Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün (remel). The edition does not name the metre; we found the pattern by weighing the syllables.

Serv-kaddüñ bendesidür ey niçe âzâdlar
Kâmetüñ efgendesidür serv ile şimşâdlar
Tîşe-i nâhunla ben kim eyleyem cân-kenligi
Kûh-i gamda baña şâkird olımaz Ferhâdlar
Cevrüñüñ vîrânı olmışdur niçe ma‘mûrlar
‘Işkuñuñ ma‘mûrıdur niçe harâb-âbâdlar
Mihnetüñde hem-demümdür zârî [vü] efgânlar
Fürkatüñde mahremümdür nâle vü feryâdlar
‘Işka dayandum belâ vü mihneti fikr itmedüm
San‘atinde gâh olur ‘âciz kalur üstâdlar
Bîsütûn-ı gamda efgân eylesem Ferhâd-veş
Rahm idüp ben zâre gelür kûhdan feryâdlar
Meşrebi âyînesi olsa mükedder zevkden
‘Avnîyâ itmez mürîde fâide irşâdlar

In English

1. Many a free man is the slave of your cypress stature; the cypress and the box tree lie prostrate before your figure.

2. While I dig out my soul with the pickaxe of my fingernails, on the mountain of grief no Ferhad could even be my apprentice.

3. Many a flourishing place (heart) has become the ruin of your cruelty; many a ruin is the work of building of your love.

4. In the hardship you give me, my companions are my moans and laments; in separation from you, my confidants are my weeping and cries.

5. I trusted in love and did not think of affliction and trouble; even masters are sometimes helpless in their own craft.

6. If I should moan like Ferhad on the Bîsütûn of grief, cries would come back from the mountain in pity for this wretch.

7. O Avnî, if the mirror of the disciple's temperament is clouded by pleasure, guidance does him no good.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Ferhad's name enters even the rhyme of this ghazal: with the plural suffix, the words "âzâdlar, şimşâdlar, Ferhâdlar, harâb-âbâdlar, feryâdlar, üstâdlar, irşâdlar" meet in the sound "-âdlar", and the seven couplets have no redif. The four-foot pattern of the remel metre makes room for long Persian compounds; the language of the ghazal is heavier and more ornate than that of the divan's other poems.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet sets the words "serv" (cypress) and "âzâd" (free) side by side and reminds the reader of the phrase "serv-i âzâd", the free cypress. According to Doğan's explanation, drawing on Ahmet Talât Onay, because the cypress bears no fruit no one throws stones at it, and it does not shed its leaves and stand bare; since it is free of the cares of blossoming and fading that other trees have, it is called the "free cypress". Avnî plays on this epithet: many a free man has become the slave of the beloved whose stature is like the free cypress. The cypress and the box tree, famed for their straightness, also lie prostrate before her figure.

The second and sixth couplets rest on the story of Ferhad and Şirin. For love of Şirin, Ferhad bored through the mountain of Bîsütûn with his pickaxe and made water flow. The lover, however, is wounding his own breast with his fingernails; the nail is likened to the pickaxe and the soul to the mountain being dug, and in this work Ferhad could not even be his apprentice. In the sixth couplet the same mountain is used for a hüsnütalil of the echo: when the lover moans on the Bîsütûn of grief, the reason for the sounds that come back from the mountain is that the mountain pities him and joins in the lament.

The third couplet is built on the contrast of ruin and building; "ma'mûr" (flourishing) and "vîrân" (ruined), "ma'mûr" and "harâb-âbâd" (ruin) change places. The beloved's cruelty ruins flourishing hearts, while her love builds up ruins. Recalling that love is likened to an architect in divan poetry, Doğan cites Şeyh Gâlib's line "Gönül bir beyt-i ma'mûr u safâdır aşk mi'mârı" (the heart is a flourishing house of delight, its architect is love). The fourth couplet draws the lover's loneliness as a house and a gathering: in the gathering of hardship the moans are his companions, in the room of separation the weeping is his confidant.

The fifth couplet carries an apology: the lover trusted in love and did not think of what would befall him, but even masters can be helpless in their craft. The final couplet passes into the language of Sufism. If the disciple's "mirror of temperament", that is, his nature and character, rusts and clouds over with worldly pleasures, the master's guidance cannot show him the way. Doğan ties the couplet to the counsel that one who enters the path of God must polish the mirror of the heart with remembrance of God (zikr).

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 21, pp. 211-214 (manuscript: Millet, Ali Emîrî Manzum 305, fol. 7b). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx

Online sources