Avnî (Mehmed II), Ghazal 18: Bir şâha kul oldum ki

The ghazal that opens "I became the slave of a king whose beggar is the world": a sultan-poet enslaved, mornings that are feast days and evenings that are the Night of Power.

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef'ûlü mefâîlü mefâîlü feûlün (hezec). Neither the name nor the pattern of the metre comes from the edition; both rest on our scansion.

Bir şâha kul oldum ki cihân aña gedâdur
Bir mâha dutuldum ki yüzi şems-i duhâdur

Sevdigüm ise seni günâhum behey âfet
Öldürme beni cevr ile kim ‘ışk belâdur

Baş üzre yir itsem yiridür şu‘le-i âha
Hicrân şebi yâr işigine râh-nümâdur

‘Îde yüzüñ Kadre saçuñ olalı teşbîh
Kadr ile baña ‘îd hemîn subh u mesâdur

Âhum felege irdi yaşum dutdı cihânı
Hâlüme benüm şâhid olan arz u semâdur

‘Avnî dile zulm eyledüm ol dilberi sevdüm
Cevr ile cefâ baña cezâ olsa sezâdur

Bir dilbere düşürdi beni gerdiş-i eﬂâk
Kim mâh ü güneş yüzi ziyâsında Sühâdur

In English

1. I became the slave of such a king that the whole world is his beggar; I was seized by such a moon that his face is the forenoon sun.

2. O ruinous beauty, if loving you is my sin, do not kill me with cruelty; for love is already an affliction.

3. It would be fitting if I held the flame of my sigh above my head; on the night of separation it shows the way to the beloved's threshold.

4. Since your face was likened to the feast day and your hair to the Night of Power, morning and evening are for me nothing but the Night of Power and the feast.

5. My sigh has reached the sky, my tears have covered the world; the witnesses of my state are earth and heaven.

6. O Avnî, I wronged my heart by loving that heart-stealer; if torment and cruelty were given me as punishment, it would be deserved.

7. The turning of the heavens has made me fall for such a heart-stealer that in the light of his face the moon and the sun are no more than the star Suha.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal, which carries one of the divan's most frequently quoted opening couplets, consists of seven couplets in the ahreb branch of the hezec metre, in the pattern "mef'ûlü mefâîlü mefâîlü feûlün". The redif, "-dur", is a suffix; the rhyme is the sound "-â" in the words "gedâ, duhâ, belâ, nümâ, mesâ, semâ, sezâ, Sühâ". The pen-name couplet is the sixth: the pen name appears there, and the seventh couplet that follows closes the ghazal with the star Suha. A pen-name couplet that does not stand at the end is met with from time to time in divans.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is the plainest of the couplets that play with the poet's own rank. To be the slave of a king whose beggar is the whole world is possible only by being bound to a beloved greater than the greatest ruler of the world; that a sultan says these words exalts the slavery all the more. In the second line the words "mâh" (moon), "dutulmak" (to be seized, also to be eclipsed) and "şems" (sun) call up an eclipse of the moon and sun: the lover has been seized by a moon, but the face of that moon is the sun. The phrase "şems-i duhâ" (forenoon sun) alludes, according to Doğan, to the first verse of the Sura of the Sun, "Ve'ş-şemsi ve duhâhâ" (By the sun and its forenoon brightness).

The second couplet is a simple plea: even if loving is a sin, its penalty should not be death, for love is an affliction in itself. The third couplet makes the flame of the sigh a torch; the lover carries it above his head, for on the night of separation it lights the road to the beloved's door. The fourth couplet sets up a calendar. Since the face was likened to the feast day and the hair to the Night of Power, every morning reminds the lover of the beloved's bright face and every evening of the black, precious hair: the mornings are feast days, the evenings Nights of Power.

In the fifth couplet the sigh spreads to the sky and the tears over the earth, and earth and heaven become the lover's witnesses. The sixth couplet lays the responsibility on the lover himself: he is the one who has wronged his heart, for he loved that heart-stealer; the cruelty he suffers is the punishment he deserves. In the last couplet "gerdiş-i eflâk", the turning of the heavens, is the language of fate. Suha is a small, hard-to-make-out star in the constellation of the Great Bear; Doğan notes that keenness of sight was once tested by it. In the light of the beloved's face the moon and sun remain as small as this faint star.

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 18, pp. 196-198 (manuscript: Millet, Ali Emîrî Manzum 305, fol. 6b). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx

Online sources