Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Âferînler şarâb-ı gül-renge
Laʿnet olsun bozaya vü benge

In English

1. Bravo to rose-coloured wine; a curse on boza and on beng. (Boza is a fermented grain drink; beng is an intoxicant made from a narcotic plant.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The two lines of the couplet rhyme on the words "renge" and "benge"; it is a short, easily remembered saying shaped like a mesnevi couplet or an opening couplet (matla). The edition of the biographical anthology (tezkire) does not indicate the metre. It is not certain that the couplet is Melîhî's own poem. Latîfî gives it as a couplet the poet "recited with gusto" when drunk: "bu beyti şevḳle oḳurdı". Gelibolulu Âlî also quotes the couplet in the same scene and writes that the poet "said and recited" it; in his text the second line reads "Laʿnet olsun ġubâr ile benge". Both biographers put the couplet in Melîhî's mouth but do not state explicitly that he composed it. The couplet may be Melîhî's, or it may be a saying current in tavern circles that he often repeated.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet sets two opposing verdicts side by side: praise of wine and a curse on other intoxicants. "Âferîn" (bravo) and "laʿnet" (curse), "şarâb" (wine) and "boza and beng" are arranged against each other; this contrast is the figure of tezat (antithesis). The epithet "gül-reng" (rose-coloured) is a familiar example of the association of red wine with the rose in divan poetry. The real sense of the couplet emerges from the story that surrounds it. According to Latîfî, after Mehmed II (the Conqueror) made Melîhî swear off drink, the poet held out against wine for a time and turned instead now to boza, now to hemp and other intoxicants, but found the taste of wine in none of them. The curse in the couplet is aimed precisely at these substitutes, the boza and beng that could not take the place of wine.

Historical Context

According to Latîfî, Melîhî, so as not to break his oath, had wine administered to himself by enema, became drunk in this way and came to Tahtelkale in Istanbul. In the days when the sultan had sent men everywhere to search for him, the poet, carried away among the crowd, kept repeating the verse of the Qur'an that speaks of the benefits of wine, "benefits for people", and recited this couplet with gusto. The man on his trail arrived at that moment, seized him and took him before the sultan. Gelibolulu Âlî tells the same scene and adds that after reciting the couplet the poet was seized by the hem of his robe by a doorkeeper and dragged away. At the end of the story Mehmed II, considering the poet's oath and his jest, pardoned him. For the poet's life, see the article Melîhî of Tokat.

Bibliography

Online sources