Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün (remel). Doğan does not discuss the metre; this note is ours.

‘Ömr geçdügi kıyâmet kopduğı olur ‘ıyân
Çün hırâmân seyr idüp ol kâmet-i bâlâ geçer
Bir harâret var derûn-ı dilde zahm-ı tîğuña
Gamzesi tîği erişince benüm baña geçer
Câna hecrüñ hançeri geçdügi yetmez miydi kim
Gamze tîrini atarsın ol dahi câna geçer
‘Avnî yüzüñe gül ü gülzârı niçe beñzede
Vakt-i gül bir aya varmaz ey gül-i ra‘nâ geçer

In English

2. When that tall beloved strolls past swaying, it is plain that life is passing and the Day of Judgment has come.

3. In the depths of my heart there is such a fervour for the wound of your sword that, when the sword of the glance reaches me, I (my soul) pass into me (my body).

4. Was it not enough that the dagger of separation from you passed into my soul, that you should shoot the arrow of your glance too? It also passes into the soul.

5. O graceful rose, how can Avnî liken the rose and the rose garden to your face? The rose season passes before a month is out.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This ghazal has lost its opening couplet, the one whose two lines rhyme with each other: in place of the couplet absent from the Millet manuscript Doğan leaves an empty space marked with dots in the text and numbers the couplets from two. In the four couplets that survive the redif is "geçer" (passes), and, as seen in earlier ghazals, the verb takes on a different meaning in each couplet: life passing, the soul passing into the body, the arrow passing into the soul, the season passing. The rhyming words "bâlâ, baña, câna, ra'nâ" share the ending "-â". The metre is remel; the first line of the second couplet fits the pattern only with the lengthening of some syllables.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the first surviving couplet "kâmet" (stature) and "kıyâmet" (resurrection) come from the same Arabic root; this figure based on a shared root is called iştikak. The beloved's swaying passage with her tall stature is for the lovers the end of life and the coming of the Day of Judgment; since the dead are thought to rise and stand on that day, the sense of "standing upright" ties the two words together.

The third couplet has been a subject of dispute between the editions. Kemal Edip Ünsel thought that the second line made no sense, that this was a copyist's error, and suggested that the words "benüm baña" could be read as "benüm yana". Doğan does not accept this judgement. In his view the first "ben" (I) is the spirit or soul and the second "ben" the body; like the Arabic word "nefs", the Turkish "ben" can denote both spirit and body. The line then says that when the sword of the glance touches the lover, the soul returns to the body. The support for this reading is the opening couplet of the divan's tenth ghazal, cited by Doğan, "Ten-i bî-câna müjeñ hançeri kim câna geçer", where too the beloved's weapon gives life to the lifeless body. The likening of the sword to water, because it was tempered in water, also plays its part here: the wounded body, like dried and cracked earth, comes back to life with the water of the sword.

The words "câna geçer" in the fourth couplet carry two meanings: the arrow pierces the soul, but it also takes the place of the soul. The dagger of separation and the arrow of the glance thus become two weapons that both kill and revive. The final couplet says that it would be unjust to liken the beloved's face to a rose: the rose lives for a month, while the beloved's face does not fade. The ghazal's redif is used here for the last time in its plainest form, in the sense of the season passing away.

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 19, pp. 201-204 (manuscript: Millet, Ali Emîrî Manzum 305, fol. 7a; the opening couplet is missing in the manuscript). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx

Online sources