Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Feʿilâtün mefâʿilün feʿilün (identification of the metre is ours)

ʿAcabâ ḳanġı ḫânümânı ḫarâb
Ḥayyız âbuñ ḳomış adını şarâb

In English

1. I wonder whose house deserved to be ruined, that gave the name of wine to the menstrual water (of the daughter of the vine)? (The couplet can be read in two ways; see the commentary below.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This couplet, which Latîfî gives with the word "velehu" (also his), is a single couplet; its two lines rhyme on the words "ḫarâb" and "şarâb". Whether it is part of a ghazal (gazel), a kıta or a mesnevi is unknown. The edition of the biographical anthology of poets (tezkire) does not indicate the metre; we have identified that the lines fit the pattern "feʿilâtün mefâʿilün feʿilün" of the hafif metre of aruz (quantitative metre).

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet is built as a question teasing whoever gave wine its name. "Ḫânümânı ḫarâb" means one whose house and home is ruined, or deserves to be, and is used here like a cursing epithet. In divan poetry wine is often called "duḫter-i rez", the daughter of the vine; Latîfî himself says in Zârî's entry "hevâ-yı duḫter-i rez ʿaḳlın almışdur", desire for the daughter of the vine took his reason. The phrase "ḥayyız âb" (menstrual water) in the couplet is a coarse extension of this image (mazmun): the red liquid flowing from the daughter of the vine has been given the name of wine. The couplet can be read in two ways. In the first reading the poet seems to speak in the language of the pious who count wine as something unclean, and to disparage wine itself; but the fact that these words come from a poet known for his love of wine turns the utterance into mockery. In the second reading the poet is annoyed that a bad, vulgar drink has been given a name as noble as wine. There is no source showing which meaning was intended; the two readings and the connection of "menstrual water" with the image of the daughter of the vine are ours. The rhyme word "ḫarâb" comes from the same root as harabat, the tavern, and forms a congruence of images (tenasüp) with the word wine.

Historical Context

Latîfî gives the couplet immediately after the matla "Ṭutmaz ayaġı elüm bâde-i nâb olmayıcaḳ", which he says shows Zârî's love of wine. Kınalızâde and Hüsameddin do not quote this couplet. For the poet's life, see the article Zârî Mehmed Çelebi.

Bibliography

Online sources