Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün (remel). Doğan gives no metre for this ghazal; we read the pattern from the lines.
Cismümüz râh-ı vefâda gerçi kim hâk eylerüz
Bâd-ı âh ile reh-i yâri yine pâk eylerüz
Bâdeye baş üzre yir idüp ayağa salmazuz
Hürmetin câm-ı meyüñ ol deñlü idrâk eylerüz
Ger firâkuñ derdine vasluñdan olursa devâ
Nûş-ı lâ‘lüñ gamzeñüñ nîşine tiryâk eylerüz
Tîr-i hecre sîne dutmakdan budur maksadumuz
Yoluña baş oynamağa cânı bî-bâk eylerüz
Yâr işiginde ikâmet mümkin olursa eger
Meskenümüz ‘Avnîyâ san evc-i eflâk eylerüz
In English
1. Though on the road of faithfulness we turn our bodies into dust, with the wind of our sighs we sweep the beloved's road clean again.
2. We give wine a place above our heads and do not let it fall to the foot (into the cup, or underfoot); so well do we know the reverence due to the wine cup.
3. If there is a cure for the pain of separation from you in union with you, we make the honey of your lip an antidote to the sting of your glance.
4. Our aim in baring our breasts to the arrow of separation is this: we make the soul fearless to stake its head on your road.
5. O Avnî, if it should be possible to dwell at the beloved's threshold, it is as if we made the highest point of the heavens our home.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Structure of the Poem
Unlike most of the divan's ghazals, in this poem the lover speaks as "we"; the redif "eylerüz" (we make) is repeated in all five couplets in the first person plural. This voice resembles less the complaint of a single lover than a shared vow of a community of lovers. The rhyme rests on the sound "-âk" in the words "hâk, pâk, idrâk, tiryâk, bî-bâk, eflâk". The couplets are in remel.
Meaning and Figures of Speech
The opening couplet takes up again the thought of the third couplet of the twenty-second ghazal; there the lover feared that his sigh would scatter his body turned to dust. Here the lovers turn their bodies to dust on the road of faithfulness and then sweep even this dust from the beloved's road with the wind of their sighs; the beloved's road remains clean even of their dust.
The second couplet is the richest in meaning in the ghazal. Doğan's commentary unpacks the double meaning of three words one by one. "Baş üzre yer etmek" (to give a place above the head) expresses both wine going to the head and showing respect to someone. "Ayak" means foot in Turkish and cup in Persian; "ayağa salmak" thus becomes both pouring wine into the cup and throwing it underfoot. "Hürmet" means both reverence and prohibition, being forbidden. When these senses come together, the couplet can be read along two opposite paths: we love wine so much that we drink it without leaving it in the cup and hold it above our heads; or we know so well that wine is forbidden that we set it in the place of honour and do not pour it into the cup. Doğan reminds the reader that here too wine is to be understood in the figurative world of Sufism.
The third couplet turns once again to the pair "nûş" and "nîş": the honey of the lip is an antidote to the sting of the glance. The fourth couplet recalls a drill for battle; the lovers bare their breasts to the arrows of separation in order to prepare their souls to stake their heads, that is, to die, on the beloved's road. The final couplet says indirectly how hard it is to dwell at the beloved's threshold. Doğan ties the reason for this difficulty to the rival who guards the threshold like a dog, or to the crowd of lovers who have laid their heads there before; to find a place at that threshold is like dwelling at the highest point of the heavens, the "evc-i eflâk".
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 27, pp. 252-254 (manuscript: Millet, Ali Emîrî Manzum 305, fol. 9b). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx
Online sources
