Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Sen kemân-ebrû çevirelden yüzüñ ben hâkden
Tîr-i âhum dâyimâ eyler güzer eflâkden
Şâdisinden sad mu‘allak ura ol sayd ey sanem
Asasın öldürdügüñden soñra ger fitrâkden
Zehr-i hecrüñ ey tabîb-i dil senüñ ben hasteye
Hoş gelür nâ-dân elinden irişen tiryâkden
Mest idüm mey-hâne-i ‘ışkuñda la‘lüñ yâdına
Dehr bâgında nişân virilmez iken tâkden
Şâz u handân olup agyâr ile cânâ bir nefes
Bir dem âgâh olmaduñ hâl-i dil-i gamnâkden
Hil‘at-i ‘ışkuñ geyen hâşâke tercîh eyleye
Atlas-ı zer-bâfti kûyuñdaki hâşâkden
Fehm idelden ey Refîkî hüsnüñüñ mâhiyyetin
Kalmışam fikr ü hayâl ü dâniş ü idrâkden

In English

1. O bow-browed one, ever since you turned your face from me, the dust, the arrow of my sigh has been passing ceaselessly through the heavens.

2. O idol, that prey would turn a hundred somersaults for joy if, after killing it, you hung it from your saddle-strap.

3. O physician of the heart, the poison of your separation is sweeter to me, the sick one, than theriac from the hand of an ignorant man.

4. I was drunk in the tavern of your love in memory of your lip, while in the garden of time there was not yet a trace of the vine.

5. Beloved, merry and laughing for a moment with the rivals, not once did you become aware of the state of the grieving heart.

6. Whoever wears the robe of honour of your love will prefer the straw in your street to gold-woven satin.

7. O Refîkî, since I grasped the essence of your beauty I have been left without thought, fancy, knowledge and perception.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Drunk before the Vine

Refîkî tells of the pre-eternal gathering familiar from Sufi poetry, in the fourth couplet, in words of his own. The lover is drunk in the tavern of love in memory of the beloved’s lip before there was any vine (“tâk”) in the garden of time, that is, before even the grape, the source of wine, had been created. The drunkenness of love thus comes before the wine of the world; it ties in with the thought of the wine the souls drank on the Day of Alast. The word “tâk” also means arch or vault, and together with “dehr bâgı” (the garden of time) it may evoke the vault of the sky; but the main sense of the couplet is built on the vine.

The second couplet turns to a hunting scene. The hunter hangs the game he has killed from the strap (“fitrâk”) behind his saddle; the lover, once he has become the beloved’s prey, counts it an honour to be hung from this strap, and the prey turns “sad mu‘allak”, a hundred somersaults, for joy. In the third couplet separation is again poison; but poison from the beloved is sweeter than theriac given by an ignorant physician. In the sixth couplet whoever wears the robe of honour of love prefers the litter in the beloved’s street to gold-woven satin. The pen-name couplet lists the failure of thought, fancy, knowledge and perception before the essence of beauty. The spelling “Şâz” in the fifth couplet appears in the Pervâne as “Şād” (merry).

A Second Nazire under “Velehû”

In the Mecma‘ the ghazal stands headed “Velehû Eyzen” after Ghazal 40, on the same model by Kemalpaşazâde. In Gıynaş’s edition of the Pervâne, on the other hand, it comes a few poems later, under a separate heading “Naẓīre-i Refīḳī”, among the nazires to Hilâlî’s model. The hunt and the robe of honour are both missing from the five-couplet Pervâne text. At the very start the Pervâne reads “çevürelden yüzin”.

Bibliography

Online sources