Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün (remel). The edition does not give the measure of these six conditional couplets; the pattern is our identification.

Ağlasa ‘âşık belâ-yı hecr ile nâlân olup
Gözlerinden akan anuñ yaş yirine kan olup
Geh cefâ kûhı gubârından urınsa kisveti
Geh belâ vâdîsini geşt eylese ‘üryân olup
Her ne deñlü cevrler görse vefâlar eylese
Her ne deñlü gülseler hâline ol giryân olup
Gam beyâbânına her gün eylese seyr ü sefer
Her gice mihnet-serây-i fürkate mihmân olup
Râz-ı ‘ışkı âşikâr itmege tâkat bulmasa
Sînesinde nâvek-i dil-dûzlar pinhân olup
Dilberinden rahm eger olmasa ol dil-hasteye
Kimseler derdine dermân idemez imkân olup
Virseler mülk-i cihânuñ tâc u tahtı devletin
‘Avnî kûyuñ terkin itmez başına sultân olup

In English

1. If the lover should moan and weep with the affliction of separation, if blood instead of tears should flow from his eyes;

2. If at times he should clothe himself in the dust of the mountain of cruelty, at times wander naked through the valley of affliction;

3. If, however much torment he suffers, he should show faithfulness, and however much they laugh at his state, he should weep;

4. If every day he should travel through the desert of grief, every night be a guest in the palace of the ordeal of separation;

5. If, though heart-piercing arrows lie hidden in his breast, he has no strength to reveal the secret of love;

6. If his beloved does not take pity on that wounded heart, no one, even given the means, can cure his pain.

7. Should they give Avnî the crown, throne and fortune of the realm of the world, he would still not leave your street, being a sultan in his own right.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The most striking feature of the ghazal is its syntax. As Doğan shows, the first five couplets consist of conditions strung together with verbs in the conditional mood such as "ağlasa", "urınsa", "geşt eylese" and "bulmasa", and the sentence is completed only at the end of the sixth couplet with the verdict "kimseler derdine dermân idemez" (no one can cure his pain). In divan poetry each couplet is expected to be complete in itself; this long sentence linking the couplets keeps the reader waiting to the end and, by piling up the lover's ordeals one after another, turns them into a trial of patience. The redif is "olup" (being), and the words "nâlân, kan, 'üryân, giryân, mihmân, pinhân, imkân, sultân" rhyme on "-ân".

The ghazal was chosen as a sample of the poet's verse in the Avnî entry of the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü. The telling of the lover's state in the third person ("if the lover should weep…") gives the ghazal the air of a story; but in the final couplet it is "Avnî" who speaks, and with the word "kûyuñ" (your street) the address turns suddenly to the beloved.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Each of the conditions is a familiar scene of love poetry. In the second couplet, clothing oneself in the dust of the mountain of cruelty and wandering naked in the valley of affliction recall the story of Mecnun stripping and roaming the desert; Doğan too names Mecnun in brackets. The "mountain", the "valley" and the "desert of grief" (gam beyâbânı) of the fourth couplet build a geography of travel; by day the lover journeys through the desert, by night he lodges in the "mihnet-serây", the palace of ordeal of separation. The third couplet sets two contrasts side by side: cruelty and faithfulness, laughing and weeping. In the fifth couplet the "nâvek-i dil-dûz" secretly lodged in the breast are short arrows that pierce the heart; the secret of love stays hidden among these arrows.

Only the final couplet answers the chain of conditions. Even if they gave Avnî all the crowns and thrones of the world, he would not leave the beloved's street. In Doğan's commentary the lover counts wandering like a beggar in the beloved's street as a sultanate of his own. The idiom "başına sultân olmak" calls up both being one's own master and being the sultan of a head. That the man who wrote this couplet was in fact a ruler of the world gives the conceit an echo beyond the bounds of the poem; in another poet's hand the same choice would have remained mere hyperbole.

Bibliography

Online sources