şehrini
Gözlerümden göñlüm üstine iki deryâ gelür
Bu melâhat bu letâfet kim nigârâ sende var
Her niçe ‘âkil varursa kûyuña şeydâ gelür
Lâ‘l-i cân-bahşıyle ‘uşşâka hitâb itse nigâr
Mürdeler üzre sanasan Hazret-i ‘Îsâ gelür
Lâ‘l-i nâbı yâdına hûn-ı ciger nûş eylemek
Kime düşvâr ise ey ‘Avnî baña helvâ gelür

In English

1. Whenever that graceful rose (the beloved) comes to stroll in the garden, uproar comes over the garden with the cries of the nightingales.

2. Should the beloved walk through the rose garden with the moving cypresses (the cypress-tall beauties), truly her stature would appear the highest of all.

3. Through the mischief of your eyes turmoil falls upon my heart; through your amber-scented locks passion comes upon my head.

4. The narcissus has fixed its eye on the road, and the box tree stands waiting; it seems that one with the dark, languid eyes is coming to stroll in the garden.

5. Is it any wonder if the fire of grief does not burn the city of my body? Two seas come flowing from my eyes over my heart.

6. O beloved, with such beauty and such grace as you have, however wise a man comes to your street, he goes away mad.

7. When the beloved speaks to the lovers with her life-giving ruby lip, you would think Jesus himself had come to the dead.

8. O Avnî, however hard it may be for others to drink the blood of the liver in remembrance of her pure ruby lip, to me it tastes like halva.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

With eight couplets it is one of the divan's longer ghazals. The redif is "gelür" (comes), and the rhyme falls on "-â", as in "ra'nâ, gavgâ, a'lâ, sevdâ, şehlâ, deryâ, şeydâ, 'Îsâ, helvâ". Set in remel, the ghazal lists the scenes of a walk in the garden: the beloved's arrival, the uproar in the garden, the waiting flowers, the lover's tears and the beloved's voice.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet rebuilds a scene known from earlier ghazals: when the beloved comes into the garden, the nightingales begin to cry out. In Doğan's commentary this lament of the nightingales is the cry of the lovers who see the beloved. The beloved of the second couplet walks with beauties who resemble "serv-i revân", moving cypresses; the word "râstî" expresses, together with the cypress's straightness, the truth of what is said. In the third couplet the "mischief" (fitne) of the eyes brings turmoil to the heart and the scent of the locks brings passion to the head. Since "sevdâ" also means "very black" in Arabic, black hair and being mad with love meet in a single word.

The fourth couplet is the liveliest picture in the ghazal. The narcissus, which resembles an eye, watches the beloved's road; the dwarf box trees, planted in rows along the edges of gardens and green summer and winter, are also waiting. As Doğan reads it, the poet likens the beloved setting out to stroll in the garden to a sultan, imagining the narcissi as the people or guards watching the road and the box trees as palace officials standing with hands folded at attention. "Şehlâ" is the beauty of a dark-grey, languid and slightly squinting eye. The fifth couplet resolves a contradiction: the fire of grief has surrounded the city of the body but cannot burn it, because the two seas flowing from the eyes put out the blaze.

The seventh couplet turns to the miracle of Jesus. A word or a promise of union from the beloved's lips revives the dead lovers; when the beloved speaks, it is as if Jesus had come to the dead. A belief met in other couplets of the divan as well underlies the final couplet: the ruby gains its red colour by being dipped in the blood of a liver. The lover, remembering the ruby lip, drinks the blood of his own liver, and this pain tastes as sweet as halva to him; the rival and ordinary people know nothing of that taste.

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 17, pp. 191-193 (manuscript: Millet, Ali Emîrî Manzum 305, fol. 6b). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx

Online sources