Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fā‘ilātün Mefā‘ilün Fe‘ilün

İçelüm içelüm şarâb içelüm
Nice bir ṣûfî ṣâfî âb içelüm
Âḫıretde olur şarâba ḥisâb
Biz anı bunda bî-ḥisâb içelüm

In English

1. Let us drink, let us drink, let us drink wine; how much longer shall we drink clear water like the Sufis? (The sofu is the pious man who keeps away from worldly pleasures; the poem sets the water he drinks against wine.)

2. In the hereafter there will be a reckoning for wine; let us drink it here beyond reckoning. ("Bî-ḥisâb" means both without giving account and countless, without measure; the couplet is built on these two senses.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem has two couplets (beyit) and is written in the metre "fā‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün" of the hafif family of aruz (quantitative metre). The metre is not stated in the biographical anthologies; it has been deduced from the scansion of the couplets. The redif (refrain word) is "içelüm", "let us drink"; the rhyme is built on the sound "-âb" in şarâb, âb, ḥisâb and bî-ḥisâb. Both lines of the first couplet and the second line of the second couplet carry the redif, while the third line only rhymes. Latîfî gives the poem under the heading "naẓm" (verse) and calls it a "şiʿr-i meşḥûr", a well-known poem. Whether it is part of a ghazal or a self-contained piece of two couplets cannot be told from the sources. To whom and when it was written is also unknown.

The couplets appear in almost every entry devoted to Müeyyedzâde in the biographical anthologies (tezkire), but the text varies from source to source. The text followed here is Latîfî's. In Sehî Bey's Heşt-Bihişt the second line reads "Nice bir gāv gibi āb içelüm" (how much longer shall we drink water like an ox). Beyânî has "Niçe bir sûfî sâfî âb içelüm". Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin Yasar, in his Amasya Tarihi, quotes the first couplet as "Nice bir sûfi sâfi âb içelim / Vakt-i gül geldi gel şarâb içelim" (the season of roses has come, come let us drink wine).

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem rests on the opposition drawn in divan literature between the rind and the ascetic, that is, between the man who knows the pleasures of the world and the dry pietist. The sofu drinks water, the rind asks for wine. The threefold repetition of "içelüm" in the first line turns this wish into an invitation; the repetition (tekrir) also lends the line a quick pace. There is an antithesis (tezat) between water and wine, and an opposition between the sofu and wine that runs through the whole poem.

The second couplet carries the real wit of the poem. The poet accepts that there will be a reckoning for wine in the hereafter, but draws an unexpected conclusion: since the account will be taken there, let us drink here beyond account. The word "bî-ḥisâb" means both "without giving account" and "countless, without measure". An antithesis is thus set up between the reckoning in the hereafter and the absence of reckoning in this world, and a play on words (cinas) between "ḥisâb" and "bî-ḥisâb". The brief and easy expression of the poem explains why the biographers counted it "famous".

Historical Context

The attribution of the poem is disputed. After giving the couplets under Müeyyedzâde's name, Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi says, "Merhûm Hayâlî cüz’î tagyîr idüp gasb eylemişdür": according to the biographer, the poet Hayâlî took these couplets for himself with slight changes. Sehî, Latîfî, Beyânî and Kınalızâde all give the poem under Müeyyedzâde's name. That the couplets vary from source to source also suggests a well-loved piece that passed from mouth to mouth.

That such a poem belongs to a kadıasker (chief military judge) is striking. The biographical anthologies write that in his youth Müeyyedzâde was Prince Bayezid's companion in conversation and drinking in Amasya. According to Kınalızâde, the rumour that the cup never left the hands of the prince and Müeyyedzâde reached Mehmed II (the Conqueror); the sultan ordered his death, and Müeyyedzâde had to flee to Aleppo. The biographers, however, do not connect this poem with those years; there is no record that it was written in Amasya.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Official sources

Online sources