Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: feûlün feûlün feûlün feûl (mütekârib). The edition does not give the metre of these four lines; mütekârib is our reading.

Dili tîr-i gam zahm-nâk eyledi
Müjeñ fikri beni helâk eyledi
Etegümi elden komayup gamuñ
Girîbânumı çâk çâk eyledi

In English

1. The arrow of grief has wounded the heart; the thought of your eyelash has destroyed me.

2. Grief for you, never letting go of my skirt, has torn my collar to shreds.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The only kıt'a in the main manuscript of the divan is these four lines, standing on folio 22b of the manuscript in the Millet Library immediately after the last ghazal. The kıt'a is a short verse form without an opening couplet, in which only the second and fourth lines rhyme; here, however, all four lines end with the sound "-âk eyledi": "zahm-nâk, helâk, çâk çâk". The redif is "eyledi" (made, did). The "feûlün feûlün feûlün feûl" pattern of the mütekârib metre gives a short, clipped rhythm that sets it apart from the long patterns of the divan's ghazals. Doğan prints the piece without couplet numbers and gives no commentary on it; he only renders it into prose. The single kıt'a that Halil İnalcık counts in the sole manuscript is very probably this piece.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first couplet begins with two weapons: the arrow of grief has wounded the heart, and the thought of the beloved's eyelash has destroyed the lover. The eyelash is already likened to an arrow in divan poetry; here the image of the eyelash takes the place of the real arrow. In the second couplet grief acts like a person: it has clung to the lover's skirt, has not let go, and has torn his collar to pieces. Skirt and collar are the two ends of a garment, and the couplet expresses through these two ends how grief has seized the lover from head to foot. The doubled "çâk çâk" makes the tearing heard again and again. With its short and plain manner, the piece is closer to the directness of a folk quatrain than to the ornate ghazals of the divan.

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 74, p. 541 (manuscript: Millet, Ali Emîrî Manzum 305, fol. 22b). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx

Online sources