Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün (muzâri; the lines in their printed form do not fit the pattern fully)

Vardum Revânî mabaḫına ṭuʿme isteyü
Gördüm ḥarânîsini acından köper ḳuṣar
İmsâk içün riyâżât ider çoḳ zamân lîk
Bir müftce lût bulsa velî rûzesin ṣıḳar

In English

1. I went to Revânî's kitchen asking for a morsel of food; there I saw his table servant foaming at the mouth from hunger. (The typesetting "mabaḫına" in the edition must be "maṭbaḫına", to his kitchen. The word "ḥarânîsini" in Canım's edition appears in Kartal's quotation as "horandasını"; "hôrende" means one who eats at the table, one who eats a household's bread. "Köper ḳuṣar" is likewise "köpük kusar" (vomits foam) in Kartal; the translation takes these readings as its basis.)

2. For the sake of abstinence, that is fasting, he undergoes ascetic exercises for a long time; but should he find a tasty morsel for free, he breaks his fast. ("İmsâk" means both refraining from food for a fast and stinginess. The exact meaning of "rûzesin ṣıḳar" is not certain; the sense "breaks his fast" emerges from the context.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a kıt‘a (fragment) of two couplets; the second lines of the couplets rhyme "ḳuṣar / ṣıḳar". The metre is close to the pattern "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün" of the muzâri family of aruz (quantitative metre); but in their printed form the lines do not fit the pattern fully, and the third line seems to lack a syllable. This suggests that the text may have been corrupted in the manuscripts of the biographical anthology (tezkire) or in the edition. The kıt‘a is not among the Turkish poems in Basîrî's divan manuscript and is known from Latîfî's tezkire. Latîfî gives it, headed "Ḳıṭʿa", among Basîrî's kıt‘as on Revânî. Ahmet Kartal too, in a footnote to his article, quotes the first couplet on the basis of Mustafa İsen's edition of Latîfî in the form "Vardum Revani matbahına tu'me isteyü / Gördüm horandasını acından köpük kusar" and counts it among Basîrî's couplets concerning Revânî.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The kıt‘a depicts stinginess through an exaggerated scene. The poet goes to Revânî's kitchen hoping for food; but far from finding food there, he sees that even the servant who eats the household's bread is foaming at the mouth from hunger. The kitchen, which ought to be the place of plenty, has become the place of hunger. This reversal is the basis of the satire. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between the poet who goes to the kitchen to ask for a "ṭuʿme", a morsel of food, and the servant writhing with hunger.

In the second couplet the satire deepens through a religious word. "İmsâk" means both the faster's refraining from food at dawn and stinginess, tight-fistedness. Revânî undergoes ascetic exercises for a long time "for the sake of imsâk": outwardly he is an ascetic who fasts, but what he is really practising is stinginess. This double entendre (tevriye) is the centre of the kıt‘a. In the second line the mask falls: when he finds a free morsel he breaks his fast. So stinginess and false piety meet in the same person. The word "müftce", for nothing, free, shows the limit of Revânî's stinginess: he will not eat from his own goods, but when he finds something at someone else's table he recognizes no rule.

Historical Context

According to Latîfî, Basîrî presented a qasida to Revânî, and when he received in return ten coins, five of copper and five of lead, he was deeply offended and satirized his stinginess in kıt‘as. Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi, for his part, tells that Basîrî went with some friends to Revânî's house and went hungry there; the kitchen scene of this kıt‘a also agrees with that account. Revânî's life lends the satire a further meaning. According to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, after the accession of Selim I Revânî served as clerk and superintendent of the Matbah-ı Âmire, the palace kitchen. To say that in the kitchen of a man who had run the palace kitchen his servant writhes with hunger is the sharpest edge of the satire. Revânî in turn answered Basîrî with a kıt‘a teasing him about his blotched skin, and the sparring of the two poets is recounted at some length in Latîfî.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Latîfî, Tezkiretü'ş-şu'arâ ve Tabsıratü'n-nuzamâ, ed. Rıdvan Canım, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), p. 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), p. 236, entry on Basîrî. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

Books

Online sources