Surah Yusuf · سُوْرَةُ يُوسُفَ · Juz 12
Q 12:42
وَقَالَ لِلَّذِى ظَنَّ أَنَّهُۥ نَاجٍ مِّنْهُمَا ٱذْكُرْنِى عِندَ رَبِّكَ فَأَنسَىٰهُ ٱلشَّيْطَـٰنُ ذِكْرَ رَبِّهِۦ فَلَبِثَ فِى ٱلسِّجْنِ بِضْعَ سِنِينَ
Translations
And he said to the one whom he knew would go free, "Mention me before your master." But Satan made him forget the mention [to] his master, and Joseph remained in prison several years.Et il dit à celui des deux dont il pensait qu'il serait délivré: «Parle de moi auprès de ton maître». Mais le Diable fit qu'il oublia de rappeler (le cas de Joseph) à son maître. Joseph resta donc en prison quelques années.Tafsir
Joseph asked the one he considered to be saved of the two, the wine bearer of the king, to mention his story and his situation to the king, so that he might release him from prison. Satan made the man forget to mention Joseph to the king, so he stayed in prison for several years after that.
Read Ibn Kathir (Ibn Kathir (abridged, English))
And he said to the one whom he knew to be saved: "Mention me to your king." But Shaytan made him forget to mention it to his master. So [Yusuf] stayed in prison a few (more) years (42)
Yusuf asks the King's Distiller to mention Him to the King
Yusuf knew that the distiller would be saved. So discretely, so that the other man's suspicion that he would be crucified would not intensify, he said,
اذْكُرْنِي عِندَ رَبِّكَ
(Mention me to your King.) asking him to mention his story to the king. That man forgot Yusuf's request and did not mention his story to the king, a plot from the devil, so that Allah's Prophet would not leave the prison. This is the correct meaning of,
فَأَنسَاهُ الشَّيْطَانُ ذِكْرَ رَبِّهِ
(But Shaytan made him forget to mention it to his master.) that it refers to the man who was saved. As was said by Mujahid, Muhammad bin Ishaq and several others. As for, 'a few years', or, Bida' in Arabic, it means between three and nine, according to Mujahid and Qatadah. Wahb bin Munabbih said, "Ayyub suffered from the illness for seven years, Yusuf remained in prison for seven years and Bukhtanassar (Nebuchadnezzar - Chaldean king of Babylon) was tormented for seven years."
Arabic text: Tanzil (Uthmani). Translations: Sahih International (en), Muhammad Hamidullah (fr). tanzil.net