Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Dir nazar iden nigâruñ gözi ile kaşına
Hûb tasvîr eylemiş tahsîn anuñ nakkâşına
Ey göñül hâlüñ n’ola hâl ü hat-ı dildâr ile
Kanda tuş olduñ cihânuñ bir bölük kallâşına
Dizlerümden ayagum düşse talebden çekmem el
Yazılandan gayrı hod gelmez kişinüñ başına
‘Âşık-ı sâbit-kadem oldur ki kûy-ı dûstdan
Yüz çevürmez yagsa biñ şimşîr anuñ başına
İşigüñ çârûbı olmaga müjeñ bil bagladı
Bil[i]mez hoş geldügin ammâ kapuñ ferrâşına
Ey Refîkî sûz-ı âhum kurudur deryâları
Mâni‘ olsam bir nefes iki gözümüñ yaşına

In English

1. Whoever looks at the beloved’s eye and brow says: “Bravo to its painter; how finely he has depicted it.”

2. O heart, whatever your state may be because of the beloved’s mole and down is fitting; where did you run into such a band of the world’s rogues?

3. Even if my feet drop from my knees I will not give up seeking; nothing comes to a man’s head but what is written.

4. The steadfast lover is he who does not turn his face from the friend’s street though a thousand swords rain on his head.

5. My lashes have girded themselves to become the broom of your threshold; but they cannot tell whether this pleases the sweeper of your door.

6. O Refîkî, were I to stop the tears of my two eyes for a single breath, the burning of my sigh would dry up the seas.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Bravo to the Painter

The ghazal carries the second line of its model into its own opening couplet. Hayâlî’s model ghazal ends its opening with “Sad hezârân âferîn şol sûretüñ nakkâşına”, a hundred thousand bravos to the painter of this form; in this ghazal of Refîkî’s, too, whoever looks at the beloved’s eye and brow praises the painter. In his other ghazal on the same model (Ghazal 45) this line is used almost word for word. The beloved’s face is a painting and its maker a painter; the bravo is addressed to the painter. The Pervâne copy gives line two of the opening couplet as “Ḫūb taḥsīn eylemiş üstādına naḳḳāşına”.

The middle couplets are about patience and fate. The third couplet rests on a proverb: only what is written comes to one’s head; so the lover does not stop walking even if his feet fail him. In the fourth couplet steadfastness means not turning from the street despite a thousand swords raining on one’s head. The fifth couplet repeats an image of service Refîkî was fond of: the eyelash is a broom that sweeps the threshold (compare Ghazal 24); the idiom “bil bagladı”, to gird the loins, that is to dedicate oneself to a task, makes a play of sound with the “bilmez” (does not know) that follows. In the last couplet tears are the water that puts out the fire of the sigh; should they stop for a breath, the seas would dry up. At the second couplet the Mecma‘ reads “kallâşına” (rogues), the Pervâne “naḳḳāşına”; the latter reading is weak, because it repeats the rhyme word of the opening couplet.

The Order in the Two Anthologies

In the Mecma‘u’n-Nezâ’ir this ghazal comes immediately after Refîkî’s ghazal “Al idüp ol lâle-ruh”, as a second “Nazîre-i Refîkî” on the model of Abdülkerîmzâde Hayâlî. In the Pervâne copy the order is reversed: first this ghazal under the heading “Naẓīre-i Refīḳī”, then the “Âl idüp” ghazal under the heading “Ve lehu keẕā”. Without the broom couplet, the Pervâne text has five.

Bibliography

Online sources