Original Persian Text

Metre: Mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün (muzâri‘)

Tā dīdeem ṣafā zi-mey-i cān-fezā-yi ḫum
Dest-i sebū giriftem u reftem be-pā-yi ḫum

In English

1. Ever since I found delight in the soul-reviving wine of the jar, I have taken the jug by the hand and gone to the foot of the jar. (The couplet can be read in two ways: "tâ" in Persian means in its dictionary sense both "ever since" and "in order to". Başpınar chooses the second sense and translates "To find delight in the soul-reviving wine of the jar I took the jug by the hand and went to the foot/bottom of the jar". "Pâ-yi hum" means the foot or the bottom of the jar; "dest-i sebû" means in its dictionary sense "the hand of the jug", that is, the place by which it is held, its handle.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a single-couplet Persian matla (opening couplet) written in the muzâri‘ metre "mef‘ûlü fâ‘ilâtü mefâ‘îlü fâ‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "hum" (jar), and the rhyme is the "-â" sound in the words "fezâ" and "pâ"; since both lines end with the same redif and rhyme, the couplet has the form of the opening couplet of a ghazal. Whether it belonged to a ghazal is not known. The couplet is number 169 in Bayram's 2008 edition. According to the table in Bayram's 2018 edition it is found, of the five manuscripts, only in M2, copied by Ali Emîrî Efendi. To whom and when it was written is not known.

In M2 Ali Emîrî gathered some of Bayezid's Persian poems under a separate heading on folios 37b-38b. According to Bayram this section contains three Persian ghazals, one kıt‘a and two matlas, and the kıt‘a and matlas are not found in the other manuscripts. One of the two matlas is this couplet. The other is matla 170, "Her dûd ki peydâ şeved ez-sîne-i çâkem", to which leading poets and statesmen of the time wrote nazires (response poems) and which passed into the biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire). Bayram also notes that on folios 38b-39a of the same manuscript there are nazires written to a matla of Adlî's by poets such as Necâtî Bey, Müeyyedzâde Abdurrahman Çelebi and Tâcîzâde Câfer Çelebi. By Fatih Başpınar's count Bayezid's seventeen Persian poems make up roughly one tenth of all his poems.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet is built from the familiar objects of the wine gathering: jar, jug and wine. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between the words "hum" (jar), "sebû" (jug) and "mey" (wine). The lover has tasted the delight wine gives and has followed it to the bottom of the jar. Describing the wine as "cân-fezâ", that is, reviving the soul, expresses the ease it gives to both body and heart.

The word "safâ" is especially meaningful here. In its dictionary sense the word means both clearness and ease of heart, joy. So the phrase "finding safâ in wine" evokes at once the clearness of the wine and the joy it gives. This double meaning lends the couplet the subtlety of a tevriye (double entendre).

The second line is built on personification (teşhis). The jug has a "hand", and the jar a "foot". The lover takes the jug by the hand, takes it along like a travelling companion, and goes to the foot of the jar. The congruence of images between "dest" (hand) and "pâ" (foot), giving human limbs to objects, turns the scene into a lively walk. The phrase "going to the foot of the jar" also recalls the gesture of coming into the presence of an elder and rubbing one's face at his feet; the wine jar thus appears like the revered elder of the gathering.

In Başpınar's reading the lover goes to the jar in order to find delight in the wine; in the other reading, having once tasted this delight, he no longer leaves the jar's side. Both readings present wine as an object of passion. In divan poetry the images of wine and the tavern can describe both a real gathering and a mystical intoxication; in this single-couplet matla there is no sign showing which is meant.

Bibliography

  • Fatih Başpınar, "Sultan II. Bayezid'in Farsça Şiirleri Üzerine", Divan Edebiyatı Araştırmaları Dergisi 8 (2012), pp. 37-66, matla no. 1 (text and translation p. 64). Bayram 2008, p. 373, poem no. 169.
  • Yavuz Bayram (ed.), Adlî Dîvânı (Dîvân-ı Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî), Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018, pp. 30 and 33 (Table 4; the Persian section and the nazires in M2 p. 33). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Online sources