Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: feûlün feûlün feûlün feûl (mütekârib). The edition does not name the mütekârib pattern; the naming is ours.

Gözümden akan yaş mıdur kan mıdur
Lebüñ yâdına lâ‘l ü mercân mıdur
Göñülde ne var ise fâş itdi göz
Seni sevdigüm ya‘nî pinhân mıdur
Gözüm ile deryâ nice bahs ide
Gözüm gibi ol gevher-efşân mıdur
Göñül ıztırâb ile oldı helâk
Gelen görüñ ol âfet-i cân mıdur
Dimiş ‘Avnîye ben cefâ itmezem
Aña cevr iden yoksa devrân mıdur

In English

1. Is what flows from my eye tears or blood? Or is it rubies and coral scattered in honour of your lip?

2. Whatever was in the heart, the eye has revealed; can it still be a secret that I love you?

3. How can the sea compete with my eye? Does it scatter pearls as my eye does?

4. The heart has perished with anguish; look, is the one coming that bane of the soul?

5. (The beloved) has said, "I do no cruelty to Avnî"; then is it fortune that torments him?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is one of the few poems in the divan written in the "feûlün feûlün feûlün feûl" pattern of the mütekârib metre. This short, clipped metre gives a rhythm suited to the redif "mıdur" (is it?), which ends each of the five couplets with a question. Before the redif the words "kan, mercân, pinhân, gevher-efşân, cân, devrân" meet in the sound "-ân". The ghazal has neither a chain of descriptions nor a long comparison; each couplet catches a single moment of bewilderment.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The question of the opening couplet concerns the colour of the tears: is what flows tears, blood, or rubies and coral? According to Doğan the couplet alludes to the custom of scattering precious stones on the road along which sultans and high guests passed. The lover's bloody tears become red stones scattered in honour of the beloved's lip. The redness of ruby and coral answers both to blood and to the lip.

The eye turns informer in the second couplet: the lover wanted to hide his love, but the tears flowing from the eye have poured out the heart's secret. The question is one whose answer is known, and it stands in place of a confession. In the third couplet the sea and the eye enter a contest; there are pearls at the bottom of the sea, but the eye scatters its pearls outward, which the sea cannot do. In the fourth couplet, while the heart has wasted away with anguish, someone is seen approaching; the lover cannot tell whether the one approaching is the beloved, and this uncertainty carries the excitement of waiting.

The final couplet reports a saying. The beloved has said that she does no cruelty to Avnî, and the poet asks, "then is it fortune that torments him?" The question can be understood in two ways: as believing the beloved's word and laying the blame on fate, or as meeting her denial with a mocking innocence. Doğan too proposes two separate prose renderings of the couplet. The word "devrân" means both the turning of time and fortune; shifting the blame to an unnamed power is the well-known attitude of the divan lover, who avoids accusing the beloved.

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 20, pp. 208-209 (manuscript: Millet, Ali Emîrî Manzum 305, fol. 7b). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx

Online sources