Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâʿîlün mefâʿîlün mefâʿîlün mefâʿîlün (metre identified by us)

İlâhî sen ḫalâṣ eyle bizi bu şehr-i bâṭıldan
Kişi anı ne seyr itsün geçilmez âb ile gilden

In English

1. O God, deliver us from this worthless town; how is one to walk about it, when one cannot get through for water and mud.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Mud of Edirne

The couplet is a complaint from the years when Refîkî was administrator of the Darülhadis in Edirne. According to Âşık Çelebi the poet, weary of the town's mud, composed a satire, and this couplet was its "bend", the recurring verse linking the sections of the poem. Âlî's Künhü'l-ahbâr gives the same couplet with the first line "İlâhî lutf idüp kurtar" and adds that it was improvised on the spot. The "âb u gil" at the end of the line, water and mud, describes the real state of Edirne's streets in rainy weather.

Sâgarî's Answer

The poets of Edirne took offence at the satire and each wrote a reply. Both anthologists say the most admired answer was this couplet by Sâgarî of Edirne: "Şu kim şeyṭân-ṣıfat eyler şikâyet âb ile gilden / Üfür yüzine anuñ aṣlı oddur ḥaẓẓ ider yilden", Whoever, like Satan, complains of water and clay, blow in his face: his origin is fire, he delights in wind. The subtlety of the reply lies in "âb u gil". The phrase means water and mud, but it also denotes the clay from which man was made. According to the tradition Satan, created from fire, refused to bow before Adam, who was made of clay. Sâgarî therefore likens Refîkî, who complains of water and mud, to Satan: a creature of fire loves the wind, and it is enough to blow in his face. This exchange between satire and reply also shows that the Amasya-born secretary, friend of Kemalpaşazâde, was seen as an outsider in Edirne. The entry in the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü notes that the record calling Refîkî a native of Edirne is weak in the face of this couplet. His friendship with Kemalpaşazâde and his years in Edirne are told in Refîkî Ali Çelebi (İbrîzâde).

Bibliography

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