Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilün

Ṣanmañuz kim ‘ıyşdan bir laḥẓa ḫālīlerdenüz
Meşreb-i ṣāfīli rind-i lāübālīlerdenüz
İtmezüz dehr-i denīye meyl ‘ālīlerdenüz
Sāḳiyā ṣun cāmı Sulṭān Muṣṭafālīlerdenüz
‘Ārifüz eglence her-dem ‘ıyş ü ‘işretdür bize
‘Āşıḳuz maḥbūb sevmek ḫūb ḫaṣletdür bize
Nāzüküz ‘ādet nezāketdür ẓerāfetdür bize
Sāḳiyā ṣun cāmı Sulṭān Muṣṭafālīlerdenüz
Ma‘rifet bābında rindān-ı süḫan-dānlar bizüz
Baḥr-ı ma‘nā menba‘-ı deryā-yı ‘irfānlar bizüz
Ṣūretā kim bendeyüz ma‘nīde sulṭānlar bizüz
Sāḳiyā ṣun cāmı Sulṭān Muṣṭafālīlerdenüz
Nükte-ḫvāndur şāhımuz biz nükte-perdāz olmışuz
Ol süḫan-perverdür el-ḥaḳ biz süḫan-sāz olmışuz
Şāh odur biz bāzu-yı devletde şeh-bāz olmışuz
Sāḳiyā ṣun cāmı Sulṭān Muṣṭafālīlerdenüz
Şāhımuz taḫt-ı sa‘ādet üzre serverdür bizüm
Ḳadrimüz rif‘atde eflāk ile hem-serdür bizüm
Ṭab‘ımuz envār-ı ‘irfān ile enverdür bizüm
Sāḳiyā ṣun cāmı Sulṭān Muṣṭafālīlerdenüz
Her gice tesbīḥimüz şāha du‘ālardur bizüm
Her seḥer evrādımuz medh ü s̱enālardur bizüm
Vaḳtimüz ḫoş kārımuz ẕevḳ u ṣafālardur bizüm
Sāḳiyā ṣun cāmı Sulṭān Muṣṭafālīlerdenüz
Bendeyüz bir şāha kim her bendesi bir şāhdur
Ẕāt-ı pāk-ı tāb-nākı maẓhar-ı Allāh’dur
Ṭab‘-ı derrākı anuñ her ḥālden āgāhdur
Sāḳiyā ṣun cāmı Sulṭān Muṣṭafālīlerdenüz
Elde cām u dilde her-dem fikrimüz dil-dārdur
Rūz u şeb eglencemüz ebyāt ile eş‘ārdur
Bize Fażlī gibi medḥ itmek o şāhı kārdur
Sāḳiyā ṣun cāmı Sulṭān Muṣṭafālīlerdenüz
Ḥaḳ Te‘ālā devlet ü iḳbālin efzūn eylesün
Düşmen-i bed-ḫvāhınuñ ḥālin diger-gūn eylesün
Ẕāt-ı pākın ‘ıyş u nūş u ẕevḳe maḳrūn eylesün
Sāḳiyā ṣun cāmı Sulṭān Muṣṭafālīlerdenüz

In English

1. Do not think us empty of pleasure for a single moment; we are of the carefree libertines (rind) of pure disposition. We give no heart to this base world; we are of the high-minded. Cupbearer, pass the cup; we are of Sultan Mustafa's men.

2. We are gnostics (ârif); our amusement is always pleasure and revelry. We are lovers; loving beautiful youths is a fine trait for us. We are of delicate spirit; our custom is courtesy and elegance. Cupbearer, pass the cup; we are of Sultan Mustafa's men.

3. In the matter of true knowledge we are the libertines who understand speech; we are the sea of meaning, the source of the ocean of wisdom. In outward form we are servants, but in meaning we are sultans. Cupbearer, pass the cup; we are of Sultan Mustafa's men.

4. Our king understands wit, and we have become makers of wit; truly he is a patron of speech, and we have become masters of speech, poets. He is the king; we have become royal falcons on the wrist of fortune. Cupbearer, pass the cup; we are of Sultan Mustafa's men.

5. Our king, upon the throne of felicity, is our chief; our worth is level in height with the heavens; our nature is the brightest with the lights of wisdom. Cupbearer, pass the cup; we are of Sultan Mustafa's men.

6. Every night our rosaries are prayers for the king; every dawn our litanies are his praise and eulogy; our time is pleasant, our work is delight and joy. Cupbearer, pass the cup; we are of Sultan Mustafa's men.

7. We are servants of a king whose every servant is a king; his pure and radiant being is a place where God's manifestation appears; his perceptive nature is aware of every state. Cupbearer, pass the cup; we are of Sultan Mustafa's men.

8. Cup in hand, our thought in our hearts is ever of the beloved; day and night our amusement is couplets and poems; to praise that king like Fazlî is our task. Cupbearer, pass the cup; we are of Sultan Mustafa's men.

9. May God Almighty increase his fortune and prosperity; may He overturn the state of his ill-wishing enemy; may He keep his pure being joined with pleasure, drink and delight. Cupbearer, pass the cup; we are of Sultan Mustafa's men.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a murabba (quatrain stanza poem) of nine stanzas. Each stanza consists of four lines; the first three rhyme among themselves, and the fourth is repeated in every stanza as the refrain "Sāḳiyā ṣun cāmı Sulṭān Muṣṭafālīlerdenüz". For this reason the poem, like all Fazlî's murabbas, is a murabba with a refrain (mütekerrir). Redifs (refrain words) are also used within the stanzas: "-lerdenüz" in the first, "bize" in the second, "bizüz" in the third, "olmışuz" in the fourth, "bizüm" in the fifth and sixth, "-dur" in the seventh and eighth, and "eylesün" in the ninth. The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün" of the remel family. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the eighth stanza in the words "Fażlī gibi", and the last stanza is a prayer.

Mustafa Özkat published the murabba as the 26th musammat of the divan, from folio 109b of the miscellany Âşir Efendi 314 in the Süleymaniye Library. According to Özkat, twenty of Fazlî's twenty-eight murabbas have five stanzas; this is the only murabba with nine. The word "eglence" in the first line of the second stanza appears in the manuscript as "eglencemüz" and was corrected by Özkat for the metre; "süḫan-sāz" in the fourth stanza is also written "süḫan-şār" in the manuscript.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The speaker of the poem is a community that speaks as "we". The word "Muṣṭafālī" in the refrain is formed by adding a suffix of belonging to the name Mustafa and means "one attached to Mustafa, one of Mustafa's men". The murabba thus becomes a common song of pride sung by the poets and boon companions at the prince's court. This community first introduces itself as libertines, gnostics, lovers and men of elegance, and then describes its bond with the prince.

The fourth stanza is the key to this bond. The king is "nükte-ḫvān", he understands wit, and we have become "nükte-perdāz", makers of wit; he is "süḫan-perver", a patron of poetry, and we have become "süḫan-sāz", poets. This sequence presents the mutual bond between a patron and the poets around him through congruence of images (tenasüp). In the same stanza the poets see themselves as "bāzu-yı devletde şeh-bāz", royal falcons perched on the wrist of fortune; the image of the falcon, which Fazlî uses in his elegies for Mustafa to describe the prince, is given here to his servants. The line "Ṣūretā kim bendeyüz ma‘nīde sulṭānlar bizüz" in the third stanza is an antithesis (tezat) that uses the mystical distinction between outward form and inner meaning. The phrase "her bendesi bir şāhdur" in the seventh stanza ties the same idea to the prince's greatness: to be his servant is another kind of kingship.

In the poem, religious vocabulary is deliberately set beside the language of pleasure. In the sixth stanza the rosary is a prayer for the king and the dawn litanies are his praise; the word "‘ārif" in the second stanza, too, means both one who knows God and a person of refinement. This mixture, together with the refrain of cupbearer and cup, gives the poem the air of a song of the drinking assembly.

Historical Context

Fazlî entered Şehzade Mustafa's service in Amasya after 1543 and remained his divan secretary until the prince's death in 1553; this murabba too is most probably a product of these ten years. Its exact date is unknown. Describing Mustafa's court in Amasya, Hüseyin Hüsameddin writes that the prince was very fond of literature, that as a generous, valiant man devoted to pleasure he gathered men of learning and letters around him and loved beautiful youths, and he names the divan secretary Fazlî Çelebi among the officials who were poets. According to Hüsameddin, Sheikh Sinan Efendi, preacher of the Mehmed Pasha Mosque, was forced to withdraw from his post because he objected to these ways of the prince, and was known among the people as "Şehre Küsdü" (the one who sulked at the city). The line "Vaḳtimüz ḫoş kārımuz ẕevḳ u ṣafālardur bizüm" in the murabba can be read as a testimony to this assembly from the inside. Maruf Çakır also notes that Mustafa patronized scholars and poets in Manisa and Amasya and himself wrote poetry under the pen name Muhlisî; the epithet "süḫan-perver" given to the king in the fourth stanza accords with this side of him.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

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