Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefâilün feilâtün mefâilün feilün (müctes). The edition does not touch on metre; we weighed these "-âk" rhymed lines ourselves.

Kaçan ki cür‘añ ile tâze rûh bula hâk
Tarîk-i ‘ışkda hâk olmadan baña ne bâk
Figân ki cân ile göñlüm bu devrde yakdı
Gehî mey âteşi vü gâh rûy-i âteş-nâk
Rikâbuñ öpmek içün başumı fedâ kıluram
Eger ki bend ola boynuma rişte-i fitrâk
Yele varur çü ese bâd-ı kahr-ı istiğnâ
Niteki ahker ü hâkister encüm ü eflâk
Fenâ riyâzı gül ü goncasından ey ‘Avnî
Nişân virür dil-i sad-çâk ü hırka-i sad-çâk

In English

1. Since the earth gains fresh life from the last drop poured from your cup, what fear have I of becoming dust on the road of love?

2. Alas, in this age (or in the cup's round) at times the fire of wine and at times a fiery face has burned my soul and my heart.

3. Though the cord of the saddle strap be bound around my neck, I would sacrifice my head to kiss your stirrup.

4. When the crushing wind of your disdain blows, the stars and the heavens are scattered to the winds like sparks and ash.

5. O Avnî, the heart torn in a hundred places and the cloak of a hundred patches give news of the rose and the bud of the garden of annihilation.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The lover's readiness to destroy himself gathers distant scenes into one ghazal. Reaching from tavern customs to a hunting scene and from there to the heavens and the dervish lodge, the five couplets are in the müctes metre and rhyme on "-âk" in the words "hâk, bâk, âteş-nâk, fitrâk, eflâk, sad-çâk"; there is no redif.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet rests on a tavern custom. The "cür'a" is the last drop left at the bottom of the cup; tavern regulars used to pour this drop on the ground. Doğan explains that the earth we tread holds the particles of countless dead people, and that this last drop was thought of as wine offered to their souls, a kind of restoring them to life. Because the lover knows he will revive with the drop poured from the beloved's cup, he does not fear becoming dust on the road of love. The word "devr" in the second couplet means both age and the passing of the cup from hand to hand in the gathering; the soul burns with the fire of wine, the heart with the beloved's fiery face.

The third couplet uses a hunting custom. Hunters used to pass a cord around the necks of animals they had shot, such as gazelles, and hang them from the strap at the back of the saddle called the "fitrâk". To be able to kiss the beloved's stirrup, the lover is willing to turn himself into such game: as his head swings from the saddle it will touch the stirrup, and he will have kissed it. Doğan gives as examples couplets by Sehâbî, Yakînî and Gelibolulu Mustafa Âlî that allude to the same custom, and notes that a victorious world ruler saying he is ready to hang from his beloved's saddle creates a curious situation.

The fourth couplet paints a cosmic picture. When the crushing wind of the beloved's indifference, her "istiğnâ", blows, the heavens are scattered like ash and the stars like the sparks within the ash; the sky is likened in colour to ash and the stars to embers. The final couplet turns to the language of Sufism. Annihilation (fenâ), the passing away from the self, is a garden; the heart torn to pieces is the bud of that garden, and the dervish cloak of a hundred patches its rose opened leaf by leaf. Here too Doğan spots an unordered lef ü neşr; giving the epithet "sad-çâk" (torn in a hundred places) to both heart and cloak unites the two kinds of tearing in a single word.

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 37, pp. 299-302 (manuscript: Millet, Ali Emîrî Manzum 305, fol. 12a). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx

Online sources