Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefʿūlü mefāʿilün feʿūlün

Mestim yine bezm-i ġamda sāḳī
İmdād señiñ şu demde sāḳī
Mey ḥürmetine meded resān ol
Terk itme beni elemde sāḳī
Cān mużṭarib oldı çıḳdı bekler
Bir ḳaṭre şarāb-ı femde sāḳī
Ḳaldım ayaġıñda ser fütāde
İḥsān da seniñ keremde sāḳī
Rūḥ oldı sitem-zede ḥavādiŝ
Ġayret bu meydir ḳıdemde sāḳī
İmdād-ı vücūd ḳılmasañ sen
Ruḥ-cān görinür ʿādemde sāḳī
Feyż-i naẓarıñ ebed-nümūndur
Rūşen bu ḳażīyye cemde sāḳī

In English

1. Cupbearer, I am drunk again at the gathering of sorrow; cupbearer, help at this moment comes from you.

2. For the sake of the wine come to my aid; cupbearer, do not leave me in pain.

3. The soul is in torment and has risen to the lips; cupbearer, it waits for a drop of wine in the mouth.

4. I have stayed at your feet with head bowed; cupbearer, the bounty is yours, and the generosity.

5. The soul has suffered the reproaches of events; cupbearer, this wine is a zeal in its old age. (The second line is not entirely clear.)

6. Cupbearer, if you do not come to the aid of being, both spirit and soul appear in nonbeing.

7. Cupbearer, the bounty of your glance is a sample of eternity; this proposition is plain in (the cup of) Jamshid.

Literary and Historical Commentary

This ghazal with the redif (refrain) "sâkî" is like a companion piece written in the same short metre as the ghazal "Sâkî yine hayretim füzûndur" on the tenth folio of the divan. There the cupbearer was called against bewilderment and the confusion of the sphere; here there is a direct cry for help. Each couplet addresses the cupbearer anew, and this repetition makes heard the insistence of someone asking for aid: help comes from you, do not leave me in pain, the soul has risen to the lips, it waits for a drop.

The picture in the third couplet brings an old idiom to life. The soul's rising to the lips describes the moment of death; by saying that at that last moment the soul waits in the mouth for a drop of wine, the poet turns even death into a tavern scene. The sixth couplet names the cupbearer almost as a creative power: if he does not aid being, spirit and soul fall into nonbeing. In a Sufi reading the cupbearer is the spiritual guide who dispenses divine bounty, and this couplet is open to that reading.

The "kaziyye" of the last couplet means a proposition in logic and brings a madrasa term into the poem. The proposition that the bounty in the cupbearer's glance is a sample of eternity is plain in the cup of Jamshid, which was said to show the whole world within it. Such a juxtaposition of the language of logic with the tavern motif is an attitude often found in Cûdî's poetry.

Bibliography

  • Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 46 (poem no. 37; manuscript fol. 13b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf

Online sources