Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Olımaz dîvâne göñlüm sen perî-ruhsârsuz
Bülbül-i şeydâdur ârâm eylemez gülzârsuz
Ey tabîb-i cân kapuñdan sürme ben dil-hasteñi
Nice kânûndur ki‿ola dârü’ş-şifâ bîmârsuz
Yârı gayr ile görüp dil-teng olma gonçeveş
Bu cihân bâgında çün bir gül bulınmaz hârsuz
Alımaz çeşm ü kad ü ebrû-yı cânândan haber
Terk-i nâmûs itmeyüp olmasa ‘aşık ‘ârsuz
Eşkümüñ katrâtını sürme derüñden ey kamer
Çün sipihr olmaz bilürsin kevkeb-i seyyârsuz
Cân u tenden geçdügüm yoluñda bu kim ehl-i ‘ışk
Dîn ü dünyâsuz olurlar olımazlar yârsuz
Bûstân-ı dehr içinde söylenen bî-hâr gül
Yârı görmekdür Refîkî var ise agyârsuz

In English

1. My mad heart cannot be without you, O fairy-cheeked one; it is a lovelorn nightingale that finds no rest without a rose garden.

2. O physician of the soul, do not drive me, your heartsick patient, from your door; what rule (kânûn) is it that a hospital should be without patients?

3. Do not grow narrow of heart like a bud on seeing the beloved with another; for in this garden of the world no rose is found without a thorn.

4. The lover cannot learn anything of the beloved’s eye, stature and brow unless he casts off honour and becomes shameless.

5. O moon, do not drive the drops of my tears from your door; you know the sky is never without wandering stars.

6. The reason I have given up soul and body on your path is this: the people of love may be without faith and world, but never without the beloved.

7. Refîkî, the thornless rose spoken of in the garden of time is to see the beloved without rivals, if such a thing exists.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Thornless Rose

In the end the ghazal answers the claim of its model. Hafî’s opening couplet states a rule: “Yâr bulınmaz cihânda ey göñül agyârsuz / Kim ‘ayıbsuz yâr isteyen kalurmış yârsuz”, that is, no beloved is found in the world without rivals, and whoever seeks a faultless beloved remains without one. In the third couplet Refîkî accepts the rule: no rose without a thorn is found in the garden of the world, and one must not shrink like a bud on seeing the beloved with another. The pen-name couplet, however, names the impossible thing: the thornless rose of which everyone speaks is to see the beloved without rivals; the closing proviso “var ise” (if such exists) implies that this is hardly possible.

The second couplet uses the language of medicine. The beloved is the physician of the soul and the lover his patient; the argument for not being driven from the door is a question of rule: can there be a hospital without patients? The word “kânûn” here means both rule and recalls Avicenna’s medical book, al-Qânûn; not even the physician’s book provides for turning a patient away. The fifth couplet likens the drops of tears to the planets (“kevkeb-i seyyâr”); the door of the moon-like beloved should never be without tears, as the sky is never without planets. The sixth couplet gives the measure of love: the lover can leave faith and world, but he cannot give up the beloved.

Hafî and Visâlî

The Mecma‘u’n-Nezâ’ir names as the model the ghazal of Hafî of Edirne quoted above. Pervâne Bey’s anthology heads the same redif with the ghazal “Āh kim seyr eylemez ol şūḫ yār aġyārsuz” by Visâlî, introduced in the heading as a man of the province of Aydın and a teacher at the palace. The couplets of the tear-planets and of faith and world are missing from the Pervâne text. In the opening couplet the Pervâne reads “melek-ruḫsārsuz”, in the second “dil-ḫasteyi”.

Bibliography

Online sources