Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Kim durur cânâ senüñ zülfüñle ider kîl u kâl
Cîm ü dâlı çünki olmışdur anuñ ‘ayn-ı cidâl
Olmasa ‘uşşâka hüsnüñden nasîb ey dûst derd
Almaz idi râ kaşuñı araya ol iki dâl
Kalur idi kûyuña uçmakdan ey ey ebrû-kemân
Olmasa dil murgına peykân u tîrüñ perr ü bâl
Senden ayru ser-firâz olmakdan ey Tûbâ-hırâm
Yig gelür sen serv-kad yolında olsa pây-mâl
Râstî feryâduma ‘uşşâk tutmazlardı gûş
Bezm-i gamda görmesem kânûn üzre gûş-mâl
Gice gündüz hâli olmazsın şumâr-ı gussadan
Salmayınca şâm-ı hecri ey göñül subh-ı visâl
Dâm-ı zülfi murg-ı dil sayd itmede bir dânedür
Ey Refîkî alına andanma benden hisse al

In English

1. Beloved, who is it that wrangles and argues with your tress? For its jîm and dâl (its curls) have become the very “‘ayn” (essence, and the letter ‘ayn) of “cidâl”, dispute.

2. O friend, if pain were not the lovers’ share of your beauty, those two dâls would not have taken your râ-shaped brow between them (dâl, râ, dâl spell “derd”, pain).

3. O bow-browed one, the bird of the heart would fall short of flying to your street, were your arrowhead and arrow not its feathers and wings.

4. O you who sway like the Tûbâ tree, rather than hold my head high apart from you, it seems better to be trodden underfoot on the path of you, cypress-statured one.

5. Truly, the lovers would not lend an ear to my laments, had I not received an ear-twisting by the rule (“kânûn”: also the zither, whose tuning pegs are “gûş-mâl”) in the gathering of grief.

6. O heart, night and day you will not be free from counting sorrows until the morning of union drives away the evening of separation.

7. The snare of his tress has a grain (the mole) for catching the bird of the heart; Refîkî, do not be deceived by his trick (the edition prints “andanma”), take a lesson from me.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Jîm, Dâl, Râ: Words from Letters

The first two couplets of the ghazal play with the shapes of Arabic letters. The curling tress is likened in Ottoman poetry to the letters jîm and dâl. The word “cidâl” (dispute) is written with the letters jîm, dâl, alif and lâm; so the jîm and dâl of the tress are the “‘ayn” of dispute. “‘Ayn” means “essence, the very thing” and is also the name of a letter; whoever talks back to the tress is in fact dealing with dispute itself. The second couplet takes the game a step further: the beloved’s brow resembles the letter râ, and the two tresses on either side are two dâls. Dâl, râ and dâl side by side spell “derd”, pain. The poet ties this to the pain that falls to the lovers’ share: were there no pain, the two dâls would not have taken the brow between them.

In the later couplets the wordplay reaches into other fields, music among them. In the fifth couplet “kânûn” is both rule and the stringed instrument, the kanun; “gûş-mâl” is ear-twisting, that is scolding, but also the tuning peg of the instrument. In the gathering of grief no one listens to a lament until the kanun is tuned. The last couplet sets “âl” (trick) against the command “al” (take); the “andanma” of the Mecma‘ text must be a misprint, and the Pervâne copy reads “aldanma” (do not be deceived). In the third couplet arrow and arrowhead become the wings of the heart’s bird; Refîkî uses the same conceit in Ghazal 32. The repeated “ey ey” in this couplet of the Mecma‘ text comes from the edition’s typesetting; the Pervâne reads a single “ey”.

The Model of Veliyyüddînzâde Ahmed Paşa

In each of the two anthologies the ghazal is a nazire to Ahmed Paşa’s ghazal opening “Hey ala gözlüm bizümle nice bir bu mekr ü al / Cevr ise pâyâna irdi cân ise maksûduñ al”. Refîkî uses the model’s “al” (trick) and “al” (take) in his last couplet with the same doubleness. The Pervâne heading names the model’s poet “Veliyyüddīn-zāde Aḥmed Paşa”. The Pervâne copy, without the couplets of the Tûbâ and the kanun, has five.

Bibliography

Online sources