Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün (remel-i mahbûn)

Saña kıblem n’ola secde‿itse[ler] inkâr ehli
Bu cihândur bulınur bir nice ikrâr ehli
Hey imânsuz nice mezhebde yürürsin ki saña
Bir nazar görse tapa hırka vü zünnâr ehli
Su gibi yüzüñe meyl itmese inanma zâhid
Bu işi şol kişi işler ki‿ola dîdâr ehli
Nakd-i cân virene vir vasl metâ‘ın rûhum
Ne bilür kadrin anuñ her satu bâzâr ehli
Rehne kor hırka-i nâmûsını mey-hâneciye
Çeşmüñ ü kaddüñ ü kaşuñ göre ger ‘âr ehli
Şöyle dikkât ideyüm vasf-ı dehânuñda ki tâ
Agzın açup kalalar sözüm küffâr ehli
Deheni yoklıgını sor yine kendüden anuñ
Çün bilürsin ki Refîkî her işüñ var ehli

In English

1. O my qibla, what if even the people of denial prostrate themselves to you (in the Pervâne: do not prostrate)? This is the world; people of affirmation are found here too.

2. Hey, faithless one, in what creed do you walk, that the people of the dervish cloak and the people of the zunnar alike would worship you if they saw you once?

3. Do not believe the ascetic if he does not incline to your face as water does; only one who is a person of vision does this work (the couplet is obscure).

4. My soul, give the goods of union to the one who pays the coin of life; what does every trader in the market know of its worth?

5. Should a man of honour see your eye, your stature and your brow, he would pawn his cloak of honour to the tavern-keeper.

6. Let me be so subtle in describing your mouth that “the people of the infidels” (perhaps: the people of speech) may stand open-mouthed at my words.

7. Ask about the non-existence of his mouth from him again; for, as you know, Refîkî, every matter has its expert.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Every Matter Has Its Expert

A saying taken from the model settles in this ghazal’s last couplet. Tâli‘î’s opening couplet ends “Ehli vardur her işüñ mâ-hasal ey yâr ehli”: every matter has its expert. Refîkî places this proverb-like phrase in his pen-name couplet and ties it to the beloved’s mouth: the beloved’s mouth is so small that it is counted as non-existent; and the one who knows this non-existence best is the beloved himself, for every matter has its expert. Over the course of the ghazal the redif “ehli” (the people of) builds a list of communities: the people of denial, of affirmation, of the cloak, of the zunnar, of vision, of the market, of honour.

The second couplet makes the beloved an object of worship above all creeds: those who wear the dervish cloak and the Christians who wear the zunnar would alike worship him if they saw him; the address “faithless one” lays the responsibility for this worship on the beloved. The man of honour in the fifth couplet pawns his cloak of honour to the tavern-keeper before the beloved’s eye, stature and brow. The sixth couplet plays on the smallness of the mouth: the poet will describe the mouth so subtly that his listeners will be left open-mouthed. The edition’s phrase “küffâr ehli” (the infidels) stands unexpectedly here; the reading “güftâr ehli” (the people of speech), written similarly in Arabic script, may suit the sense better. The third couplet is obscure, and of the two copies it is found only in the Mecma‘.

Tâli‘î, Scribe of the Janissaries

In both anthologies the model is Tâli‘î’s ghazal whose first line is “‘Işk yolında yaraşmaz sanemâ ‘âr ehli”. In the heading Pervâne Bey introduces Tâli‘î as “Sulṭān Selīm zamānında yeñiçeri kātibi”, scribe of the Janissaries in the time of Sultan Selim; since Refîkî too was one of Selim’s chancery scribes, the two poets belong to the men of the pen of the same period. In the opening couplet the two copies say the opposite of each other: the Mecma‘ reads “secde‿itse[ler]” (if they prostrate), the Pervâne “secde itmese” (if they do not prostrate). The couplets of vision and of the mouth’s description are not to be found in the five-couplet Pervâne version.

Bibliography

Online sources