Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün (remel)

Görinen sahn-ı çemende sanma gül yapragıdur
Hatt-ı sebzüñ şevk ile gögsinde tâze dâgıdur
N’ola sayd itseñ göñüller murgın ey şeh-bâz-ı cân
Çün gözüñ sayyâddur u zülf-i siyâhuñ agıdur
Yakma dil mülkin yakup kıl âb-ı çeşmümden hazer
Ki‿olda âteş gibi cânâ bir emânsuz yagıdur
Gûyiyâ bülbül şeh-i murgân olupdur bâgda
Kim anuñ gonçe zer-efşân kırmızı otagıdur
Ey Refîkî dir gören zülfinde ‘uşşâkuñ dilin
Deste deste gonçedür kim sünbül-i ter bagıdur

In English

1. Do not take what appears in the meadow for rose petals; they are fresh brands opened on the meadow’s breast in longing for the green down on your cheek.

2. O royal falcon of the soul, it is no wonder if you hunt the birds of hearts; for your eye is the hunter and your black tress its net.

3. Do not burn the land of the heart; if you burn it, beware of the water of my eye; for it too, beloved, like fire, is a merciless enemy.

4. It is as if the nightingale had become king of the birds in the garden; the gold-scattering bud is his red royal tent.

5. Refîkî, whoever sees the lovers’ hearts in the beloved’s tress says: “These are bunches of rosebuds tied with fresh hyacinth.”

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Echo of “Yagı”

Necâtî’s spring ghazal is one of the models to which nazire poets returned most often: “Nev-bahâr eyyâmı geldi ‘îş u ‘işret çagıdur / Tevbelerle gül kızıl düşmen kadeh kan yagıdur.” In taking the rhyme and the redif, Refîkî also carries the word “yagı” (enemy) from Necâtî’s opening couplet into his own third couplet: tears too, like fire, are an “emânsuz yagı”, a merciless enemy. In this couplet water and fire, two opposed elements, stand side by side as two enemies laying waste the land of the heart. The words addressed to the beloved are therefore divided in two: do not burn the heart, and if you do, beware of the water of my eye.

What follows in the ghazal turns the spring scene into a court and a hunt. The red patches in the meadow are not rose petals but fresh brands pressed on the meadow’s breast in longing for the beloved’s green down. The second couplet makes the beloved a falcon, his eye the hunter and his tress the net. The nightingale of the fourth couplet is king of the birds, and the bud opened with its gold-dusted stamens is his red royal tent; this image, recalling the sultan’s pavilion, likens the spring garden to an encampment. The rhyme series “yaprağı, dâğı, ağı, yağı, otağı, bağı” shows the skill of building varied meanings on the same sound.

In Both Anthologies

The ghazal appears among the nazires to Necâtî’s model in both the Mecma‘u’n-Nezâ’ir and the Pervâne Bey Mecmuası; the Pervâne names the poet “Refīḳī Çelebi”. All five couplets tally in the two texts. The Pervâne has “Yıḳma dil mülkin” in the third couplet. At the close the two copies differ in word order: the Mecma‘ has “Deste deste gonçedür kim sünbül-i ter bagıdur” (bunches of buds tied with fresh hyacinth), the Pervâne “Deste deste sünbül-i terdür ki ġonçe baġıdur” (bunches of hyacinth that are the ties of the buds). In both readings the lovers’ hearts are bouquets bound to the tress.

Bibliography

Online sources