Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün (remel). The edition does not name the pattern; this note is our own.

Gözlerüm hâk-i der-i dildâr ile pür-nûrmış
Hâtırum zahm-ı firâk-ı yâr ile mesrûrmış
Hâne-i dil kim harâb olmış sanurdum ben anı
Ol cefâ mi‘mârınuñ tarhı-y-ile ma‘mûrmış
N’ola ser-gerdân olursa zerre-veş üftâdeler
Gün gibi ol meh-likânuñ şöhreti meşhûrmış
Kesret-i meyden sudâ‘ irüp nemâza çıkmadı
Zâhid-i hod-bîn bu ‘özriyle meger ma‘zûrmış
Her zemân ruhsârına hâil olur zülf-i siyâh
‘Avnîye göstermeyen gün ol şeb-i deycûrmış

In English

1. My eyes, it turns out, have been filled with light by the dust of the beloved's door; my mind has been glad with the wound of separation from the beloved.

2. I used to think the house of the heart was in ruins; it turns out it has been built up according to the plan of that architect of cruelty.

3. Is it any wonder if the fallen ones are dizzy like motes? The fame of that moon-faced one, it turns out, is as widely known as the sun.

4. The self-admiring ascetic got a headache from the abundance of wine and did not come out to prayer; it turns out he was excused by this excuse.

5. The black locks always become a veil over her cheek; it turns out it was that dark night that showed Avnî no sunny day.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is one of the best-known ghazals of the divan; the Avnî entry of the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü chooses it as one of the two samples it gives of the poet's verse. The redif is "-mış", the suffix of the evidential past tense, and every couplet tells of a discovery: the eye has been lit, the heart was built up after all, the ascetic was excused, the night hiding the sun was the locks. The words "pür-nûr, mesrûr, ma'mûr, meşhûr, ma'zûr, deycûr" rhyme on "-ûr". Its measure is remel.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The dust of the beloved's threshold is kohl for the eye in the opening couplet; Doğan recalls that kohl was believed to strengthen the sight. In the second line the wound of separation gladdens the mind. In divan poetry, Doğan adds, bloody wounds on the breast are likened to a cup full of wine; the wound becomes a cup that cheers the lover.

The second couplet tells of love as architecture. The lover had thought the house of his heart in ruins; yet cruelty, like an architect, has planned this house and built it up. Doğan reads this thought together with the couplet "Işka dayandum" of the twenty-first ghazal and with Şeyh Gâlib's line "Gönül bir beyt-i ma'mûr u safâdır aşk mi'mârı". The third couplet rests on the relation of sun and mote. According to an old belief, the motes of dust that float in a beam of sunlight move towards the sun; the lovers too are motes whirling dizzily around a beloved whose fame, like the sun, has spread everywhere.

The fourth couplet is one of the divan's subtlest jibes at the ascetic. On the surface the self-admiring ascetic has drunk a great deal of wine, got a headache and been unable to come out to prayer; and the poet seems to accept this excuse. Doğan understands the phrase "kesret-i mey" not as drinking much wine but as talking much of wine: the ascetic has spoken so much against drink that his head aches as if he were drunk. The couplet also carries the hint that the ascetic drinks in secret. The final couplet likens the face and the locks to day and night: the sun-like face has been left behind the black locks, and it is this dark night that shows Avnî no sunny day. The idiom "gün yüzü göstermemek" expresses both being unable to see the sun and never knowing happiness.

Bibliography

Online sources