Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef'ûlü fâilâtü mefâîlü fâilün (muzâri). The pattern is not taken from the edition; it rests on our own scansion.

Ey pür-gül ü şükûfe yüzüñle behâr-ı hüsn
Mihr-i rûhuñla rûşen olur rûzgâr-ı hüsn
Bâğ-ı cemâl hüsnüñ ile pür-safâ durur
Şâd-âbdur cemâlüñ ile nev behâr-ı hüsn
Nahl-i kadüñ ki serv-i ser-efrâz-ı hüsndür
Oldı bülend kadd-i bülendüñle kâr-ı hüsn
Yap göñlümüñ harâbesin ey bânî-i cefâ
Bir gün ola harâba vara kâr [u] bâr-ı hüsn
Sultân-ı hüsn yüzüñ ü hâcib-durur kaşuñ
Cellâd çeşm ü zülf-i siyeh perde-dâr-ı hüsn
‘Işk-ı riyâyı terk idemez zâhidi görüñ
Şükr-i Hudâ ki ‘Avnî degül şerm-sâr-ı hüsn

In English

1. O you who, with your face full of roses and blossoms, are the spring of beauty, the time of beauty is lit by the sun of your cheek.

2. The garden of absolute beauty is full of delight through your beauty; the fresh blossoms of beauty have drunk their fill through your face.

3. Through your sapling stature, which is the sky-high cypress of beauty, the work of beauty has been exalted.

4. O architect of cruelty, do your work on the ruin of my heart (ruin it quickly); one day the business and bustle of beauty too will come to ruin.

5. Your face is the sultan of beauty, your brow its chamberlain; the eye is the executioner, the black lock the curtain-keeper of beauty.

6. Look at the ascetic who cannot give up his love of show; thank God, Avnî has no cause to be ashamed of beauty.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Every couplet ends with the redif "hüsn", beauty: the spring of beauty, its time, its work, its sultan. The words "behâr, rûzgâr, behâr, kâr, bâr, perde-dâr, şerm-sâr" rhyme on "-âr". The six couplets are measured in muzâri, in the pattern "mef'ûlü fâilâtü mefâîlü fâilün". Within the fourth couplet, the conjunction in the phrase "kâr [u] bâr" was added by the edition.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first three couplets praise the beloved's face and stature within a picture of spring. In the opening couplet the face is a spring full of roses and blossoms, and the sun of the cheek lights the days of beauty. In the second couplet Doğan says that the word "cemâl" should be given the sense not of any beauty but of absolute beauty: the beloved's face is the mirror and manifestation of divine beauty. "Nev behâr" here is not the spring itself but the fresh blossoms that open in spring. The third couplet counts the stature as the sky-high cypress of the garden of beauty; the double use of the word "bülend" (high) ties the loftiness of the stature to the loftiness of beauty's work.

The fourth couplet voices an unexpected haste. The beloved is an architect of cruelty and ruins the houses of the lovers' hearts; and the lover wants this. As Doğan explains, "doing the work on the ruin of the heart" here does not mean repairing it but reducing it thoroughly to ruin with cruelty and grief. The lover urges the beloved to hurry, for beauty will one day pass and the beloved will no longer be able to inflict cruelty. The transience of beauty means that the torment too is transient; the lover fears being deprived of this torment.

The fifth couplet is a picture of the palace that, Doğan says, reflects the sense of splendour of a great sultan. The face is the sultan of the land of beauty. The brow is the "hâcib": this word means the palace official who handled the contact of those coming before the sultan, and it also means eyebrow; the right brow was called "hâcib-i yemîn" and the left "hâcib-i yesâr". The eye, which takes lives with its glance, is the executioner. The black lock that veils the face is the "perde-dâr", the servant who stood beside the door curtain of official chambers. In the last couplet the target is again the ascetic: he counts it forbidden to look at beauties and persists in his hypocrisy, while Avnî is not ashamed of caring for beauty.

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 57, pp. 424-426 (manuscript: Millet, Ali Emîrî Manzum 305, fol. 18b). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx

Online sources