Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefâîlün mefâîlün mefâîlün mefâîlün (hezec). The edition argues over the rhyme but records no metre; hezec is our finding.

Vefâ görmedin ölürsem eger ben gül-‘izârumdan
İrişe dem-be-dem bûy-i vefâ hâk-i mezârumdan
Eger bülbül gibi her niçe feryâd ü figân itsem
Nasîbüm hâr-ı mihnetdür benüm ol gül-‘izârumdan
Piyâde hâk-i pâyına niçe ferzâneler ruh kor
Bu hâki pây-mâl itmek umaram şeh-süvârumdan
Dolaşdum zülf-i yâra iltemedüm başa sevdâsın
Hemân yüz karalığı hâsıl oldı rûzgârumdan
Kenârum dürr-i maksûd ile pürdür ‘Avnîyâ çün kim
Gözüm yaşı akar deryâ gibi her dem kenârumdan

In English

1. If I die without seeing faithfulness from my rose-cheeked beloved, let the scent of faithfulness rise at every moment from the dust of my grave.

2. However much I cry and lament like a nightingale, my share from that rose cheek of mine is the thorn of hardship.

3. Many a sage (queen) lays his face (rook) as a footman (pawn) on the dust of his feet; I too hope that my master horseman (my king) will trample this dust underfoot.

4. I became entangled in the beloved's lock and could not bring my passion to an end; all I gained from my life was disgrace (a blackened face).

5. O Avnî, since the tears of my eye flow at every moment like a sea from my banks (my cheeks), my lap is full of the pearls of desire.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The first line of the opening couplet and the second line of the second couplet end with the same word, "gül-'izârumdan". Kemal Edip Ünsel counted this a "faulty rhyme", since in a ghazal the repetition as rhyme of a word with the same meaning is a fault. Doğan disagrees: "gül-'izâr" in the first line is a compound adjective meaning "rose-cheeked", that is, the beloved herself; in the second couplet it is the beloved's rose-coloured cheek. Since the word is the same in writing but different in meaning, the repetition is not a fault but a kind of pun (cinas). The redif is the suffix "-umdan" (from my…), the rhyme rests on the sound "-âr" in the words "gül-'izârumdan, mezârumdan, gül-'izârumdan, şeh-süvârumdan, rûzgârumdan, kenârumdan", and the five couplets are in the four-"mefâîlün" pattern of hezec.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is built on faithfulness. If the lover dies without seeing faithfulness from the beloved, his longing for it will mingle with the earth, pass into the grass growing over his grave and spread from there as a scent. The second couplet has the lover crying to the rose cheek like a nightingale, but all that falls to him is the thorn; Doğan explains this thorn as the glance, which stands right at the edge of the cheek and tears the lover's breast.

The third couplet is a chess couplet. Doğan notes that the words "piyâde" (foot soldier, pawn), "ferzâne" (sage, the queen in chess), "ruh" (face, the rook in chess) and "şeh" (king) are at the same time the names of chess pieces. On the surface many a sage lays his face as a foot soldier on the dust of the beloved's feet; in the language of chess, pawn, queen and rook are lined up before the king. The lover too has turned to dust and hopes that the beloved, the "şeh-süvâr", the master horseman, will trample him underfoot. Considering that chess was loved in palace circles as a game of war, the couplet is a game fitting the pen of a ruler.

By the fourth couplet the lover has become entangled in the beloved's lock and has been unable to bring his passion to an end; "başa iltemek" means to bring a matter to its end. All he has gained from his whole life is a blackened face, disgrace. Doğan notes that lock, black passion and the blackened face call each other up through the colour black; the word "rûzgâr" too, meaning both time or lifetime and wind, recalls the tangled lock. Two senses of the word "kenâr" work together in the last couplet: in the first line it is the lap, in the second the bank of a river. Because his tears flow like a sea from the banks of his cheeks, the lover's lap is full of pearls; these are the pearls of his desires, of the "maksûd", the one he seeks.

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 58, pp. 429-431 (manuscript: Millet, Ali Emîrî Manzum 305, fol. 18b). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx

Online sources