Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün (remel). Metre is not mentioned in the edition's commentary; we worked out the measure.

Şâh-ı ‘ışkam gam beyâbânı baña kişver yeter
Âteş-i âhum livâ-yı ejdehâ-peyker yeter
Dâm-ı mihnetden göñül murgı remîde olsa ger
Zülf şahbâzını sal kim ol zemân irer yeter
Hey kıyâmet gamzeden diller perîşân olsalar
Târ-ı zülfüñ ‘ukdesi cem‘iyyet-i mahşer yeter
İki ‘âlem nakşını görmek dilerseñ âşikâr
Devr içinde şîşe-i mey câm-ı İskender yeter
‘Avnîyâ cismüñ yanup küllî kül oldıysa eger
‘Işk odın hıfz itmek içün işbu hâkister yeter

In English

1. I am the king of love; the desert of grief is realm enough for me; the fire of my sigh is enough as a dragon-shaped banner.

2. If the bird of the heart takes fright and flees from the snare of hardship, let loose the falcon of your locks; it will reach it in a moment and catch it.

3. O you (beloved) who raise doomsday, even if hearts are scattered by your glance, the knot in the strand of your locks is enough to gather them as on the Day of Assembly.

4. If you wish to see clearly the pattern of both worlds, in this age a bottle of wine is enough as the cup (mirror) of Alexander.

5. O Avnî, if your body has burned and turned wholly to ash, this ash is enough to keep the fire of love.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

In this five-couplet ghazal the redif "yeter" (is enough) carries a voice of contentment and pride: the lover needs no realm, banner or mirror, what he has is enough for him. The rhyme words "kişver, peyker, irer, mahşer, İskender, hâkister" share the sound "-er" in their last syllables; "irer" in the second couplet stands apart from the others because it is a verb. Its metre is remel.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet speaks with the voice of a sovereign lover. For Doğan the lover is likened here to the hero of the story of Leylâ and Mecnun, to Mecnun, who is called the king of the land of love in divan poetry: his realm is the deserts of grief, his subjects the wild beasts of the desert. The banner of such a king is the flame of his sigh rising to heaven. Recalling that banners once bore the image of a fire-breathing dragon, Doğan says that the phrase "livâ-yı ejdehâ-peyker" (dragon-shaped banner) alludes to this custom; the flame rising in coils resembles a dragon-shaped flag. Written by a ruler who owned real banners, this transfer of the language of sovereignty into the language of love gains a particular weight.

The second and third couplets tell of two tasks of the locks. The locks are a hunting falcon: in an instant they catch the bird of the heart that has taken fright at the snare. The same locks gather into the knot of their strand the hearts that the glance has scattered. In divan poetry, Doğan notes, the lovers' hearts are thought of as hanging on the strands of the beloved's hair; the bodies have perished with love, the hearts have remained in the hair, and this gathering is likened to the Day of Assembly. The address "kıyâmet" (doomsday) is directed at the beloved who stirs up turmoil with her stature, and it forms a congruence of images (tenasüp) with the word "mahşer" (assembly) in the same couplet.

The fourth couplet combines two legendary objects. The mirror that Alexander is said to have set up on a high place in Alexandria and that showed ships a month's journey away, and the cup of the Persian king Cem (Jamshid), which showed every part of the world, were, as Doğan notes, at times confused with each other by the poets; Avnî too says "câm-ı İskender" (Alexander's cup). The wine cup becomes this mirror because it opens a window onto a thousand worlds in the drinker's heart. According to Doğan what is meant here is the wine of divine love: it makes one forget the evils of this world and shows one the hereafter. Hearthside knowledge supplies the final couplet. When embers are covered with ash, the fire is kept for a long time; the lover's body, burned to ash, is enough to preserve the fire of love.

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 24, pp. 235-238 (manuscript: Millet, Ali Emîrî Manzum 305, fol. 8b). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx

Online sources