Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Al idüp ol lâle-ruh güller sokunmış başına
Gör ne hoş-bû nesneler katmış güzellik aşına
Bu ne yüzden hüsn ü sûretdür ki cânâ her gören
Sad-hezârân âferîn eyler anuñ nakkâşına
Merve hakkiçün bulurdum Ka‘be-i maksûda râh
Ger habîbüm yüz süreydüm iç işigüñ taşına
Cem‘ idüp evbâşa her kûy-ı mugândan bir kadeh
Hayruma vakf eyledüm mey-hâneler evbâşına
Ey Refîkî ‘ömr-i sermed isteyen kılsun nazar
Dâyimâ ol dil-berüñ çeşm ü dehân u kaşına

In English

1. That tulip-cheeked one has put on red and stuck roses in his hair; see what fragrant things he has added to the dish of beauty.

2. Beloved, what manner of beauty and form is this, that everyone who sees it gives a hundred thousand bravos to its painter?

3. By the truth of Marwa, my love, I would find the way to the Kaaba of my desire if I could rub my face on the stone of your inner threshold.

4. Gathering a cup for the riffraff from every street of the taverns, I have endowed them, for the good of my soul, to the riffraff of the taverns.

5. O Refîkî, whoever seeks eternal life, let him gaze for ever at that beloved’s eye, mouth and brow (eye, mouth and brow, as ‘ayn, mîm and râ, spell “‘ömr”, life).

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Opening Couplet in the Anthologies of Poets, the Whole in the Nazire Collections

The opening couplet of this ghazal is one of Refîkî’s couplets most often quoted in the biographical anthologies. Latîfî and Kınalızâde cite it among the poet’s specimen couplets; on this site the couplet has also been published separately as Couplet 1. The nazire anthologies, however, preserve the ghazal whole in five couplets. The texts of Edirneli Nazmî’s Mecma‘u’n-Nezâ’ir and of the Pervâne Bey Mecmuası are almost the same; the Mecma‘ reads the first word of the opening couplet “Al”, the Pervâne “Āl”, and in the second couplet the Pervâne has “Ṣad hezārān”. The opening couplet is built on an image from the kitchen: the beloved has put on red, stuck roses in his hair and added fragrant seasoning to the “dish of beauty”.

‘Ayn, Mîm, Râ

The pen-name couplet can be read as an example of the games Refîkî plays with the shapes of letters. Whoever wants eternal life (“‘ömr-i sermed”) should gaze at the beloved’s eye, mouth and brow. Eye is “‘ayn” in Arabic and is likened to the letter of the same name; the mouth resembles the letter mîm, the arched brow the letter râ. ‘Ayn, mîm and râ side by side spell “‘ömr”, life. The couplet does not mention these letters by name; but given that in other ghazals Refîkî draws “ad” from alif and dâl, and “derd” from dâl, râ and dâl (Ghazals 10 and 30), the reading may be said not to be accidental.

The fourth couplet jokes in the language of pious endowments. “Hayruma vakf eyledüm” means endowing a charitable work so that its merit is credited to oneself; the poet endows the cups he has gathered from every tavern street to the riffraff of the taverns. That Refîkî, who at the end of his life was the trustee of an endowment, should play in this way with the language of endowment deeds may be read with attention; but the link between these two facts is the reader’s inference, not something the poem states. The oath “Merve hakkıçün” in the third couplet also occurs in Ghazal 17. Line two of the second couplet repeats almost word for word the line “Sad hezârân âferîn şol sûretüñ nakkâşına” from the model ghazal of Hayâlî (Abdülkerîmzâde); both anthologies give the ghazal within the group of replies to this model.

Bibliography

Official sources

Books

Online sources