Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün (remel). The edition carries no metrical information; we scanned the pattern.

Hâk-i pây-i yârdur bu gözlerüm pür-nûr iden
Cevr-i dilberdür dem-â-dem hâtırum mesrûr iden
Nâvek-i dil-dûzdur cân mülkin âbâd eyleyen
Hançer-i dildârdur dil hânesin ma‘mûr iden
Gün gibi hüsnüñ seni ‘âlemde meşhûr eyledi
Beni ‘ışkuñdur cihân içinde hem meşhûr iden
Zülf-i şeb-rengüñ firâkıdur perîşân-hâl idüp
Gözlerüme ‘âlemüñ rûşenliğin deycûr iden
Gözü yaşıyla yazar sürhî yerini dem-be-dem
‘Avnîyâ eş‘âruñı levh-i dile mestûr iden

In English

1. What fills my eyes with light is the dust of the beloved's feet; what gladdens my mind at every moment is the heart-stealer's cruelty.

2. What makes the realm of the soul flourish is the heart-piercing arrow; what builds up the house of the heart is the beloved's dagger.

3. Your sunlike beauty has made you famous in the world; what has made me famous (notorious) in the world is love for you.

4. What has left me distraught and turned the brightness of the world to darkness in my eyes is separation from your night-coloured locks.

5. O Avnî, those who inscribe your poems on the tablet of the heart write the places meant for red ink (sürh) with tears at every moment.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The redif "iden" (which makes) is a participle, and every couplet gives a definition in the form "what does this is that". The "-ûr" rhyme of "pür-nûr, mesrûr, ma'mûr, meşhûr, deycûr, mestûr" largely overlaps with the rhymes of the thirty-third ghazal, and the two ghazals follow a similar path: there too the eye was lit by the dust of the threshold and the heart built up by the hand of the architect of cruelty. The pattern is remel.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet begins with the comparison of kohl: the dust of the beloved's feet is a kohl that gives light to the eye; the more the lover rubs his face on the threshold, the more this dust increases the light of his eye. In the second line the beloved's cruelty gladdens the mind. In the second couplet two weapons do two different tasks. The arrow of the glance, with its tempered steel tip, recalls water; it waters the land of the soul burned by the fire of love and makes it flourish. The dagger, for its part, builds up the house of the heart. Doğan sees in this second line an allusion to an old custom: on the walls of coffee houses, shops and homes hung pictures of Zülfikar containing talismanic prayers, and the picture of the forked sword of Ali was believed to protect the building from fire and earthquake. Doğan also cites the couplet of the sixteenth-century poet Zâtî, "Üstine yazdum anun 'lâ seyfe illâ Zülfikâr' / Şekl-i gamzen dâr-ı dilde eyledüm peydâ Alî" (I drew the shape of your glance in the house of my heart, O Ali, and wrote on it "there is no sword but Zülfikar"), and notes that Avnî's couplet shows the custom was already known in the fifteenth century.

The third couplet compares two kinds of fame: beauty has made the beloved famous, love has made the lover famous; but the lover's fame is notoriety. In the fourth couplet separation from the night-coloured locks turns the brightness of the world to darkness in the lover's eyes; "deycûr" means a pitch-dark night. In the last couplet the talk comes round to the poet's own poems. In the past, the chapter headings and important passages of books were written in "sürh", red ink. The lovers who inscribe Avnî's poems on the tablets of their hearts use no ink for the places to be written in red; they use their bloody tears. Doğan notes that the words "tears", "sürhî" (red) and "dem" (which also means blood) form a congruence of images through the colour red. The couplet is a boast saying that the poet's own poetry is read and learned by heart among lovers.

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 63, pp. 454-456 (manuscript: Millet, Ali Emîrî Manzum 305, fol. 20a). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx

Online sources