Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlü Mefâ‘îlün Fâ‘ / Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilün

Yakdı beni ‘aşk âteşi dâd ey sâkî
Al câm ile kıl gönlümü şâd ey sâkî
Ser-i kûyunda karâr eylemek ister gönlüm
Bundan özge ne diyem yokdı murâd ey sâkî

In English

1. O cupbearer, the fire of love has burned me, help, O cupbearer; take up the cup and gladden my heart, O cupbearer.

2. My heart wishes to settle at the head of your street; what else should I say, I had no other wish, O cupbearer.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The edition places two separate metres at the head of this quatrain. The first couplet is written in "mef‘ûlü mefâ‘îlü mefâ‘îlün fâ‘", one of the classical rubai metres; the second, like most of the other cupbearer quatrains in the divan, is in the remel pattern "fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün". Using two metres within a single quatrain is against the rules, and the edition does not explain it. Read aloud the difference is heard at once: the first two lines are short and compressed, the next two long and spread out.

The quatrain is a short plea. "Dâd" in the first line is a cry for help; the lover burning in the fire of love asks the cupbearer for a cup. In the second couplet the wish changes: the heart wants to settle at the cupbearer's "ser-i kûy", the head of her street, before her door. To settle at the beloved's door is, in divan poetry, a wish showing that the lover has given up every other expectation of the world; the poet says he has no other desire.

This is the first of the cupbearer rubais set after the ghazals in hı. "Dâd, şâd, murâd" end in the letter dâl and herald the next section of the divan.

Bibliography

Online sources