Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Kesme kat‘â rişte-i peyvendi zülf-i yârdan
Düşmeyem dirseñ dilâ ger devlet-i dîdârdan
Asılıgör zülfine dildâruñ eylerseñ taleb
Vâsıl olan Hakk’a çün Mansûr’dur bu dârdan
Gam yimez agyârdan hüsnüñ temâşâsın uman
Ârzû-yı gül iden endîşe itmez hârdan
‘İllet-i hecrüñle ölmek yigdür ey ‘Îsâ-nefes
Şerbet-i vasluñdan özge olınan tîmârdan
Çâr-sû halkında gördüm sûd u sevdâdan ferâg
Geçdi ol Yûsuf-likâ beñzer bugün bâzârdan
Halkdan ‘uzlet idüp yapsam kapumı ey perî
Fitne-i hüsnüñ hücûm idüp girür dîvârdan
Ey Refîkî iç dehânı yâdına câmı müdâm
Tâ haberdâr olasın keyfiyyet-i esrârdan

In English

1. O heart, if you would not fall from the fortune of seeing the beloved’s face, never cut the thread of attachment to the beloved’s tress.

2. If you are seeking, cling to the beloved’s tress; for it is Mansur who reached God from this gallows.

3. One who hopes to behold your beauty does not fret over rivals; whoever longs for the rose does not fear the thorn.

4. O you whose breath is like Jesus’, it is better to die of the sickness of separation than to be healed by any treatment other than the sherbet of your union.

5. I saw the people of the market-cross free of profit and trade (and of “sevdâ”, love); that Joseph-faced one must have passed through the bazaar today.

6. O fairy, if I withdraw from people and shut my door, the mischief of your beauty storms in through the wall.

7. Refîkî, drink the cup without pause in memory of his mouth (in the Pervâne: open your mouth), so that you may learn the quality of secrets.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Joseph Passing through the Bazaar

In the fifth couplet the market has stopped: the traders and people at the crossroads (“çâr-sû”) have left off profit and trade; the poet guesses the cause: the Joseph-faced beloved must have passed through the bazaar today. The selling of Joseph in the market of Egypt and the way his beauty kept everyone from their work is a well-known story. The word “sevdâ” here means both trade and passionate love: the market people have given up “sûd u sevdâ”, profit and commerce, but the real cause is another kind of “sevdâ”. The sixth couplet carries the same mischief into a house: though the lover withdraws from people and shuts his door, the mischief of beauty comes in through the wall.

The second couplet turns to one of the best-known stories in the history of Sufism. Hallâj-i Mansûr, put to death on the gallows for saying “Ene’l-Hak” (I am the Truth), is in the tradition the man who reached God from the gallows. Refîkî likens the beloved’s tress to the rope of this gallows: whoever hangs on the tress reaches his desire, like Mansur. The phrase “rişte-i peyvend” (the thread of attachment) in the opening couplet prepares this image of the rope in advance. The beloved of the fourth couplet has the breath of Jesus, who raised the dead; the lover accepts no remedy but his sherbet. In the last couplet “keyfiyyet” is both the state of intoxication and the quality of a thing; the cup is said to be a means of learning the quality of secrets.

The Models of Hafî and Ahmed Paşa

In Nazmî’s anthology the ghazal’s model is Hafî’s ghazal “Ayıram agyârı Hak yârî kılursa yârdan / Fursat el vire yitem item düşürem yardan”. The Pervâne Bey Mecmuası, however, sets the same rhyme under Ahmed Paşa’s ghazal that opens with the line “Çün vefā gelmez bilürsin merdüm-i mekkārdan”. The market and wall couplets are absent from the Pervâne, where the poem runs to five. The Pervâne’s second couplet reads “Vāṣıl-i Ḥaḳḳ’a çü Manṣūr giderür bu dārdan”.

Bibliography

Online sources