Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Kaşlaruñ mihrâbı tâ kim secdegâhumdur benüm
Dilde virdüm nâlişüm tesbîhüm âhumdur benüm
Başum üzre sanma dûd-ı âteşînümdür turan
Ben dilîr-i ‘ışkam ol perr-i külâhumdur benüm
Togdugına burc ayından sirişküm kevkebi
Her şeb ey meh çerh ile encüm güvâhumdur benüm
Şâdi-i düşmen gam-ı zülfin didügümden degül
Güldüren halkı baña baht-ı siyâhumdur benüm
Atı öñinde piyâde ol ki hoş mansûbdur
Ey Refîkî ol ruh-ı gül-gûn çü şâhumdur benüm

In English

1. Ever since the mihrab of your brows became my place of prostration, the litany in my heart has been my lament, my rosary my sigh.

2. Do not take what stands above my head for my fiery smoke; I am a champion of love, it is the plume of my cap.

3. O moon, every night the heavens and the stars are my witnesses that the star of my tears rises from the house of the moon (in the Pervâne: from the watery sign).

4. The enemy’s glee is not because I spoke of grief for his tress; what makes people laugh at me is my black fortune.

5. Be a foot soldier (a pawn) before his horse (his knight), for it is a fine position; Refîkî, that rose-coloured cheek (“ruh”, also the rook) is my king.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Lover on the Chessboard

The ghazal closes on a move in chess. The words “at”, “piyâde”, “mansûb”, “ruh” and “şâh” are all terms of chess: knight, pawn, a set problem or position (mansûbe), rook and king. Refîkî advises himself to walk on foot before the beloved’s horse, that is to be a pawn; it is a good position, because the beloved’s rose-coloured cheek (“ruh”, which is also the rook) is his king. The couplet sets the servant walking before the beloved’s horse and the pieces on a chessboard side by side in a single sentence. The Pervâne copy reads “Atı öñince piyāde ol ki ḫoş manṣūbedür” and gives the chess term more plainly.

The rest of the poem’s couplets mix religious and military images. In the first couplet the brow is a mihrab, the lament a litany, the sigh a rosary; worship is directed towards the beloved’s brow. In couplet two the fiery smoke rising from the lover’s head turns into the plume in a warrior’s cap: the lover is a champion of love. The tear of the third couplet is a star rising from one of the houses of the zodiac, and the heavens and the stars bear witness to it every night. The fourth puts the laughter of enemies down to the lover’s black fortune.

Cem Sultan’s Model

Both anthologies give the ghazal among the nazires to Cem Sultan’s ghazal opening “Görinen çerh-i mu‘allak dûd-ı âhumdur benüm / Hem firâz-ı ‘arş-ı a‘zam tekyegâhumdur benüm”; Refîkî turns the model’s image of “dûd-ı âh” (the smoke of the sigh) into a cap plume in his second couplet. In the Pervâne copy the first half of the fourth couplet is incomplete: “Şādī düşmen didigümden (...) degül”; Gıynaş notes that this part was left blank in the manuscript. The Mecma‘ text fills the same spot with “gam-ı zülfin”.

Bibliography

Online sources