Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün (remel). No metre is named in the edition; the identification here is ours.

Gül yüzüñ şevkiyle kim dolmış-durur hûnîn göñül
Bir akarsudur kim üstinde revândur berg-i gül
Dir görenler devr-i hüsnüñde ne yaraşmış senüñ
Gözlerüñ mesti öñinde iki tâze deste gül
Devr-i hüsnüñde lebüñdür yüzüñe revnak viren
Hâlet-efzâdur belî dilber yüzinde tâb-ı mül
Saltanat tâcına baş egmez kabûl itmez serîr
Saña biñ cân ile kuldur özge sultândur göñül
‘Avnî bir sayd-ı za‘îfüñdür bu gün ‘âlemde kim
Muhkem it zencîr-i zülfüñden anuñ boynına gull

In English

1. The heart, filled with blood from longing for your rose face, is a river on which a rose petal flows.

2. Those who see it say: in the age (in the cup) of your beauty, how well the two fresh bunches of roses suit you before your drunken eyes.

3. In the age of your beauty it is your lip that gives your face its lustre; yes, the gleam of wine on the face of a beauty increases delight.

4. The heart does not bow to the crown of sovereignty nor accept a throne; it is your slave with a thousand lives, it is a sultan of another kind.

5. Avnî is today your feeble prey in the world; fasten a firm ring from the chain of your locks around his neck.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The words rose and wine determine the texture of the ghazal: the first three couplets are a series of reds reaching from the bleeding heart to the cup and from the cup to the cheek. The five couplets, written in remel, have no redif; the rhyme rests on the "-ül" sound of the words "göñül, gül, gül, mül, göñül, gull", and the word "göñül" (heart) of the opening couplet is repeated as rhyme in the fourth couplet, as is "gül" (rose) in the second.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet the heart is a river dyed with blood through longing for the beloved's rose face; the image of the face living in that heart is a rose petal flowing on the river. In the second couplet the word "devr" means, besides age or period, a wine cup. With this sense Doğan recalls the custom at drinking gatherings of placing a rose or rose petals in the cup full of wine: the beloved's face is a cup, and her two cheeks are two fresh bunches of roses placed in it. The phrase "the drunkenness of your eyes" adds intoxication to this scene of the cup.

The third couplet states a known verdict: it is the lip that gives the beauty's face its lustre, and the gleam of wine on a beauty's face increases delight. Doğan sees one more play in the couplet: the phrases "devr-i hüsn", "revnak", "hâlet-efzâ", "dilber yüzü" and "tâb-ı mül" are at the same time names of tulips. In Ottoman gardening, tulip varieties were given such poetic names; the couplet thus hides a list of tulips beneath a praise of wine and beauty.

The fourth couplet is among the plainest of the divan's couplets that compare sovereignty and love. Because the heart has become the beloved's slave with a thousand lives, it has attained a sultanate of another kind; it no longer bows to any crown of sovereignty and accepts no throne. That these words come from the owner of a throne places the servitude of love above worldly sovereignty. In the last couplet the talk turns to the hunt: Avnî is the beloved's feeble prey, and he asks her to fasten around his neck a firm ring from the chain of her locks so that he cannot escape; "gull" means an iron ring put around the neck, a shackle.

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 45, pp. 350-351 (manuscript: Millet, Ali Emîrî Manzum 305, fol. 14b). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx

Online sources