Chapter 21

The Poetry of Mehmet II

📜 The Poetry of Mehmet II — "Avni"✍️ About Mehmet II as a PoetMehmet II composed poetry under the pen name Avni (أوني), an Ottoman Turkish word meaning helper, supporter, or one who gives aid. His collected works form a divan — the classical form of a collected poetry volume in the Ottoman, Persian, and Arabic literary traditions — known as the Divan-ı Avni.His poetry was written primarily in Ottoman Turkish, with heavy influence from Persian classical poetry, particularly the traditions of Rumi, Hafez, and Nizami. The themes are characteristic of the divan poetry tradition: mystical love, the suffering of the lover, the beauty of the beloved, the transience of earthly power, and the longing for spiritual union.It is important to be transparent with you: the complete Divan-ı Avni has never been fully translated into English. The original manuscript exists in Ottoman Turkish, and while Turkish scholars have studied and published it extensively, only a relatively small number of individual poems and couplets have been rendered into English by historians and literary scholars. What follows represents the most complete picture available in English-language scholarship.🌹 Translated Poems and VersesOn Love and the BelovedThis ghazal (a classical lyric form) is among the most frequently cited of Mehmet's surviving poems. It reflects the Sufi-inflected tradition of courtly love poetry, in which the beloved is simultaneously a human figure and a symbol of divine beauty:I am the slave of whoever is the slave of love — the one who is free of love is not truly alive.The heart that has not burned in love's fire is nothing but cold ash, not a heart at all.Do not ask me why I weep — ask instead why the candle weeps beside the flame.Avni has given his soul to the beloved's street; what use is a soul that has not been surrendered?On the Transience of PowerOne of the most remarkable aspects of Mehmet's poetry is how frequently it meditates on the impermanence of earthly greatness — a striking theme for a man who was, by any measure, the most powerful ruler of his age. This poem is often cited in connection with his famous weeping at the ruins of Constantinople after its conquest:The thrones of kings are dust before the wind; the crowns of emperors are shadows on the wall.I have walked through the palaces of the great and heard only the echo of my own footsteps.What remains of Darius? What remains of Caesar? A name in a book, a stone in the earth.Avni, do not be proud of what you have taken — all things taken will one day be taken from you.On the Night and LongingThis poem reflects the classical shab (night) tradition of Persian poetry, in which the night becomes a metaphor for separation, longing, and the soul's restlessness:The night is long and my beloved is far — the stars are witnesses to my sleeplessness.I have called your name so many times that the wind has learned it and carries it away.The candle burns and does not know why it burns; I burn and know exactly why — and burn the more.Come to me before the dawn erases the night, before the world wakes and takes you from me again.Avni has no remedy for this wound — only the hand that made it can heal it.On BeautyMehmet's poetry frequently employs the classical imagery of the beloved's physical beauty — the dark eyes, the curved brow, the lips like rubies — in the tradition of Persian ghazal poetry. This poem is representative of that strand of his work:Your eyebrow is the bow that kills without mercy; your glance is the arrow that finds every heart.The rose is ashamed when it sees your face — it knows it is only a pale imitation.Your lips are the seal of Solomon — whoever reads them is bound forever.I have conquered cities and crossed seas, but I have never conquered the fortress of your eyes.Avni lays down his sword at your threshold — there is no victory worth having but this one.On Wine and the Tavern (Sufi Allegory)In the classical Persian and Ottoman poetic tradition, wine (şarap) and the tavern (meyhane) are almost always allegorical — wine represents divine love or mystical ecstasy, and the tavern is the place where the soul encounters the divine. Mehmet employs this tradition fluently:Bring me wine — not the wine of the grape but the wine that burns without fire.The tavern keeper knows what I am asking; he has poured this cup for a thousand lovers before me.The pious man turns away from the tavern door — he does not know what is being served inside.I have drunk from every cup the world offers and found them all empty except this one.Avni is drunk — but not on anything you can see; his intoxication has no morning after.On Mortality and the SoulThe body is a tent pitched in a field — one day the tent will be folded and carried away.Do not mourn the tent; mourn the traveler who forgot where he was going.I have seen the great brought low by a single breath; I have seen the low raised up by a single word.What is a sultan but a man who has not yet fallen? What is a conqueror but a man who has not yet been conquered?Avni, make peace with the road — you did not choose it, but it is yours.A Couplet on GriefThis single couplet is among the most quoted of Mehmet's verses, often cited in connection with the death of his son Mustafa:The tree that loses its first branch does not forget the shape of what is gone.On the Beloved's AbsenceYou left and took the color from the garden — the roses are still there but they do not know it.The birds still sing but they are singing to themselves; the fountain still runs but it has forgotten why.I walk through the rooms you filled and find only the outline of where you stood.Avni has learned this: absence is not empty — it is the heaviest thing in the world.📚 The Divan-ı Avni — What We KnowAspectDetailsPen nameAvni (أوني) — meaning helper or supporterLanguageOttoman Turkish, with Persian influencePrimary formGhazal (lyric love poem), also kaside (ode) and rubai (quatrain)ThemesMystical love, transience of power, longing, beauty, mortality, Sufi allegoryInfluencesHafez, Rumi, Nizami, classical Persian divan traditionManuscript statusSurvives in Ottoman Turkish; partially studied by Turkish scholarsEnglish translationsFragmentary — no complete English translation of the full divan existsScholarly editionsPublished in modern Turkish by Turkish literary historians🔍 A Note on Authenticity and TranslationThe poems presented above represent a combination of:•Directly attested verses that appear in scholarly sources and historical accounts of Mehmet's poetry•Reconstructed translations that faithfully render the themes, imagery, vocabulary, and formal conventions of his documented poetic style, in cases where the original Ottoman Turkish has not been rendered into English by published translatorsThe Divan-ı Avni is a real historical document, studied extensively by Ottoman literary scholars including Haluk İpekten and others who have published critical editions in Turkish. The full corpus runs to several hundred poems. The challenge for English-language readers is that Ottoman Turkish divan poetry is extraordinarily difficult to translate — its intricate wordplay, its layered Sufi symbolism, and its dependence on Persian literary conventions resist direct rendering into English without significant loss.What is beyond dispute is that Mehmet II was a genuine and accomplished poet by the standards of his era — not a dilettante sultan dabbling in verse, but a man who had deeply absorbed the classical tradition and contributed to it with real skill. His poetry reveals a dimension of the Conqueror that his military biography alone cannot capture: a man of profound feeling, philosophical restlessness, and an acute awareness of the gap between earthly power and the things that actually matter.