Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fa‘lün (hafif; the lines do not fit the pattern fully)

Köfte ger bengüñ dehānında
Ṭoblardur boġaz ḥiṣārında

In English

1. When köfte is in the mouth of the bengî, the hashish-eater, they are the cannon of the Boğaz Hisarı. ("Beng" is hashish, a paste of hemp; one who takes it is called a bengî. "Top" means both a round ball and a cannon and its cannonball; "boğaz" is both a person's throat and the Bosphorus. The round meatballs crammed into the mouth are likened to the cannon ranged in the fortress of the strait.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Since its two lines do not rhyme, the couplet is a müfred (single couplet). The two lines are linked by the sound "-ında" at the end of "dehānında" and "ḥiṣārında", but the actual rhyme sounds differ. The metre is close to the hafif family: the line "Köfteler bengler dehānında" quoted by Sehî Bey fits the pattern "fā‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fa‘lün", while "Köfte ger bengüñ dehānında", which Kartal gives from the divan manuscript, and the second line in both texts each seem to lack a syllable. The couplet is number LIII in Ahmet Kartal's edition. In a footnote Kartal records that the couplet appears in Sehî Bey's Heşt Bihişt in the form "Kofteler bengler dehānında / Toplardur boġaz ḥiṣārında". In the newer edition of Sehî the first line reads "Köfteler bengiler dehānında".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet is a joke built on a single simile. The couplet mocks the insatiable appetite of the hashish user: the meatballs crammed into the bengî's mouth fill his mouth and throat like so many cannonballs. The force of the simile comes from the double meaning of two words. "Top" is both a round object and a firearm and its ball; köfte is round too. "Boğaz" is both the throat through which food passes and the Bosphorus, and "Boğaz Hisarı" denotes the fortress commanding the strait. So the throat of a man eating becomes a castle lined with cannon. These words, whose two meanings work together, form a chain of double entendres (tevriye) in the couplet.

The reading "Köfte ger bengüñ dehānında" in Kartal's text forms a conditional clause: if köfte is in the hashish-eater's mouth. Sehî's text instead makes a direct statement: meatballs in the mouths of hashish-eaters are the cannon of the Boğaz Hisarı. The meaning is the same in both readings.

Historical Context

Sehî Bey, in his entry on Basîrî, cites this couplet among his "leṭāyif", his witticisms: "Ve cümle-i leṭāyifinden biri bu beytdür" (and one of all his witticisms is this couplet). In the same entry Sehî writes that Basîrî was a Persian, that he served Uğurluoğlu Mehmed, was sent by him as envoy to Bayezid II, then married and stayed in Istanbul, and engaged in many debates and exchanges with the poets of Rum. Âşık Çelebi also records that Basîrî had a "Bengī-nāme"; this work is not known today. The existence of such a work, which from its title appears to have been written about hashish and its users, shows that the subject of this couplet was not foreign to Basîrî. Together with the food ghazals to which Kartal also draws attention, the couplet is among the examples of Basîrî's joking side carried into verse.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Âşık Çelebi, Meşâ'irü'ş-şu'arâ, ed. Filiz Kılıç, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), p. 181, entry on Basîrî. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

Official sources

  • Sehî Beg, Heşt Bihişt, ed. Halûk İpekten, Günay Kut, Mustafa İsen, Hüseyin Ayan, Turgut Karabey, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2017 (e-book), entry on Mevlânâ Basîrî, pp. 152-153. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Books

Online sources