Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün fe‘ûlün (hezec-i mahzûf)

Letâfetde boyuñ serv [ü] sanavber
Tarâvetde ‘izâruñ verd-i ahmer
Görüp kadd-i bülendüñ dir mü’ezzin
Ne hoş kâmet olur Allâhü ekber
Semen ger bâga girse ey gül-endâm
Keten gömlek gibi üstüñe ditrer
Cihâna ey perî gelmez ‘adîlüñ
Ger olsa meh peder hurşîd mâder
Yüzüñden salma pertev sinüñ üzre
Ki virmez tâb-ı mihre sâye-perver
Refîkî sözlerini istimâ‘ it
Yaraşur çünki şeh gûşında gevher
Ne cânı var saña tasvîr-i hüsnüñ
Ki mânend ola ey rûh-ı musavver

In English

1. In grace your stature is the cypress and the pine; in freshness your cheek is the red rose.

2. Seeing your tall stature, the muezzin says, “What a fine kâmet, Allâhu ekber.”

3. O rose-bodied one, if you enter the garden the jasmine trembles over you like a linen shirt.

4. O fairy, even if the moon were father and the sun mother, your equal would not come into the world.

5. Do not cast the light of your face “sinüñ üzre” (the sense of the phrase is unclear); for one reared in shade does not expose himself to the heat of the sun.

6. Listen to Refîkî’s words; for pearls befit the ear of a king.

7. O spirit given form, what life has the picture of your beauty, that it should resemble you?

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Muezzin’s Kâmet

The most ingenious turn of the ghazal comes, in the second couplet, from a muezzin’s mouth. On seeing the beloved’s tall stature, the muezzin says “Ne hoş kâmet olur, Allâhü ekber.” “Kâmet” means both stature and the short call recited just before the prayer begins, the ikamet; and the ikamet too opens with “Allâhü ekber”. The words in the muezzin’s mouth are at once a cry of admiration and the words of his office. The couplet is also tied to the redif of the model: Nesîmî’s opening couplet ends “Te‘âlâ şânuhü Allâhü ekber”, and Refîkî turns this takbir into words called from a minaret.

The third couplet works the old belief linking linen and the moon: linen cloth was thought to wear out, tremble and come apart in moonlight. When the beloved enters the garden, the white jasmine trembles like a linen shirt before the face that shines like the moon. The Pervâne Bey Mecmuası reads “Kefen gömlek gibi” (like a shroud) at the same point; the reading “keten” is more meaningful because it builds the conceit. The fourth couplet expresses the beloved’s uniqueness through an image of lineage: even with the moon as father and the sun as mother, no lovelier child would be born. The phrase “sinüñ üzre” in the first line of the fifth couplet is unclear; the second line says that one reared in shade cannot bear the sun, and the translation keeps that part.

A Couplet after the Pen Name

In the text of the Mecma‘u’n-Nezâ’ir the pen-name couplet (“Refîkî sözlerini istimâ‘ it”) stands sixth and is followed by one more couplet: “Ne cânı var saña tasvîr-i hüsnüñ / Ki mânend ola ey rûh-ı musavver.” The Pervâne Bey Mecmuası moves this couplet to fourth place and ends the poem with the pen name; there the ghazal has five couplets. Since the pen name normally comes last in a ghazal, the order in the Mecma‘ may be a slip of copying. The couplet itself plays on the word “cân” (life, soul): the picture has no life, while the beloved is a spirit given form. The ghazal follows Refîkî’s previous nazire (Ghazal 18) on Nesîmî’s model (in the Pervâne, Ahmedî’s).

Bibliography

Online sources