Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Baña ol hûrî mahalleñ cennetü’l-me’vâ yiter
Müntehâ kaddüñ nihâl-i sidre vü Tûbâ yiter
Merve hakkiçün Safâ Ka‘be olup kûyuñ baña
Ey gözüm nûrı tavâf-ı Mescidü’l-aksâ yiter
Leblerüñ ‘aksiyle çeşmüm kâsesi ‘îş itmege
Bezm-i fürkatde baña câm-ı mey-i hamrâ yiter
Ey kemân-ebrû saña ‘âşıklaruñ öldürmege
Tîr ü müjgâna ne hâcet nâz u istignâ yiter
Gonçe gibi olmamak içün Refîkî teng-dil
Yüzine gülseñ dem-â-dem ey gül-i ra‘nâ yiter

In English

1. O houri, your quarter suffices me as the Garden of Refuge; your stature suffices as the Lote-Tree of the Boundary and the sapling of Tûbâ.

2. By the truth of Marwa, since your street has become Safa and the Kaaba for me, O light of my eye, walking around it suffices as the circumambulation of al-Aqsa.

3. To make merry in the gathering of separation, the bowl of my eye, filled with the reflection of your lips, suffices me as a cup of red wine.

4. O you whose brow is a bow, what need have you of arrows and lashes to kill lovers? Coquetry and disdain suffice.

5. O lovely rose, so that Refîkî may not be narrow of heart like a bud, it suffices that you smile at him now and then.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Quarter on the Pilgrim’s Road

The first two couplets of the ghazal are woven of the vocabulary of paradise and pilgrimage. The beloved’s quarter is the Garden of Refuge (Cennetü’l-Me’vâ); his stature is worth the Lote-Tree of the Boundary (Sidretü’l-Müntehâ) at the edge of heaven and the tree of Tûbâ. The second couplet lists the stations of the pilgrimage: the running between Safa and Marwa, the circumambulation of the Kaaba, and al-Aqsa in Jerusalem. The word “safâ” is both the name of the hill and a word for joy; the beloved’s street is therefore both a station of pilgrimage and a place of delight. The oath “Merve hakkıçün” (by the truth of Marwa) appears in another of Refîkî’s ghazals (Ghazal 45); it seems to have been a turn of phrase the poet liked.

Ahmed Paşa’s model ghazal begins “‘Âşıka cennet gerekmez şol ruh-ı zîbâ yiter” (the lover needs no paradise, that lovely cheek suffices) and builds the redif “yiter” on preferring the beloved to paradise. Refîkî takes the same preference further: paradise is found in the beloved’s street, and the pilgrimage is completed there as well. In the third couplet a gathering of separation is held; there is no wine, but the bowl of the eye, reddened by the reflection of the beloved’s lips, that is, filled with bloody tears, takes the place of the cup. The fourth couplet makes the weapons of war unnecessary: to kill, coquetry and disdain suffice, not arrow and eyelash. Bud and rose meet in the pen-name couplet; the narrow-mouthed bud stands for the troubled heart, the opening rose for the beloved’s smile.

Variant Readings

The ghazal appears in both anthologies among the nazires to Ahmed Paşa’s model, with five couplets. In the Pervâne copy the opening couplet reads “Baña ey ḥūrī maḥalleñ cennet-i a‘lā yiter / Minnet-i ḳaddüñ nihāl-i sidre vü Ṭūbā yiter”; the second couplet has “ṣafā-yi cennet-i kūyuñ”, and the fourth “Tīr-i müjgānı ne ḥācet”. The Mecma‘ text’s “Safâ Ka‘be olup kûyuñ” lists the stations of the pilgrimage more regularly and has therefore been followed on this page.

Bibliography

Online sources