Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Dil unıtmaz beni ayru gördügince yâddan
Dûstum zîre meseldür gitmez eylük yâddan
Kûhda lâle degül görinen gam-ı Şîrîn ile
Hûn-ı dildür kim tamupdur dîde-i Ferhâd’dan
Atı üstinden tevâzû‘lar ider cânân baña
Şâh-ı gül gibi ki hâke mâyil olur bâddan
Yüz çevürmem biñ olursa dûstlar düşmen ki çün
Yig durur ölmek kişiye bir yaramaz addan
‘Işk pîrine Refîkî olalı cândan mürîd
Vaz geldi şeyh-i şehrüñ itdügi irşâddan

In English

1. Whenever the heart sees me kept apart, it does not drop me from memory (“yâd”) for a stranger (“yâd”); for, my friend, there is a proverb: a kindness never leaves the memory.

2. What appears on the mountain is not tulips; it is heart’s blood that dripped from Farhad’s eye in grief for Shirin.

3. From his horse the beloved bows to me in humility, like a branch of roses bending to the earth in the wind.

4. I will not turn away even if a thousand friends become enemies; for to a man death is better than a bad name.

5. Since Refîkî became a disciple of the elder of love with his whole soul, he has given up the guidance offered by the town’s sheikh.

Literary and Historical Commentary

“Yâd” and “Yâd”

The first couplet is constructed on the word “yâd”, which has two separate meanings in Turkish. The “yâd” at the end of the first line means stranger, the one at the end of the second means memory; the two rhyme in the same sound and the same spelling. The first line can be understood in two ways: the heart does not forget the lover whenever it sees him apart from a stranger; or it does not put him out of mind even though he has been kept apart. The second line ties both readings to a proverb: “Eylik yâddan gitmez”, a kindness is not forgotten. That a proverb should enter the poem so directly is an attitude seen in other ghazals of Refîkî’s too (as with “a nickname comes down from the sky” in Ghazal 12).

The second couplet turns the story of Farhad and Shirin into a reading of the landscape: the red tulips on the mountains are the bloody tears dripped from the eye of Farhad, who pierced the mountain for Shirin. The third couplet is like a scene from court life: the beloved on horseback leans towards the lover on foot to greet him, and this bow resembles the branch of roses bent towards the earth by the wind. In couplet four the thought of honour and name comes to the fore; even friends turning enemies is no reason to turn away, for death is preferable to living with a bad name. The pen-name couplet weighs the elder of love against the town’s sheikh and makes its choice plainly.

Ahmed Paşa’s Falconer Ghazal

In both anthologies the model of the ghazal is Ahmed Paşa’s poem beginning with the couplet “Ey göñül murgı ne rahm umarsın ol sayyâddan / Kim safâsı var anuñ dâmındaki feryâddan”. Here Pervâne Bey names the poet “Refīḳī Çelebi”. The two texts, five couplets each, are largely the same; the first line of the opening couplet reads in the Pervâne “gördügince bāddan” and so removes the pun on “yâd”. For the second couplet the Pervâne has “Kūhda lāle degüldür görinen Şīrīn ile”.

Bibliography

Online sources