Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün fe‘ûlün (hezec-i mahzûf); placed in the muzâri‘ section of the edition

Ne deñlü vehme gelmezse dehânı
Degül hâlî hayâlümden miyânı
Ben ol Yûsuf-likâdan yüz çevürdüm
Eger bir demde biñ olsa sinânı
Gözüm gibi gelür hâl-i ‘izârı
Gözümüñ depreşür oldı nişânı
Kenâr it dâyimâ fikr-i miyânın
Dilersen ger ola ‘îş-ı nihânî
Me‘ânî bilene de güçdür el-hak
Anuñ hüsn-i bedî‘inüñ beyânı
Dile güller gibi çâk itdürür cîb
Sular çagıldısı bülbül figânı
Güzellerle şarâb içmekdür ancak
Refîkî var ise devlet zamânı

In English

1. However far his mouth may be beyond imagining, his waist is never absent from my fancy.

2. Did I turn my face from that Joseph-faced one, though he had a thousand spearheads at once? (read as a question: I never did)

3. The mole on his cheek is as dear to me as my own eye; it has caused my eye’s old ache to flare up again.

4. If you desire a hidden pleasure, always embrace the thought of his waist.

5. Truly, describing his marvellous beauty is hard even for one versed in meanings (me‘ânî, beyân and bedî‘ are the three sciences of rhetoric).

6. The murmur of the waters and the lament of the nightingale make the heart rend its collar like the roses.

7. Refîkî, if there is such a thing as a time of fortune, it is only drinking wine with the beautiful.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Three Sciences of Rhetoric

The three branches of the science of rhetoric taught in Ottoman madrasas meet, in the fifth couplet, in a single sentence of praise. “Me‘ânî”, “beyân” and “bedî‘” are the names of these three branches: fitness of speech, modes of expression and figures of speech. In the couplet, even for one who knows “me‘ânî”, meanings, it is hard to give “beyân”, an account, of the beloved’s “hüsn-i bedî‘”, his marvellous beauty. Each of the words fits in its everyday sense too; but the presence of all three together turns the couplet into a double entendre. That Refîkî, who studied in the madrasa up to the rank of dânişmend, should play with these terms is natural.

The opening couplet sets side by side two “non-existent” things of Ottoman poetry: the mouth is too small even to be imagined, and the waist exists only in fancy; yet the waist is never absent from the lover’s fancy. The sense of the second couplet passes through a question: the words “yüz çevürdüm” (I turned my face) in the Mecma‘ text, read as a question, give the meaning “though there were a thousand spears, did I turn away?”, that is, I never did. The mole of the third couplet is as dear as the eye and has made the eye’s old ache flare up. The biographical anthologies say that Refîkî suffered from his eyes in old age; but since an aching eye is a common conceit in Ottoman poetry, no direct link can be drawn between the couplet and this fact. In couplet six the murmur of the water and the voice of the nightingale become a music of spring that makes the heart rend its collar like a rose.

A Second Ghazal on the Same Model

Nazmî’s collection gives this ghazal under the heading “Velehû Eyzen”, immediately after Refîkî’s first ghazal on Mesîhî’s model (Ghazal 58). The two ghazals share the same rhyme and the same short metre; in the first a plain voice of love comes to the fore, in the second a praise adorned with the terms of rhetoric. This poem too is found only in Nazmî’s compilation.

Bibliography

Online sources