Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefâîlün mefâîlün mefâîlün mefâîlün (hezec). The hezec pattern is not taken from the edition; we scanned the lines.

Yüzüñ gülzârı şevkinden gözüm havzı pür-âb olmış
İki gözüm kabağı seyr ider anda habâb olmış
Hevâ-yı ‘ışkuñ içre murg-i cânı sayd kılmağa
Ser-i zülfüñ anuñ çengâlidür zülfüñ ‘ukâb olmış
Kerâhetdür mey içmek diyü esrâra rızâ virdüñ
Hezâr ahsente sûfî haylice re’y-i savâb olmış
Rakîb-i seg uludı âsitân-ı yâra varaldan
Tenezzül eylemez ‘âşıklara ‘âlî-cenâb olmış
Kıyâmet kâmeti üzre şol âb-ı Kevser-i la‘lin
Görüp cân buldı ‘Avnî sanasan yevmü’l-hisâb olmış

In English

1. From longing for the rose garden of your face, the pool of my eye has filled with water; my two eyelids float there and have become bubbles.

2. To hunt the bird of the soul in the air of your love, your locks have become an eagle, and the tip of your locks its talons.

3. O Sufi, saying "drinking wine is reprehensible", you consented to secrecy (or to hashish); a thousand bravos, what a sound opinion it has turned out to be.

4. The dog of a rival has grown proud (or has howled) since he reached the beloved's threshold; he does not deign to notice the lovers, he has become a man of high rank.

5. Avnî, seeing the Kevser water of the ruby lip above that doomsday stature, found life again; it is as if the Day of Reckoning had come.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

In this five-couplet ghazal the redif "olmış" (has become), as if reporting news, says that a change has taken place: the eye has become a pool, the locks an eagle, the Sufi sound in judgement, the rival a man of high rank. Before the redif the words "pür-âb, habâb, 'ukâb, savâb, cenâb, hisâb" rhyme on "-âb". The lines are in hezec, four "mefâîlün" feet each. The word "ahsente" (bravo) in the third couplet, as Doğan notes, was written "ahsend" in the manuscript through a copyist's error.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet carries the image of tears into a garden pool. The beloved's face is a rose garden; with longing for it the eye fills with water like a pool. The eyelids float on the surface of this pool like bubbles. The word "kabak", meaning eyelid, also recalls, in Doğan's account, the dried gourd that those who could not swim tied to their waists to stay afloat, and the cup made from it; the verb "seyr ider" (floats, roams) strengthens this association.

In the second couplet "hevâ" means both air and love or desire. The bird of the soul flies in the air of love; the locks are an eagle that hunts it, and the curled tip of the locks the eagle's hooked talons. In many couplets of the divan the locks are a falcon; here a larger and more merciless bird of prey, the "'ukâb", has been chosen.

The third couplet belongs among the divan's satires on the ascetic and the Sufi. The Sufi, by saying that drinking wine openly is reprehensible, has consented to secret drinking; Doğan recalls that the word "esrâr" means both secrecy and hashish. The poet's praise, "a thousand bravos", is mockery. By the fourth couplet the rival is openly a dog; after settling at the threshold he "uludı", that is, grew proud and great. Doğan says that the word also calls up a dog's howling and that the poet thus redoubles the insult.

The final couplet uses the words doomsday and Kevser together. The beloved's stature is "kıyâmet" (doomsday) because it stirs up turmoil among the lovers who see it; the shared origin of "kâmet" (stature) and "kıyâmet" is also at work in the couplet. The lip is the water of Kevser, the river believed to flow in Paradise. One name of the Day of Judgment is "yevmü'l-hisâb", the Day of Reckoning. Seeing this water above this stature, Avnî has found life again, like the dead rising at the resurrection.

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 31, pp. 268-270 (manuscript: Millet, Ali Emîrî Manzum 305, fol. 10b). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx

Online sources