Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Gözüñ aç ḥâleti çoḳdur mey-i nâbuñ ṣûfî
Meclis içinde tehî görme iñen câmumuzı

In English

1. Open your eyes, O Sufi; great is the rapture that pure wine gives. Do not think our cup in the gathering so empty. (In Old Turkish "iñen" means very, much.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The couplet is given in Latîfî's biographical anthology of poets (tezkire) near the beginning of the entry on Melîhî, under the heading "Beyt". The second couplet that immediately follows begins with "Velehu", "and also his"; this shows that the biographer regarded this couplet as Melîhî's poem. Since its two lines do not rhyme, it must be an inner couplet of a ghazal (gazel) or a couplet composed on its own. The edition of the tezkire does not indicate the metre. The other biographers do not quote this couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet belongs to the familiar type in divan poetry in which the libertine (rind) teases the ascetic or the Sufi. The poet addresses the Sufi and asks him to open his eyes. The key word of the couplet is "ḥâlet". In the language of Sufism, hâl denotes the spiritual states, the rapture and ecstasy the disciple experiences in turning towards God; in everyday language it is also used for the pleasure and intoxication that drink gives. Using both senses together, the poet says that wine too gives a "hâl", and that the Sufi is mistaken in thinking the cup in the gathering empty and meaningless. The word "tehî" (empty) evokes both an empty cup and a lack of meaning. This use of two senses of a word at once comes close to double entendre (tevriye). Wine, cup and gathering also form a congruence of images (tenasüp).

Historical Context

Latîfî gives the couplet within a story. Melîhî and the Halveti sheikh Rûşenî had been close friends since their youth. One day Şeyh Rûşenî sent him word asking how long this dissipation would go on, and said that if he came he would give him the wine of love to drink from the cup of affection, and then he would see where true delight and rapture lay. Melîhî replied that if the sheikh could give him the delight and rapture that two cups of wine gave, he would leave the tavern and remain a disciple at his lodge until his death. The biographer gives this couplet immediately after this reply. The couplet thus reads like the libertine poet's versified answer to the sheikh's offer of "the wine of love", defending his own wine. Whether the couplet was composed during this exchange, or placed there by the biographer because it suited the story, is unknown. For the poet's life, see the article Melîhî of Tokat.

Bibliography

Online sources