Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün
Gelicek raḳṣ ile meydāna ḥarām-zāde ‘araḳ
Virdi hep ḫirmen-i ‘aḳl u dilimüz bāde ‘araḳ
In English
1. When that rascal arrack came dancing into the arena, it gave the whole harvest of our reason and heart to the wind (to wine), the arrack.
Literary and Historical Commentary
A drink that divan poetry names far less often than wine, arrack (‘arak), the aniseed spirit known as rakı, is the subject of this matla. The phrase "haram-zâde" means literally "born of the forbidden", that is, something unlawful to drink, and in common speech it is also an insult, "bastard, rascal"; the poet names rakı with both senses at once. The rakı enters the arena dancing: its swirling in the glass and the way it makes the drinker drunk and set to dancing are told with the same word.
The second line is a threshing scene. As the harvest is winnowed the grain falls to the ground and the chaff flies off on the wind. The rakı has given the whole harvest of reason and heart "bâde"; in Turkish "bâde vermek" means to give to the wind, to scatter and destroy, while the word "bâde" is also wine. So one drink hands the harvest of reason over at once to the other drink and to the wind. The sense "sweat" of the word "‘arak" may also come to mind, but the text does not use it openly.
The other two copies do not include the couplet; its only known text is in T. 738. That such a jesting place should be given to rakı in the divan of a şeyhülislam should be understood within the libertine (rind) manner of divan poetry.
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. 224, matla 6 (Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 3b). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014
Online sources
