Original Ottoman Turkish Text

The first couplet is taken from Kınalızâde's edition, the other three from Gelibolulu Âlî's; the order follows Âlî.

Ölürüz içmeyince bir dem mey
Ve mine'l-mâ'i külle şey'in hayy
Deheni ẕerreye göre maʿdûm
Mûya nisbet miyânı leyse bi şey
Künc-i ġamda beni ḳoduñ gitdüñ
Yüri hey yâr-i bî-vefâ yüri hey
Remzî düşmez saña ḳabâ-yı neşâṭ
Yaraşur ġam libâsı egnine gey

In English

1. Were we not to drink wine for a moment, we would die; "and from water [We made] every living thing" (Qur'an 21:30). The poet reads the life-giving water as wine.

2. Compared with a mote, the beloved's mouth is non-existent; compared with a hair, her waist is nothing ("leyse bi-şey": it is not a thing).

3. You left me in the corner of grief and went away; go, then, faithless beloved, go on.

4. Remzî, the robe of joy does not suit you; the garment of grief becomes you, put it on.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Line That Ends with a Qur'anic Verse

The first couplet of the ghazal takes its second line straight from the Qur'an. "Ve mine'l-mâ'i külle şey'in hayy" is part of the phrase "We made every living thing from water" in the thirtieth verse of the sura al-Anbiya; Aysun Sungurhan, the editor of Kınalızâde, gives this meaning in a footnote. Remzî reads the verse in the language of the drinking party: whoever goes a moment without wine dies, since life comes from water, and for the poet that water is wine. Placing a Qur'anic verse in a poem as a kind of proof is called iktibas; here the iktibas has become the vehicle of a jest told at a wine gathering. Kınalızâde begins the line "Ölürüz" (we die), while Âlî and Beyânî begin it "Ölürüm" (I die); in the editions of Âlî and Beyânî the second line is printed in Arabic script.

A Non-Existent Mouth, a Hair-Thin Waist

The second couplet sets two old images of divan poetry side by side: the beloved's mouth is so small that it does not exist even beside a mote, her waist so slender that beside a hair it is nothing. Again the line ends with an Arabic fragment, "leyse bi-şey" (it is not a thing). Thus the second lines of the first two couplets close in Arabic, and the rhyme ties Arabic and Turkish words together: mey, hayy, şey, hey, gey. The repeated "yürü hey" (go on, then) of the third couplet comes from everyday speech and turns the reproach to the beloved into a dismissive wave of the hand. In the signature couplet the poet addresses himself: the robe of joy does not suit him, he must wear the garment of grief. "Kabâ" (robe) and "libâs" (garment), "neşât" (joy) and "gam" (grief) stand facing each other.

The Sources of the Text and Its Authorship

The four couplets are not found together and complete in any single source. Kınalızâde and Beyânî give the first and third couplets, Âlî all four; the order here follows Âlî. The ghazal as a whole is unknown. In all three tezkires the name under the couplets is Kadı Remzî of Bursa. The road to Amasya runs through another of Kınalızâde's records: he makes this judge the father of the poet İlmî, while Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar records İlmî's father as Abdülhâdî Remzî, a Müeyyedzâde of Amasya. The ghazal can be counted as the Amasya poet's only to the extent that these two fathers are accepted as the same judge of Galata.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources