Kara Fazlî, Kıt'a 10: The Paste of Generosity

Kıt‘a (fragment) 10 — Biz buña degmez idük var ola şāhum naẓaruñ

Amasya05 Editorial Board • Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk • 01 October 2026 • Updated: 07 October 2026 • 3 min reading

Kara Fazlî's two-couplet kıt'a of thanks to a patron, in which the double meanings of "paste" and "esrār" hint at the pleasures of a convivial gathering.

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilātün Fe‘ilātün Fe‘ilātün Fe‘ilün

Biz buña degmez idük var ola şāhum naẓaruñ
Luṭf u cūduñla bizi lāyıḳ-ı iḥsān itdüñ

Ne müferriḥdür efendi keremüñ ma‘cūnı
Bizi keyfiyyet-i esrārına ḥayrān itdüñ

In English

1. We were not worthy of this; my shah, long may your favour last, with your grace and generosity you have deemed us worthy of bounty.

2. My lord, how exhilarating is the paste (ma‘cūn) of your generosity; you have made us marvel at the pleasure of its secrets. ("Esrār" means both secrets and hashish, and "keyfiyyet" both quality and pleasurable intoxication.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a kıt'a (fragment) of two couplets (beyit). The second lines have the redif (refrain word) "itdüñ" (you made), and the rhyme words are "iḥsān" and "ḥayrān"; Özkat counts this kıt'a among those with a single-word redif. The metre is "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün" of the remel family. There is no pen name (mahlas). The kıt'a is found only in the Fazlî divan section of the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library (fol. 249b). To whom and when it was written is unknown.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The kıt'a is a poem of thanks. The poet considers that, through the grace of the "shah" and "lord" he addresses, he and those around him have received a bounty they did not deserve. Özkat says that the ninth and tenth kıt'as concern the taking of a pleasure-giving substance, hashish (esrar). In this context the words of the second couplet carry two meanings: "ma‘cūn" is a figure used for generosity, but it also recalls the pleasure-giving pastes; "müferriḥ" means exhilarating; "keyfiyyet" both quality and pleasurable intoxication; "esrār" both secrets and hashish. Thus on the surface the couplet expresses admiration for the secrets of the patron's generosity, and implicitly the pleasure given by a gift that came from him. Showing the second meanings of these words one by one is our own interpretation. Nor does the source say that the bounty for which thanks are given was really such a gift; this is an inference. The playful subtlety of the kıt'a lies in its hiding the amusement of a convivial gathering within the respectful language of thanks to a great man.

Bibliography

Mustafa Özkat, Kara Fazlî'nin Hayatı, Eserleri, Edebî Kişiliği ve Dîvânı (İnceleme-Tenkitli Metin), MA thesis, Marmara University Institute of Turkic Studies, Istanbul 2005, p. 379, kıt'a no. 10 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 249b); also p. 65 (on the kıt'as) and p. 69 (redif), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources