Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün

Beni ḳıldı ṣafā-yı la‘l-i sāḳī mübtelā-yı mey
Dili mest-i muḥabbet eyledi ḥüsn-i ṣafā-yı mey
Ḳomaz meydān-ı dilde leşker-i endūhı ref‘ eyler
Girince rezm-i bezme ḳāsım-ı la‘lin ḳabā-yı mey
Çeker girdāb-ı ġamdan ġarḳa-i deryā-yı hicrānı
Sürerse zevraḳ-ı ṣahbāyı bir kez nā-ḫudā-yı mey
Beni bī-dest ü pā ḳıldı ḫumār-ı bāde ey sāḳī
Cihānda kimse hergiz olmasun bī-dest ü pā-yı mey
Ber-ā-ber gösterir şāh u gedāyı ādeme Ṣāḥib
Ne ḥikmetdür ki bu āyīne-i gītī-nümā-yı mey

In English

1. The delight of the cupbearer's ruby lip has made me a captive of wine; the beauty of wine's clarity has made my heart drunk with love.

2. When the ruby-robed divider (kâsım) of wine enters the battle of the feast, it leaves no army of sorrow on the field of the heart, but sweeps it away. The word "kâsım" in the couplet is not understood for certain; it has been rendered in its sense of one who divides or apportions.

3. If the captain of wine sets the skiff of wine sailing even once, he draws out of the whirlpool of grief the one drowned in the sea of separation.

4. O cupbearer, the hangover of wine has left me without hand or foot (helpless); may no one in the world ever be without the hand and the foot (the cup) of wine.

5. O Sâhib, what wisdom is it that this world-showing mirror of wine shows the king and the beggar alike to man?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Wine's power of making men equal is told in the final couplet through the legend of Jamshid's cup. In Persian legend the cup of Jamshid showed the whole world to whoever looked into it, and divan poetry names it "câm-ı Cem" and "âyîne-i gîtî-nümâ", the world-showing mirror. Sâhib finds another property of this mirror: the man who drinks wine sees the king and the beggar with the same eye. The erasing of rank in drunkenness is part of the libertine's outlook in divan poetry; coming from a poet who rose to the office of şeyhülislam, the remark draws attention all the more.

The fourth couplet joins two idioms. To be "without hand and foot" is to be helpless, and the hangover has brought the lover to this state. In the second line "dest" (hand) and "pây" (foot) appear side by side again; but here "ayak" (foot) also carries its old Turkish sense of a wine cup. By wishing that no one be left without the hand and the cup of wine, the poet also points to the cure for the hangover.

The third couplet is a sea scene. Separation is a sea and grief its whirlpool; "zevrak" is both a skiff and a boat-shaped wine cup. If the captain of wine sets this skiff going even once, he rescues the one drowning in the whirlpool. The second couplet uses the language of war as well: wine is a champion in a ruby-coloured robe, and when it enters the gathering it scatters the army of sorrow from the field of the heart.

Bibliography

  • Meral Topal, Pîrî-zâde Mehmed Sâhib Hayatı, Edebî Kişiliği, Eserleri ve Divanı'nın Tenkitli Metni, MA thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2004, p. 209, ghazal 107 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 34b; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 17a; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 25a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources