Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef'ûlü fâilâtü mefâîlü fâilün (muzâri). No pattern is given for this ghazal in the edition; the muzâri reading is ours.

Pür oldı hayl-i hüsnüñ ile yine bu cihân
Hüsnüñ şehine kurdı saçuñ müşk sâye-bân
Hüsnüñ ki mesken eyledi haddüñ serîrini
Sundı kaşuñ revân aña miskîn iki kemân
Hecrüñ eli yakamı elinden komaz ne tañ
Pür-hûn olursa her gice dâmân-ı âsmân
Ey Yûsuf-ı zemâne nice cân halâs idem
Gamzeñ ki katlüme takınur tîğ ile sinân
Bir zerre mihr görmedüm ol mâhdan velî
Eşküm sitâre eyledüm âhumı kehkeşân
Dürr-i visâl-i dilbere irmek ümîdine
Gözüm yaşı olursa n’ola bahr-i bî-kerân
Gam-hâneñe getürimeyesün o dilberi
‘Avnî ne deñlü eyler iseñ hükmüñi revân

In English

1. With the army of your beauty this world is full once more; your hair has pitched a musk-scented canopy for the king of your beauty.

2. When your beauty made its dwelling on the throne of your cheek, your brow at once (or as wine) offered it two musk-scented cups (bows).

3. The hand of separation from you will not let go of my collar; no wonder if every night the skirt of the sky fills with blood.

4. O Joseph of the age, how am I to save my life? Your glance girds on sword and spear to kill me.

5. From that moon I have not seen a mote of love (of sun); yet I have made my tears stars and my sigh the Milky Way.

6. In the hope of reaching the pearl of union with the heart-stealer, what if the tears of my eye become a boundless sea?

7. O Avnî, however much you enforce your command, you cannot bring that heart-stealer to your house of grief.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The first two couplets build a picture of sovereignty, the following couplets pass on to the lover's pain on the scale of night, sky and sea, and the last couplet returns to the language of sovereignty. The seven couplets, in muzâri, have no redif; the rhyme is in the "-ân" sound of the words "cihân, sâye-bân, kemân, âsmân, sinân, kehkeşân, bî-kerân, revân".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet turns beauty into a conquering army: the army of the beloved's beauty has filled the whole world, and her hair has pitched a musk-coloured canopy for the sultan of this army, that is, the face that shines like the sun. The second couplet is a scene that Doğan says was written with a ruler's feelings. Beauty has sat down on the throne of the cheek, and the brows, as the sultan's chamberlains, offer it two cups. Doğan explains the double meaning of three words in the couplet: "revân" means both at once and wine, "miskîn" both musk-coloured, jet black, and mixed with musk, "kemân" both bow and wine cup. The poet means the second senses and builds a congruence of suggested images with the first; the arched brows, by their bow shape, recall two cups. The likening of the brows to chamberlains was also seen in the fifty-seventh ghazal.

The third couplet finds a reason for the redness of dawn: the hand of separation does not let go of the lover's collar, the lover sheds bloody tears until morning, and the skirt of the sky fills with this blood; Doğan presents this as a hüsnütalil. The fourth couplet makes the beloved the Joseph of the age; there is an allusion to the story of Joseph, whose jealous brothers first wanted to kill him and then threw him into a well, but here it is the beloved's own glance that girds on the weapons. The fifth couplet brings together words related to the sky: "mihr" (love and sun), "mâh" (moon), "sitâre" (star), "kehkeşân" (the Milky Way). The sixth couplet alludes to pearl diving: pearls are brought up from the boundless seas at great risk; for the pearl of union too a sea of tears is needed.

The couplet that carries Avnî's name is a comparison, and Doğan reads it together with the couplet "Sen Sitanbul şâhısuñ" (you are the king of Istanbul) of the fourteenth ghazal. However much Avnî enforces his command, he cannot bring that heart-stealer to his house of grief; for Avnî is, after all, the king of Istanbul who has taken poverty and grief as his way, while the beloved is the mighty ruler of the land of beauty who reigns over hearts. "Hükmüñi revân eylemek", to enforce one's command, when spoken by a ruler who really gave commands, says that the sovereignty of love does not bow to worldly sovereignty.

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 60, pp. 439-442 (manuscript: Millet, Ali Emîrî Manzum 305, fol. 19a). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx

Online sources