Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

İtmege rûşen-nazar hatt-ı leb-i cânânuma
Âb-ı çeşmüm ‘aynuñ oldı dîde-i giryânuma
Fitnedür gûyâ zuhûr itdi şarâb-ı nâbdan
‘Ârız oldı şol hat kim leb-i cânânuma
Cennet olmışken bahâr ile cihân senden cüdâ
Bâg u bend ü tâze gül nâr-ı cezâdur cânuma
Sâyebânum olsa dergâhuñ eger ben günlüge
Reşk iderdi bu yidi hayme benüm eyvânuma
Şol kadar yandum Refîkî hecr tennûrında kim
Dönebilsem bir yanumdan cehd idüp bir yanuma

In English

1. So that my eye may see clearly the down on my beloved’s lip, my tears have become an eye-water (a lotion) for my weeping eye.

2. The down that has appeared on my beloved’s lip is like a mischief that has come forth from pure wine.

3. When the world has turned to paradise with spring, apart from you the orchard, the bower and the fresh rose are a fire of punishment to my soul.

4. Were your court my sunshade against the sun, these seven tents (the seven heavens) would envy my portico.

5. Refîkî, I have burned so in the oven of separation that, struggle as I may, would I could turn from one side to the other (in the Pervâne: I cannot turn).

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Lover Turning in the Oven

The last couplet is set at the roasting oven. The lover is burning in the oven of separation; just as meat in an oven is turned, he struggles to turn from one side to the other. The sound-link between “yandum” (I burned) and “yanum” (my side) carries the couplet. The Mecma‘ text frames a wish, “Dönebilsem” (would I could turn); the Pervâne copy reads “Dönebilmem” (I cannot turn) and states the lover’s helplessness more harshly. Refîkî uses the image of kebab and hearth in other ghazals too (the last couplet of Ghazal 22).

The first two couplets of the ghazal are about the down on the beloved’s lip, and both carry obscure turns of phrase. In the opening couplet tears are thought of as a remedy applied to the eye; “âb-ı çeşm” means both tears and eye-water, and the weeping eye is brightened by this water. The word “‘ârız” in the second couplet means both cheek and “to appear, to occur”; the down appearing above the lip is likened to a mischief born of pure wine. In the Mecma‘ text this line does not fit the metre fully; the Pervâne completes it as “‘Ārıż oldı ya‘nī ş’ol ḫaṭ kim”. The fourth couplet makes the court a sunshade and the seven heavens seven tents; the portico of the lover shaded at the beloved’s door makes the heavens envious.

Şâmî and Vasfî

Nazmî counts the ghazal among the answers to Şâmî’s couplet “Yüz suyıyla vardugumca cânib-i cânânuma / La‘l toldurur yaşum îsâr içün dâmânuma”. The Pervâne names as the model in the same redif the ghazal “Ḫāl kim ḳonmış-durur la‘l-i leb-i cānānuma” by Vasfî Çelebi, of the class of judges. The five couplets are found in both copies; in the fourth couplet the Pervâne reads “göynüge”.

Bibliography

Online sources