Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün (remel). Doğan's commentary does not touch on metre; the scansion is ours.
Hâsılı çün mezra‘-ı dünyânuñ oldı gam baña
Yıllar ile ağladı hâlüm görüp Âdem baña
Şem‘ çün gördi gözüm yaşın derûnum âteşin
Bezm-i gamda akıdur gözyaşını her dem baña
Gam şebi efgânum işidilmez olsa za‘fdan
Zîr ü bem âheng iderse tañ degül a hem baña
Cân viricek ‘âkıbet sevdâ-yı zülfüñden señüñ
Ehl-i diller karalar geysün dutup mâtem baña
Nîş-i fürkat ye’si nûş-ı vuslat ümmîdi müdâm
Zülf ile lâ‘lüñ firâkında yeter em sem baña
‘Işk içinde kimi yâr idem kime hâlüm diyem
Düşmen oldılar senüñçün dôstum ‘âlem baña
Ka‘be hakkı ‘Avnî baş egmez nemâza yüz yumaz
Kaşlaruñ mihrâbına secde yeter kıblem baña
In English
1. Since the only harvest that came into my hands from the field of the world was grief, Adam (or all mankind) saw my state and wept for me for years.
2. The candle, seeing the tears of my eye and the fire within me, sheds tears for me at every moment in the gathering of grief.
3. If on the night of grief my lament can no longer be heard for weakness, it is no wonder that the high and low strings of the saz should accompany me.
4. When at last I give up my soul for love of your locks, let the people of the heart put on black and mourn for me.
5. The despair that comes from the thorn of separation (the poison) and the hope for the wine of union (the antidote) go on and on; when I am parted from your hair and your lip, cure and poison are both enough for me.
6. O my friend, whom shall I take as a companion in love, to whom shall I tell my state? Because of you the whole world has become my enemy.
7. By the Kaaba, Avnî does not bow his head for prayer or wash his face; O my qibla, to prostrate myself before the niche of your brows is enough for me.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Structure of the Poem
The redif "baña" (to me) answers the redif "saña" (to you) of the previous ghazal, and this time every couplet counts what the world does to the lover. The rhyming words "gam, Âdem, her dem, a hem, mâtem, em sem, 'âlem, kıblem" share the ending "-em"; the entry into the rhyme of paired words such as "a hem" (and the bass string, bem) and "em sem" (cure and poison) gives the ghazal a flavour of wordplay. The four-foot remel pattern holds unchanged through all seven couplets.
Meaning and Figures of Speech
An allusion opens the poem. "Âdem" is both a human being and the first man, Adam. Adam, who after being sent out of Paradise was the first to till the earth and who is said to have wept for years to be forgiven, weeps over the lover who can reap nothing but grief from the field of the world. The lover's personal sorrow is thus tied to mankind's first exile. The second couplet counts as tears the wax that melts and runs beneath the candle's flame; the candle weeps because it has seen the fire inside the lover and the tears in his eye. Doğan presents this as an example of hüsnütalil: poetry has found a fine reason for a natural event. In the third couplet "zîr ü bem" are the high and low strings of the saz. When the lover's voice fails from weakness, the instrument accompanies him; the night of grief thus turns into a musical gathering.
The fifth couplet is the most artful in the ghazal. In the first line "nîş" (thorn, poison) faces "nûş" (honey, wine, antidote), and in the second line "zülf" (locks) faces "la'l" (ruby lip) and "em" (cure) faces "sem" (poison). Since the hair is likened in shape to a thorn and the lip in colour and taste to wine and honey, the words of the two lines are bound to one another in order; Doğan counts this as an ordered lef ü neşr (a figure in which several items are named and then matched in sequence). The word "müdâm" in the first line means both "constant" and "wine" and calls up the image of wine once more.
What the final couplet says on the surface looks like turning away from worship: Avnî does not bow his head for prayer, does not perform his ablutions, and is content to prostrate himself before the beloved's brow. Doğan's reading rests on the terms of Sufism. The arched shape of the brow likens it to the prayer niche (mihrab) and the beloved's face to the qibla; in Sufism the Kaaba is the station of union, prostration is turning towards God, and the mihrab is the true aim towards which hearts turn. On this reading the couplet speaks of a devotion free of hypocrisy and turned to God alone. The parallel Doğan cites, built with the same boldness, is a couplet by Gelibolulu Mustafa Âlî: "İbâdet bilmezem ben Ka'be-i 'ulyâya baş egmem / Sanadur secde yâ Rab ben bütün dünyâya baş egmem" (I know no worship, I do not bow to the exalted Kaaba; my prostration is to You, O Lord, I bow to no one in the world). Both readings stand together in the couplet; the interweaving of figurative and divine love in divan poetry is what makes such couplets possible.
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 3, pp. 105-108 (manuscript: Millet, Ali Emîrî Manzum 305, fol. 2a). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx
Online sources
