Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Gün gibi rūşen ḳılur her ḫāneyi meh-pāreler
Seyr ider menzillerin ṭut kevkeb ü seyyāreler
Ḫār-i nā-cins ile her dem olduġiçün gül gibi
Ġonçe-veş dil-teng olupdur ‘āşıḳ-i bī-çāreler
‘Īş ü nūş itmek müdām aġyār ile lāyıḳ mıdur
‘Āşıḳ-i dil-ḫasteler zārī ḳılup yalvaralar
Żarb-i desti irmek içün vaṣlına her ehrimen
Fürḳat içre ḳan yuṭarlar ‘āşıḳ-i ġam-ḫˇāreler
Gelmedi bir gün kenāre ol yüzi aġum benüm
Līk her gice çeker pehlūya yüzi ḳaralar
Ey Refīḳī fāriġ ol mekrinden it ḫavf ü ḥaẕer
Kimseye ḫayr eylemez bu dil-ber-i mekkāreler

In English

1. The moon-pieces, the beautiful ones, light up every house like the sun; count them stars and planets touring their mansions.

2. Since the beloved, like the rose, is always with the base thorn, the helpless lovers have grown narrow of heart like buds.

3. Is it fitting for him to feast and drink always with the rivals, while the heartsick lovers wail and beg?

4. Since every Ahriman (every rival) reaches his union by force of hand, the grief-eating lovers swallow blood in separation.

5. My white-faced one has not come to my embrace a single day; yet every night he draws the black-faced to his side.

6. O Refîkî, give up his wiles, fear and beware; these deceitful beloveds do good to no one.

Literary and Historical Commentary

One Poem, Two Poets

This ghazal appears in the Pervâne copy under the heading “Naẓīre-i Refīḳī”, with a pen-name couplet beginning “Ey Refīḳī fāriġ ol mekrinden”. In the Mecma‘u’n-Nezâ’ir of Nazmî of Edirne, however, the same poem appears under the heading “Nazîre-i Nasûhî”, in seven couplets and with the line “Ey Nasûhî fârig ol mekrinden”. The first five couplets are the same in the two anthologies with small differences; the Mecma‘ has one extra couplet (“Bir nazarda gamzesi yüz biñ cigerler pâreler”). No other witness has been found to show which of the two records is right. This page gives the poem in the Pervâne text, which assigns it to Refîkî, and records that the attribution is disputed. That the pen name Nasûhî means “the one who gives counsel”, and that the last couplet is a sentence of advice, catches the eye; but this harmony between the meaning of the pen name and the content of the couplet does not by itself settle the attribution. A similar case exists between Refîkî and Fakîrî (Ghazal 9).

Moon-Pieces and the Black-Faced

The first couplet is constructed in the language of astronomy. The beautiful are pieces of the moon and light houses like the sun; the words house and “menzil” recall the signs and mansions in which the moon and planets lodge in the sky, and the beauties’ going from house to house resembles the planets changing their mansions. In the second couplet the rose is with the thorn, the beloved with the rival; the lovers are like buds that cannot open. In couplet four the rival is likened to Ahriman, the god of evil in Persian legend; it is he who reaches union by force, and the lovers are left to swallow blood.

The fifth couplet rests on a contrast of colour. The beloved is “white-faced”, yet he does not come to the lover’s embrace for a single day; those he draws to his side every night are the “black-faced”, that is, the shameless, the rivals. The word “kenār” means both embrace and shore. The last couplet is a warning against the wiles of beloveds. In the Pervâne copy the model is given, with the name supplied by the editor in square brackets, as Hafî’s ghazal opening “Yüzlerinden ref‘ idicek burḳa‘ ol meh-pāreler”; the Mecma‘ also counts the same ghazal by Hafî as the model. Refîkî wrote other ghazals on models by Hafî as well (Ghazals 21, 47).

Bibliography

Online sources