Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefâîlün mefâîlün feûlün (hezec). The commentary is silent on the pattern; this short form of hezec is our identification.

Baña cevri firâvândur nigâruñ
Nitekim gül firâkından hezâruñ
Göñül ol bî-vefâya sabr u ‘ışkuñ
‘Iyân eyle ne kim var yoğ u varuñ
Göñül bir dem figândan olma hâlî
Egerçi nâleye yok iktidâruñ
Göñül feryâduña rahm itmez ol yâr
Aña beñzer ki hoşdur âh ü zâruñ
Göñül almakda key çâbükdür ol zülf
Giçürme elde dururken şikâruñ
Sen olduğuñ [yire] 2 uğramaz ol yâr
Ne nef‘i yol başında intizâruñ
Görür kim bî-zer ü müflis gedâsen
Saña ‘Avnî niçe yâr ola yâruñ

In English

1. The beloved's cruelty to me is abundant; just like what the nightingale suffers in separation from the rose.

2. O heart, show that faithless one your patience and your love, your nothing and your all, whatever you have.

3. O heart, even if you have no strength left to moan, do not cease lamenting for a moment.

4. O heart, that beloved takes no pity on your cries; it seems your sighs and moans please her.

5. O heart, those locks are very quick at taking hearts; (O beloved,) do not let the prey slip while it is in your hand.

6. That beloved never comes to the place where you are; what use is your waiting at the head of the road?

7. O Avnî, (the beloved) sees that you are a beggar without gold, bankrupt; how should she be your friend?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Most couplets begin with "Göñül" (O heart): the lover addresses not the beloved but his own heart and gives it advice. Its seven couplets, in the hezec pattern "mefâîlün mefâîlün feûlün", place it among the divan's ghazals in a short metre. The second-person possessive suffix returns as redif at the end of each rhyming line, and the rhyme gathers in the sound "-âruñ" of "nigâruñ, hezâruñ, varuñ, iktidâruñ, zâruñ, şikâruñ, intizâruñ, yâruñ". In the sixth couplet a word of two open syllables is missing in the manuscript; Doğan, finding the word "yire" (to the place) proposed by Kemal Edip Ünsel suited to both sense and metre, has taken it into the text in square brackets.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet begins with the comparison of rose and nightingale: the beloved's cruelty to the lover is as great as the pain the nightingale suffers when parted from the rose. In the second couplet Doğan recalls that the type of the beloved in divan poetry is a faithless beauty more interested in goods and money than in the lover's life. In Bâkî's couplet "Güzeller mihr-bân olmaz dimek yanlışdur ey Bâkî / Olur vallâhi billâhi hemân yalvarı görsünler" (it is wrong to say beauties are not kind, O Bâkî; by God they are, if only they see a yalvar), the word "yalvar" means both pleading and a gold coin; Enverî too says that gazelle-eyed beauties are hunted with gold. Avnî's advice to his heart gains its meaning in this context: the only wealth the lover can show the beloved is his patience and his love. Doğan sees an ordered lef ü neşr between "sabr" (patience) and "yok" (nothing), and between "'ışk" (love) and "var" (something): love there is, patience there is none.

The third and fourth couplets advise keeping up the lament. Even if no strength is left to moan, lamenting must not be given up, for although the beloved takes no pity on the cries, she seems to enjoy them. In the fifth couplet the address suddenly turns to the beloved: her locks are quick at hunting hearts, and she should not let the prey in her hand escape. The sixth couplet states a bitter truth; since the beloved never comes to where the lover is, waiting at the head of the road is useless.

In the last couplet, where Avnî names himself, we read some of the most ironic words to come from a ruler's pen. The beloved sees that Avnî is "bî-zer ü müflis", a beggar without gold, bankrupt, and she will not befriend such a man. Doğan explains the couplet through the theme of king and beggar (şâh u gedâ): the sultan of the land of beauty does not turn to look at the beggar who comes before him. That one of the richest rulers in the world should draw himself as a penniless beggar, joined with the gold-loving beloved of the second couplet, gives the ghazal a subtle mockery.

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 43, pp. 337-339 (manuscript: Millet, Ali Emîrî Manzum 305, fol. 14a). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx

Online sources