Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

N’ola kûyuñ olsa her dem haste cân eglencesi
Bülbülüñ olur çü sahn-ı gülsitân eglencesi
Giceler kûyuñda sînem ggdügüm ey meh bu kim
Tabl âvâzıdur ekser pâsbân eglencesi
Hûblar görmekde kâni‘ ol figân u nâleme
Çün nidâ-yı nâydur ey dil şubân eglencesi
Tâcir-i eşküm n’ola menzilgeh itse çeşmümi
Dâyimâ çün çeşmelerdür kârbân eglencesi
Ey Refîkî avunur dil gamze vü ebrûsıla
Tıfl gibi kim olur tîr ü kemân eglencesi

In English

1. What if your street is always the pastime of the sick soul? The courtyard of the rose garden is the nightingale’s pastime too.

2. O moon, the reason I beat my breast (the edition prints “ggdügüm”) at night in your street is this: the night watchman’s pastime is mostly the sound of the drum.

3. O heart, in gazing on the beautiful be content with my cries and moans; for the shepherd’s pastime is the sound of his pipe.

4. Is it any wonder if the merchant of my tears makes my eye his halting place? The caravan’s pastime is always the fountains.

5. Refîkî, the heart consoles itself with his glance and brow, like a child whose toys are bow and arrow.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Pastimes from Everyday Life

The model’s redif “eglencesi” (its pastime) turns in Refîkî’s hands into an album of everyday life. Each couplet pairs a state of the lover with a scene taken from the town or the road. The night watchman’s pastime is the sound of the drum; the lover beating his breast at night in the beloved’s street is like offering that watchman the sound of a drum. The shepherd’s pastime is his pipe; the lover’s moaning is counted a pipe played while gazing at the beautiful. The caravan’s pastime is the fountains; thanks to the likeness of sound between “çeşm” (eye) and “çeşme” (fountain), it seems natural that the merchant of tears should make the lover’s eye his halting place. In the closing couplet the heart resembles a child playing with bow and arrow; the arrow of the beloved’s lashes and the bow of his brow are its toys.

In the second couplet Köksal’s edition prints the verb “ggdügüm”; this must be a corruption in typesetting. Context and metre point to the reading “dögdügüm” (beating) the breast; the comparison with the sound of the drum supports this reading too. The opening couplet reduces the traditional bond of rose and nightingale to a bond of pastime: since the rose garden is the nightingale’s pastime, it is no surprise that the beloved’s street should be the pastime of the sick soul. The language of the ghazal is plain and its images are of the visible kind; watchman, shepherd, caravan and child belong more to the street than to the courtly world of Ottoman poetry.

Zülâlî’s Model

Nazmî lists the ghazal after Zülâlî’s ghazal opening “La‘l-i cânân şevkidür her lahza cân eglencesi / ‘Âşıkuñ olur şarâb-ı ergavân eglencesi”. Refîkî takes the phrase “cân eglencesi” from line one of the model unchanged into his own opening couplet. Although the Pervâne Bey Mecmuası gives the same model and many of its nazires, it does not contain this ghazal.

Bibliography

Online sources