Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün (remel). Doğan gives no information on metre; we weighed the lines ourselves.

Her zemân ‘âşıklara varmak der-i cânâna güç
‘Arz-ı hâl itmek gedâlar hazret-i sultâna güç
Âşinâlar gözlerüm yaşın görüben havf ider
Bî-muhâbâ sâlik olmak kulzüm ü ‘ummâna güç
‘Âşıka dünyâ vü cân terk eylemek âsân olur
Lîk cânân terkini itmek gelüpdür câna güç
Gözlerüme cevr kasd itse rakîbi gösterür
Zulm mu‘tâdı degüldür pes gelür insâna güç
‘Avnîyâ zâl-i zemânuñ mekrine aldanma kim
Kim zenânuñ cevrini çekmek gelür merdâna güç

In English

1. It is hard for lovers to reach the beloved's door at any time; it is hard for beggars to come before the exalted sultan and lay out their state.

2. My friends (or swimmers) take fright on seeing the tears of my eyes; it is hard to put out boldly into the sea and the ocean.

3. To leave the world and life comes easy to the lover; but to give up the beloved comes hard to the soul.

4. If (the beloved) wishes to torment my eyes, she shows me the rival; to a person not used to oppression this comes hard.

5. O Avnî, do not be deceived by the trickery of the old hag of the age (the world); for to endure a woman's cruelty comes hard to men.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The five couplets repeat the same verdict with the redif "güç" (hard): everything in love is difficult. The rhyme is the sound "-âna" in the words "cânâna, sultâna, 'ummâna, câna, insâna, merdâna", and the dative suffix, joining the redif, answers in every couplet anew the question "hard for whom?". The lines sit in the four-foot remel pattern.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet two difficulties are likened to each other: the lover reaching the beloved's door and the beggar coming before the sultan to tell his trouble. This mould, which makes the beloved a sultan and the lover a beggar, is among the most common conceits of divan poetry; when a sultan's pen writes it, both sides of the comparison are taken from the writer's own world.

Doğan unpacks a double entendre (tevriye) in the second couplet. "Âşinâ" means, in its familiar sense, acquaintance and friend, and in an older usage a swimmer. The lover's eyes have become seas filled with tears; friends take fright on seeing these tears, and swimmers cannot boldly plunge into such a sea and ocean ("kulzüm ü 'ummân"). The two meanings work together in the same line. The third couplet is the only plainly stated verdict in the ghazal: the world and life are easily left, the beloved cannot be.

In the fourth couplet, when the beloved wants to torment the lover, she shows him the rival. In divan poetry, as Doğan reminds us, the rival is likened to ugly creatures such as the crow, the snake, the devil and the demon, and is associated with the colour black; seeing the rival's face is in itself an oppression. In the final couplet the world is called "zâl-i zemân", the old hag of the age. Likening the world to a decked-out, deceitful old woman is a settled conceit of divan poetry and Sufi literature; the couplet ties to this comparison the view of its time that enduring a woman's cruelty is hard for a man. The advice itself is aimed at the world: Avnî tells himself not to be taken in by the world's tricks.

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 6, pp. 121-122 (manuscript: Millet, Ali Emîrî Manzum 305, fol. 3a). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx

Online sources