Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün

Revānīyle meger Pinti Ḥamīdüñ
Bir aradan yaradılmış revānı
Birinüñ nānı vaṣfı Lā-yeẕūḳūn
Birinüñ ṣuyı na‘tı Len-terānī
Velī Pinti Ḥamīdüñ nānı yine
İki ol deñlüdür āb-ı Revānī

In English

1. It turns out that the souls of Revânî and of Pinti Hamîd were created from the same place. ("Revân" means soul, spirit, and also recalls Revânî's pen name.)

2. The description of the one's bread is "Lâ yezûkûn" (they shall not taste), the attribute of the other's water is "Len terânî" (you shall never see me). (Both phrases are taken from the Qur'an; one occurs in the verse telling that the people of hell will taste neither coolness nor drink, the other in the verse giving God's answer to Moses, who asked to see Him. That is, no one can taste the one's bread, and no one can see the other's water.)

3. Yet even so, Pinti Hamîd's bread is twice as much as Revânî's water. ("Âb-ı revân" means running water; the phrase also reads as "Revânî's water". So Revânî is twice as stingy even as Pinti Hamîd, whose very name is linked with miserliness.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a kıt‘a (fragment) of three couplets; the second lines of the couplets rhyme: revānı, Len-terānī, Revānī. The metre is the pattern "mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün" of the hezec family of aruz (quantitative metre); the anthologies give no metre. It does not appear among the Turkish poems of Basîrî's divan manuscript; Âşık Çelebi gives it under the heading "Ḳıṭ‘a Der-ḫısset-i Revānī" (kıt‘a on Revânî's stinginess). Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi and Latîfî also quote the kıt‘a; Ahmet Kartal takes it in his article from Âşık Çelebi. The text in Latîfî differs in two places: in the second couplet the constructions "vaṣf-ı nânı" and "na‘t-ı âbı" are built the other way round, and the third couplet begins "Ne deñlü nâm var Pinti Ḥamîdüñ". The "nâm" (name, fame) of the Latîfî edition and the "nân" (bread) of Âşık Çelebi differ in Arabic script by a single dot; with Latîfî's reading the last couplet means "however much fame Pinti Hamîd has, Revânî's water is twice that".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The whole structure of the kıt‘a is built on Revânî's pen name. In Persian the word "revân" means both "soul, spirit" and "flowing". In the first couplet the word is used in the sense of soul: the souls of Revânî and Pinti Hamîd seem to have been made from the same dough. In the last couplet the phrase "āb-ı Revānī" reads both as "running water" and as "Revânî's water". This double entendre (tevriye) turns the kıt‘a from a play on words into satire. According to Âlî, Revânî chose this pen name inspired by his living among the gardens on the bank of the Tunca at Edirne and by the river's flow; Basîrî's play on "running water" is apt in this respect too.

In the second couplet two Qur'anic phrases are used by way of quotation (iktibas). "Lā yeẕūḳūn" (they shall not taste) recalls the verse telling that the people of hell will taste there neither coolness nor drink, and "Len terānī" (you shall never see me) the answer Moses received when he asked to see God. Basîrî applies these two weighty phrases to the bread and water of a table: the one's bread is never tasted, the other's water never seen. Carrying words from the sacred text into an everyday complaint about stinginess sharpens the satire. In the last couplet the comparison is closed with a reckoning: even Pinti Hamîd's bread is twice Revânî's water. That a man whose name is linked with miserliness should count as generous beside Revânî is the kıt‘a's final point.

Historical Context

The anthologies give different accounts of the occasion of the kıt‘a. According to Kınalızâde, Basîrî went with some friends to Revânî's house and, when they were left hungry there, spoke this kıt‘a. Latîfî tells of another incident: one day Basîrî went to Revânî and presented a kaside (qasida) to him; to show his generosity Revânî sent a few akçes by his steward, but, unable to decide how much to send, sometimes turned the steward back on the way. In the end the coins that came were ten, five of red copper and five of lead. Basîrî was deeply offended, wrote this kıt‘a and sent it back to Revânî with the same steward. In the same place Latîfî quotes other kıt‘as on Revânî's stinginess; in one of them, which Kartal assigns to Basîrî, the poet says he went to Revânî's kitchen to ask for food and found the servant there foaming at the mouth from hunger.

Revânî (d. 930/1523-24) was a poet from Edirne. According to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, after the accession of Selim I he served as clerk and then superintendent (emin) of the Matbah-ı Âmire, the palace kitchen, and later took on the trusteeship of Ayasofya and of the Bursa hot springs. To go hungry at the table of a man who had been superintendent of the palace kitchen adds a further sting to Basîrî's satire. Âşık Çelebi also says that Basîrî had a stipend from the surplus revenues of the Ayasofya endowment; the paths of the two poets may have crossed for this reason too, but the sources do not say so explicitly.

Revânî did not leave this satire unanswered. Latîfî also quotes a kıt‘a he wrote to Basîrî: "Ey Bâsirî ḳatı göñli ḳaradur şûḫınuñ / Gel’e inṣâf idelüm sen de biraz alacasın". According to Kartal, Revânî here alludes to Basîrî's being called "Alaca", piebald, because of a skin disease. Latîfî further relates that when Revânî one day said to Basîrî, "You mention us with stinginess in most of your ghazals", Basîrî replied, "Kerem ile medh ideyüm" (let me praise you with generosity). These exchanged kıt‘as show that the sparring between the two poets was a well-known subject of banter in the gatherings.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Âşık Çelebi, Meşâ'irü'ş-şu'arâ, ed. Filiz Kılıç, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), pp. 180, 182, entry on Basîrî. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Latîfî, Tezkiretü'ş-şu'arâ ve Tabsıratü'n-nuzamâ, ed. Rıdvan Canım, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), pp. 149-150, entry on Basîrî. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi, Tezkiretü'ş-şu'arâ, ed. Aysun Sungurhan, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2017 (e-book), pp. 236-237, entry on Basîrî. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

Books

Online sources