Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ş’ol ḳadar ma‘mūr olur ‘īd olıcaḳ vīrāneler
Elden ayaḳ baṣmaġa yir mi bula peymāneler
Gerden-i ‘uşşāḳda yārüñ kemend-i zülfini
Çözmek içün her seḥer dendān olurlar şāneler
Dām-i zülfüñe göñül murġı nite ṣayd olmasun
Ḫırmen-i güldür yüzüñ ḫāl-i siyāhuñ dāneler
Mevsim-i ‘īşa gelicek rūz-i ‘īd ey gül-‘iẕār
Bülbül-i ser-mest-veş cūşa gelür mey-ḫāneler
Zülfinüñ sevdāsıla şem‘-i ruḫında ey Refīḳ
Dün gice yandı oda döne döne pervāneler

In English

1. When the feast comes the ruins (the taverns) fill so that the cups (“ayak”) passed from hand to hand find no place to set foot.

2. To untie the lasso of the beloved’s tress from the lovers’ necks, the combs put on their teeth every morning.

3. How should the bird of the heart not be caught in the snare of your tress? Your face is a heap of harvested roses, your black moles its grains.

4. O rose-cheeked one, when the day of the feast comes in the season of pleasure, the taverns boil up like drunken nightingales.

5. O Refîk (O friend), last night the moths burned in the fire of the candle of his cheek, turning and turning with passion for his tress.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Kemalpaşazâde’s or Refîkî’s?

The attribution of this ghazal is the most interesting question among Refîkî’s poems. The Pervâne gives it under the heading “Naẓīre-i Refīḳī”, among the nazires to Revânî’s model “Rūz-i ‘īd oldı yine güm güm öter mey-ḫāneler”. In Nazmî’s anthology, the Mecma‘u’n-Nezâ’ir, however, the same ghazal bears the heading “Ez-ân-ı Kemâl Paşa-zâde”, that is, it stands at the head of a model as the ghazal of Kemalpaşazâde himself; and two of Refîkî’s nazires (Ghazals 15 and 16) were written to this model. The differences between the two texts are small: the Mecma‘ reads “mey-hâneler” in the opening couplet and “hum-hâneler” in the fourth, where the Pervâne has “vīrāneler” and “mey-ḫāneler”.

The place that weighs most on the decision is the last couplet. In the Mecma‘ text the phrase “şem‘-i ruhında ey refîk” is printed in lower case, meaning “O friend”; in the Pervâne “ey Refīḳ” is read as a pen name. There are other ghazals in which Refîkî shortened his pen name to “Refîk” for the metre (Ghazals 16, 32, 49, 54); Kemalpaşazâde, on the other hand, uses the pen name “Kemâl” in his poems, and that pen name does not occur in the Mecma‘ text. Yet the Mecma‘ is the compilation of a poet of Edirne who was Refîkî’s contemporary, and it ties the ghazal plainly to Kemalpaşazâde. The Pervâne Bey Mecmuası also includes another ghazal by Kemalpaşazâde in the same rhyme (“Her seḥer bād-i ṣabā müşgīn ṣaçını şāneler”); there the name in the heading has been supplied by the editor in square brackets. Since the edition of Kemalpaşazâde’s divan could not be consulted for this study, it cannot be said whether the ghazal appears there. This page gives the ghazal in the Pervâne text and as a disputed poem.

The Foot of the Cup

The opening couplet begins with a play on words: in older Turkish “ayak” means both foot and cup. On the day of the feast the taverns fill so that the cups passed from hand to hand, the “feet”, find no place to step. In couplet two the combs put on their teeth every morning to untie the lasso of the tress wound round the lovers’ necks; the comb’s teeth are both an instrument and a sign of resolve. In the third couplet the face is a heap of harvested roses, the moles its grains. At the close the moths burn turning and turning in the candle of the beloved’s cheek; the passion of the tress and the fire of the candle recall the image of candle and moth in the opening couplet of Ghazal 16.

Bibliography

Official sources

Online sources