Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

İçmemek rinde bu ḳaddümde ḳati emr-i ba‘īd
Sāḳiyā ṭoldura şol ḳan olacaġı içelüm
Zāhidüñ ‘ārif-iseñ eylemegil pendini gūş
Vir delü cāna ṣafā eyle ḫam-ı mey gibi cūş
Rūz-ı ‘īd irdi vü eyyām-ı bahār u dem-i nūş
Sāḳiyā ṭoldura şol ḳan olacaġı içelüm
Ḥıżr-vār oldı çemen ṣaḥnı ṣular āb-ı ḥayāt
Nūş idenler idi görmeye bu demde memāt
İrişince daḫı biz bu deme bir kez heyhāt
Sāḳiyā ṭoldura şol ḳan olacaġı içelüm
Ele cām aldı yine bezm-i felekde çü hilāl
‘Aksini yirde bahār eyledi peydā fi’l-ḥāl
Şevḳine ‘īd ü bahāruñ yine demdür ele al
Sāḳiyā ṭoldura şol ḳan olacaġı içelüm
Acıdup bāde gibi rūze bizüm cānımuzı
Cām gibi ḳurudup ṭurur idi ḳanımuzı
‘Īd irişdi sürelüm ‘ıyş ile devrānımuzı
Sāḳiyā ṭoldura şol ḳan olacaġı içelüm
Şi‘r-i Fażlī’yi ṣafā-y-ile idüp derd-zebān
‘İşreti kendümüze ‘ādet idelüm her an
Çünki ‘uşşāḳ ile bir araya geldi cānān
Sāḳiyā ṭoldura şol ḳan olacaġı içelüm

In English

1. (The beginning of the stanza is missing in the manuscript.) For a profligate, not to drink with this stature of mine (in this state of mine) is a very remote thing. O cupbearer, let us fill and fill again and drink what will turn to blood (the red wine).

2. If you are a gnostic, do not lend your ear to the ascetic's advice; give delight to the mad heart, seethe like wine in the jar; the feast day, the days of spring and the time for drinking have come. O cupbearer, let us fill and fill again and drink what will turn to blood.

3. The courtyard of the meadow has grown green like Hızır, the waters have become the water of life; those who drank at this time would not see death; alas, until we reach these days once more (who knows what may happen). O cupbearer, let us fill and fill again and drink what will turn to blood.

4. In the gathering of the sky he has again taken a cup in hand like the crescent; spring has at once made its reflection appear on the earth; for the rapture of the feast and the spring it is again time, take (the cup) in hand. O cupbearer, let us fill and fill again and drink what will turn to blood.

5. The fast kept stinging our souls like wine and drying up our blood like a cup; the feast has come, let us pass our days in pleasure. O cupbearer, let us fill and fill again and drink what will turn to blood.

6. Keeping Fazlî's poetry joyfully on our tongues, let us make drinking our custom at every moment; for the beloved has come together with the lovers. O cupbearer, let us fill and fill again and drink what will turn to blood.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a murabba (quatrain stanza poem) of six stanzas; but because of a missing page in the manuscript the beginning of the first stanza is lost, and only its last two lines remain. The first three lines of each stanza rhyme among themselves; the fourth is repeated in every stanza as the refrain "Sāḳiyā ṭoldura şol ḳan olacaġı içelüm". The rhymes are, in order, "-ūş" (gūş, cūş, nūş), "-āt" (ḥayāt, memāt, heyhāt), "-āl" (hilāl, fi'l-ḥāl, al), "-ānımuzı" (cānımuzı, ḳanımuzı, devrānımuzı) and "-ān" (zebān, an, cānān). The metre is the "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün" pattern of the remel family. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last stanza. According to Özkat, it is one of Fazlî's two six-stanza murabbas (musammats 4 and 23).

Özkat publishes the poem as the twenty-third musammat of the divan. The text is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 242a) of the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library; according to Özkat's description, the catchwords and rhymes in this section show that some leaves are missing. In the transcript of the last stanza a footnote belonging to the preceding poem had become mixed into the text; in this article the text of the poem is given without that footnote.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem is a wine murabba celebrating the end of the month of fasting and the coming of the feast together with spring. The fifth stanza sets this ground openly: "rūze", the fast, has stung the soul like wine and dried up the blood like a cup; now the feast has come. Özkat counts the words "ḳanımuzı ḳurudup" (drying up our blood) in this stanza among the examples of the idiom "kanı kurutmak" (to dry up someone's blood). In the fourth stanza the crescent of the feast is likened to a cupbearer holding a cup in the gathering of the sky; a likeness is drawn between the curved shape of the crescent and the cup. The words "ele al" (take in hand) in the same stanza are likewise an example of the idiom "ele almak" in Özkat's list of idioms.

The words "ḳan olacaġı" (what will turn to blood) in the refrain seem to refer to wine: the drink that resembles blood in its red colour is called "what will become blood". The opposition of the profligate (rind) and the ascetic (zahid) is worked throughout the poem. In the second stanza the gnostic is told not to listen to the ascetic's advice; the simile "ḫam-ı mey gibi cūş" (to seethe like wine in the jar) ties the fermenting of wine in the jar to the rapture of the heart. The third stanza is given to a description of spring: the meadow has grown green like Hızır, and the waters are the water of life. The belief that Hızır found the water of immortality and that greenness is associated with him forms a congruence of images (tenasüp) with the words "Ḥıżr", "āb-ı ḥayāt" (water of life) and "memāt" (death). The exclamation "heyhāt" (alas) in the last line of the stanza recalls the uncertainty of whether these days will be reached once more, and gives a reason for the call to drink.

In the last stanza the poet wishes his own poetry to pass from tongue to tongue in the gatherings. The expression "derd-zebān" in the line has this form in the edition; in meaning it seems close to the usage corresponding to "keeping on one's tongue".

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. 249, musammat no. 23 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 242a); also pp. 57-58 (on the murabbas), p. 92 (idioms) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources