Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün (hezec)

Benüm gayrumla ey sâkî şarâb içseñ harâm olsun
Benümle nûş iderseñ hem helâl olsun müdâm olsun
İşitdüm gerçi şehrüñ va‘izinden cennetüñ vasfın
Senüñ de ravza-i kûyuña ey hûrî selâm olsun
Göreyüm safha-i devrân içinde ey elif-kâmet
Saña togrı nazarla bakmayanuñ kaddi lâm olsun
Gülistân içre hergiz itmesün pervâz tek cânâ
Göñül murgına hâlüñ dâne zülfüñ bend-i dâm olsun
İdinmez ‘ışk kûyından ırak yirde benüm göñlüm
Gerekse Mısr eri yâhod süvâr-ı şehr-i Şâm olsun
Seni hûra kusûr-ı ‘akldandur eylemek teşbîh
Birez beñzer disem sen şâha ger gılmân gulâm olsun
Refîkî’yi ırak iden kişiye vasl-ı dil-berden
Ciger kanı şarâb u kâse-i ser tolu câm olsun

In English

1. O cupbearer, if you drink wine with any but me, may it be forbidden; if you drink with me, may it be both lawful and “müdâm” (everlasting, and wine itself).

2. True, I have heard the description of paradise from the town’s preacher; but greetings, O houri, to the garden of your street as well.

3. O alif-statured one, may I see, on the page of time, the stature of anyone who does not look at you with a straight gaze bent like the letter lâm.

4. Beloved, let the bird of the heart never fly (in the Pervâne: like a moth) in the rose garden; let your mole be its grain and your tress the cord of its snare.

5. My heart will not make its home anywhere far from the street of love, even were it offered to be governor of Egypt or a horseman of the city of Damascus.

6. Likening you to a houri comes from a defect of reason; for me to say you resemble one a little, O king, the youths of paradise would have to become your slaves.

7. Whoever keeps Refîkî far from union with the beloved, may his wine be the blood of his liver and his brimming cup his own skull.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Model or Nazire?

This ghazal stands in opposite places in the two nazire anthologies. In Nazmî’s anthology, the Mecma‘u’n-Nezâ’ir it appears as a nazire written to the ghazal of Kemalpaşazâde opening “Ser-i zülfüñi çîn eyle göñül murgına dâm olsun”. In the Pervâne Bey Mecmuası, however, it is given as the model at the head of a section under the heading “Refīḳī fermāyed” (Refîkî says); there follow the nazires of Sun‘î, İshak Efendi, Kemalpaşazâde, Zâtî, Celîlî and Nazmî Muhammed Çelebi. Kemalpaşazâde’s same ghazal is thus counted a model in one anthology and a nazire written to Refîkî in the other. There is no date or record to show which was written first. According to the biographical anthologies Refîkî was a close friend of Kemalpaşazâde; it is reasonable to think that the two poems were written in the same circle as answers to each other.

Nazmî Muhammed Çelebi, one of the authors of nazires in the Pervâne, is probably Edirneli Nazmî, also called “Nazmî Mehmed Çelebi” in the biographical anthologies, that is, the compiler of the Mecma‘u’n-Nezâ’ir; the heading does not say so outright. If this is right, Nazmî lists Refîkî’s poem in his own anthology as a nazire to Kemalpaşazâde, while in another collection he appears among the poets who wrote nazires to Refîkî.

Forbidden and Lawful

The opening couplet is set up like a legal ruling: if the cupbearer drinks wine with another it is forbidden, if with the lover it is both lawful and “müdâm”. Since “müdâm” means both “continual” and wine, the wish is twofold. The second couplet adds the garden of the beloved’s street to the paradise the preacher describes. The third couplet plays with the shapes of letters: the beloved’s stature is upright like alif, and may the stature of whoever looks at him crookedly be bent like the letter lâm; the phrase “page of time” sets these letters on a written page. The fifth couplet speaks of Egypt and Damascus; these two lands had been added to the Ottoman realm by Selim I’s campaign of 1516-1517, and in these years Refîkî was Selim’s chancery scribe. The couplet gives no date, but a poem saying that offices in Egypt and Damascus would not satisfy the heart would plainly have spoken to a reader of that time. The last word is a curse.

Pervâne Bey’s copy has five couplets and lacks those of Egypt and Damascus and of the houri. In the fourth couplet the Pervâne reads “itmesün pervāne tek cānā” and likens the bird of the heart to a moth. The Mecma‘ reading “itmesün pervâz tek” suits the image of the bird better.

Bibliography

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