The emergence of the s?qi-nnmah or cupbearer's song is representative of the innovative spirit of Persian literature at the start of the Safavid era. Integrating elements from the long tradition of Arabic and Persian wine poetry into a form inspired by Ney mi and Hifen, the s?qi-ntmah takes shape as an independent genre in the first decades of the sixteenth century. Over the next 300 years, the genre would remain as protean as the wine imagery at its core, but in the typical cupbearer's song, wine and music help the speaker sever old allegiances, relieve old obsessions, and establish a new sense of identity. The subjective journey of the suqi-n mah often includes a fasb-e cll, a passage in which the poet accounts for his life. Perhaps nowhere is this aspect of the genre more clearly displayed than in the cupbearer's song of Mouammad rufi Mszandar ni (d. 1035/1626). Even in a period characterized by the widespread movement of Persian poets back and forth from Iran to India, Mo ammad fufi's wanderlust is exceptional, taking him from the Caspian Sea across Iran to Shiraz on to Mecca and finally through many of the cities of India, bringing him into contact with several major literary circles of the age. His cupbearer's song captures a crucial moment in his life story. Manuscript evidence suggests that it was written in two parts. In the first, his wine-driven psychological journey ends with an announcement of his allegiance to the Imam 'Ali, typical of Safavid-Shi'ite devotional poetics. But in a short conclusion apparently added later to the poem, Mooammad rufi's announces his departure from Iran in the millennial year 1000/1592. Examining these declarations of allegiance and farewell offers insight not only into the poetics of the sfqi-nimah, but into the dynamics of social and religious affiliation at the turn of the seventeenth century.