Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün (remel). No metre is entered in the edition; we established the pattern.

Sâkîyâ mey vir ki bir gün lâle-zâr elden gider
Çün irer fasl-ı hazân bâğ ü behâr elden gider
Her niçe zühd ü salâha mâil olur hâtırum
Gördügümce ol nigârı ihtiyâr elden gider
Şöyle hâk oldum ki âh itmege havf eyler göñül
Lâ-cerem bâd-ı sabâ ile gubâr elden gider
Gırre olma dilberâ hüsn ü cemâle kıl vefâ
Bâkî kalmaz kimseye nakş u nigâr elden gider
Yâr içün ağyâr ile merdâne ceng itsem gerek
İt gibi murdâr rakîb ölmezse yâr elden gider

In English

1. O cupbearer, give wine; for one day the tulip garden slips from our hands; when the autumn season comes, the garden and the spring slip from our hands.

2. Whenever my heart inclines to asceticism and piety, as soon as I see that beauty my will slips from my hands.

3. I have become such dust that the heart is afraid to sigh; surely, with the morning breeze the dust slips from our hands.

4. O beauty, do not be deceived by your beauty, show faithfulness; neither ornament nor picture remains to anyone, they slip from our hands.

5. For the beloved I must fight bravely with the rivals; if the rival, foul as a dog, does not die, the beloved will slip from my hands.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The opening couplet of this ghazal is among the couplets chosen as samples by the biographers who wrote about Mehmed II as a poet. Latîfî, after telling that the sultan composed ghazals under the pen name Avnî, gives two "fine opening couplets", and this is the first of them; in his version the lines read "Sâkiyâ mey vir ki bir dem lâle-zâr elden gider / İrişür fazl-ı hazân bâğ-ı behâr elden gider". The manuscript in the Millet Library contains only the first three couplets of the ghazal. Ali Emîrî notes in his own copy that he took the fourth and fifth couplets from the tezkire of Sehî Bey; Doğan too publishes the ghazal in this completed form.

The redif is "elden gider" (slips from the hands, is lost); as rhyme, the words "lâle-zâr, behâr, ihtiyâr, gubâr, nigâr, yâr" meet in "-âr". Each of the five couplets, in remel, tells of something being lost: spring, will, the body turned to dust, beauty and the beloved.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet voices divan poetry's call to "seize the moment" through the contrast of spring and autumn: wine must be drunk before the tulip garden fades, before autumn comes. Doğan meets the elements of the couplet with figurative senses: the cupbearer is the heavens, wine is love, the tulip garden is life, autumn is death, and the garden and spring are the blessings of life and the beloved. On this reading the couplet counsels holding fast to love before life ends.

In the second couplet asceticism and the beloved face each other. Whenever the heart turns to piety the beloved appears and the will is lost; Doğan sees here the conflict between piety and the hallowing of the beloved like an idol. The third couplet exaggerates weakness: the lover has turned so completely to dust that he is afraid to sigh, for the wind of his sigh could scatter him like dust, as the morning breeze does.

The fourth couplet, which comes from Sehî, reminds the beloved of the transience of beauty. "Nakş" and "nigâr" mean picture, ornament and depiction; both stand for things that fade, like youth and beauty. That the word "nigâr" also means beloved turns the warning of the couplet towards the beloved herself. The fifth couplet carries the harshest words of the ghazal: the rival is "foul as a dog", and if the lover does not fight him bravely he will lose 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 22, pp. 218-220 (manuscript: Millet, Ali Emîrî Manzum 305, fol. 8a (first three couplets); couplets 4 and 5 in Ali Emîrî's copy, from Sehî's tezkire). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx

Online sources