Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefʿūlü fāʿilātü mefāʿīlü fāʿilün
Gördüm yine ufuḳda muḥarrem helālini
İtmiş işāret āhlarıñ inşiʿālini
Sāl-ı cedīde besmeledir ġurretü'l-ḥarām
Tekrār ider kitāb ḥayātıñ meʿālini
Reʾs-i şühūra şanlı iken oldı ḳanlı tāc
Gösterdi ḥaḳ bu ayda cemāl ü celālini
Kem-bedr olur felekde ḳamer-gāh-ı nev-hilāl
İʿlān ider cihāna kemāl ü zevālini
Bir ayda bir iki gicecik bedr olur o reh
Baʿżan ḫusūfa ḳapdırır iḳbāl bālini
Şemsiñ küsūfı bedr-i münīriñ ḫusūfı var
Gördüm ṣafā-yı dehre muġālib melālini
Bir ḫūn-ı ḫuşk-reng yüzi ancaḳ alnı aḳ
Taṣvīr ider hilāl, şehīdiñ cemālini
Behrām elinde tīġ-i tehevvürle fırlamış
Taʿḳīb ider ufuḳda ʿudūnuñ ḫayālini
Ẓan itme māh-ı nevdir elinde ʿuṭāridiñ
Parlar ḳalem yazarken o māhıñ miŝālini
Ol māh-ı mihr-perver ü ol mihr-i [...]
Açmış güneş gibi ʿalem-i iḥtifālini
Virmiş fürūġ-ı feyż-i demi dehre başḳa renk
Basṭ eylemiş dü ʿāleme envār-ı alını
Güller de lāleler de şafaḳlar da müncelī
Envār-ı ḫūn-ı sürḫ-i ciger-pāre-i ʿalī
Añdım yine ḥüseyni ṣūṣ ey bülbülāt ṣuṣ
Dilde ḫurūşa geldi ʿaleykü'ṣ-ṣılāt ṣuṣ
Elḥān-ı murġı, zemzeme-i cūy-bārı kes,
Ey gülşen ol mübeddel-i ṣamt-ı felāt ṣuṣ
Āyīn-i mātem öyle degil hāy u hūy ile
Aġlar mülk-i sükūt ile velvelāt ṣuṣ
Demʿ-i teḥassürüñ ṣıla-i raḥmi kerbelā
Ey āh dil revān olup itsün ṣılāt ṣuṣ
Maẓlūmlar civārına hiç uġramaz yoluñ
Ḫōşdur başım belālar ile ey necāt ṣuṣ
Ṣuṣ çaġlama utan ṣusuz aġlar şu ḫaymeler
Leb-teşneler ḳanı aḳıyor ey fırāt ṣuṣ
Ehl-i cefāya güldigiñe aġlarım seniñ
Min-baʿd gülme rūyıma ʿarsız ḥayāt ṣuṣ
Bilmem bu mācerā nedir ehl-i vefā ile
Ey dehr-i bī-vefā, felek-i bī-ŝebāt ṣuṣ
Ṭoldırdı gūş-ı ʿālemi feryād-ı kerbelā
Girmez ḳulaġa andan öte hāʾilāt ṣuṣ
Girmez ḳulaġına bu vefāsız cemāʿatiñ
Ey zīnet-i mināre olan ḥayʿalāt ṣuṣ
Bir yümnsüz vilāyete vālīlik uġrına
Ḳaṭʿ-ı velā iden ey ebu'l-mühmelāt ṣuṣ
Her şey geçer, ḥayāt geçer [...] geçer
Ẓan itmeyiñ yezīde ḳalan geçer
Gün ṭoġdı açdı ḳanlı yüzünden niḳābını
Gözden aḳıtdı aġlayup āteşli ābını
Eylerdi ṣanki ḫidmete ʿarż-ı şitāb u tāb
Tebcīl idüp Ḥüseyniñ ʿulüvv-i cenābını
Yüz sürdi ḫāk-i pāyına sūz u güdāz ile
Öpdi kemāl-i şevḳle zerrīn rikābını
Eşheb-süvār-ı deşt-i şehādet olınca şāh
Öpdi güneş o māhıñ ayaġı türābını
İtdi vedāʿ baġrına baṣdı çocuḳları
Ḥaḳḳa bıraḳdı ḫayme-i ʿiṣmet-meʾābını
Ḳopdı o anda ḫaymede gökler yıḳan ṣadā
Ḫurşīd çekdi rūyına ebr-i ḥicābını
Cibrīl sidreden bunı gördükde der-ʿaḳab
İndi zemīne ṭutdı ḫıyāmıñ ṭınābını
Zīrā Ḥüseyn ḫaymesi peyġamberiñ evi
Daʿvet ider suḳūṭı cihānıñ ḫarābını
Ḫançer yürütdi raḥmet-i ḥaḳ būse-gāhına
Kesdi şimir ḫudā vü benīden ḥesābını
Reyyān-ı kevŝer oldı Ḥüseyniñ maʿiyyeti
İçdi yezīdiñ ordusı dehriñ serābını
Ser-ḫōş olup ne yapdıġını bilmez eşḳiyā
Allāh içirmesün ḳula ġaflet şarābını
[...] Şeʾāmetiyle nuḥūseti [...]
Sürdi çıḳardı ʿırḳ necābeti
Niʿme'l-emīr olurdı alaydı Stanbulı
Lākin yezīd ṭutdu babadan ḳalan yolı
Āl-i Resūli itdi hedef tīr-i kīneye
Yañlış nişān alır ʿarabıñ kör gözi ṣulı
Maḥv eyledi Ḳureyşiñ ʿulüvv-i cenābını
Ṭutdı Benī Ümeyye reh-i ġadr-ı munġolı
Eyler necābet-i ʿarabiyye naṣıl ḳabūl
Ol ḫānedānıñ oynadıġı bī-edeb rolı
İnsānlıgıñ yüziḳarası mendebūrlar
Deyn müflisi, ḥamiyyet-i islām yoḳsulı
Ḥālā o ḥāli yād idüp aġlar miyāh-ı arż
Her ḳab ṣudan tehī yalıñız dīdeler ṭolı
Ey Kerbelā zemīniñe kerb ü belā yaġar
Eyler hirās-ı yıldırım andan ḳaçar ṭolı
Dicle o ḫāk-i ḫuşk-ı belādan uzaḳ ṭurur
Gümreh fürāt uzatmış aña sehv ile ḳolı
Anda buluşdı kendi gibi gümreh-ān ile
Ṭutdı ḳara göñülli belālar ṣaġı ṣolı
Ẓulmetde ḳaldı āb-ı ḥayāta dönüp fürāt
Ḫıżr olsa dest-res olamaz Allāhıñ ḳulı
Ṣıbyān-ı ehl-i beyt baġırdıḳça ṣu diyü
Yoḳ orduda ḳulaḳ virir Allāh ḳorḳulı
Yāḳūt erirdi degse idi teşne-leblere
Gelmezdi bir teʾeŝŝür o sengin ʿarablara
Çıplaḳ ʿarab ki ḫilʿat içün ḫalʿ-i dīn ider
Bir şehr içün ḫarāb-ı temām-ı zemīn ider
Ġālibdir eşḳıyāsı anıñ etḳıyāsına
Ḥasb-i riyāset anları dūzaḫ-ḳarīn ider
Kim itmege cesāret ider ol cefāyı kim
ʿÖmer ü ʿUbeyd u Şimr u Yezīd laʿīn ider
İslāma nisbeten göremem ol şaḳīleriñ
Ḳatl-i imām ü esr-i benāt ü benīn ider
Aġreb ki ḳavli fiʿline uymaz münāfıḳıñ
Hedm-i şerīʿa ḫatm-i kitāb-ı mübīn ider
"Ṣalli ʿalā Muḥammedin" aġzında cilve-ger
Ammā elinde āl-i Muḥammed enīn ider
Müʾminlere emīr olan īmānsıza baḳıñ
[...] Müʾminīn ider
Aġreb emīr-i muḥterem-i müʾminīn ola
Ol bī-edeb ki [Arap harfli kelime, okunamadı] Resūl-ı emīn ider
Ḳavm-i Ḳureyş ü Şām u ʿIrāḳıñ münāfıḳı
Mehdīyi ḳor decācile post-nişīn ider
Īẕā iden benīye olur ẕemme müsteḥaḳ
" Tebbet yedā" bu ḥükmi bedāhet rehīn ider
Ümm-i cemīliñ atdıġı ḫāşāke beñzemez
Ol tīrler ki ḫār-ı muġaylān yemīn ider
Müfti cevāz virmedi [...]
Ṭutdı siper şerīʿatı hetk eyleyenlere
Ṣād bār.. Bārekallāh eyā kilk-i muḫteşem
Taḥsīn saña hezār, hezār ey büyük ʿAcem
Zīrinde ḥaşr ü neşr olunur maḥşer-i ġarā
Dikdi bu ʿarṣada ḳalemiñ bir bülend ʿilm
Sünnī vü şīʿa herkes oḳur ḫāricī bile
Bir meẕhebe ṭoḳunmuyor ol naẓm-ı muntaẓam
Ol ḥiss-i pür-ḫurūş ile ol ṣafvet-i edeb
Beyne'l-ümem ider seni ey ẕāt.. Muḥterem
Bir feyż-i ḫāṣ-ı ʿaşḳ u tevellādır ol eŝer
Olmuş ḳalem eliñde ʿaceb nāy-ı sūzdum
Kāşān u Iṣfahān degil feyż-i münḥaṣır
Gūş-ı cihānı ṭoldırır ol āteşīn neġam
Elġıbṭa naẓm-ı merŝiye-i sūz-nākıña
İtmiş ḥuḳūḳ-ı şiʿri bi-ḥaḳḳın arā ḳalem
[Şām] u ʿIrāḳ ẕevḳine baḳsun nifāḳ ile
Ḥuccāc beyti yıḳsun idüp ḥürmet-i ḥarem
İḫlāṣ-ı ḳalbe mālik olan biz faḳīrler
Āl-ı Resūle aġlayalım böyle dem-be-dem
Üç günlük ʿömre virmek içün ḫande-i ġurūr
Bir ümmeti ḳıyāmete dek aġladan sitem
Zühhāda ẕevḳ-i ṭāʿat ü fussāḳa ẕevḳ-i mey
ʿUşşāḳa ḫūn-ı dīde, ġarībāna laht-ı gam
Herkes gider bu sāḥada ẕevḳince bir yola
Ben bir yol isterim ki reh-i bū türāb ola
Ṭut rāh-ı istiḳāmeti ṣāġı, ṣolı degil
Gitme ġulāt gitdigi yol ḥaḳ yolı degil
Bāzū-yı ḥaydarī ḳoparır bāb-ı ḫayberī
Miskīnleriñ ṭarīḳati Ḥaydar ḳolı degil
Ḥaydar veliyy-i ḫāṣ-ı Ḫudā, ʿabd-i maḥżdır
Allāh degil, peyamber-i ḥaḳdan ulu degil
Ṣavm u ṣalātı terk ile küsmez şerīʿate
Peymāne-i ṣafāsı ʿaraḳla ṭolu degil
Pā-māl-i iştihāsı degil ʿarż-ı müslimīn
Āyīn-i cümle meclis-i ehl-i ġulüv degil
Ḥürmet ider kibār u ṣıġār ṣaḥābeye
Şeyḫine ḳarşı ṭafra-nümā-yı ʿulüvv degil
Cennetle neyl-i devlet-i büşrā iken yine
Endīşeden derūnı rehīn-i ḫulüvv degil
Allāh.. ḳorḳusundan ider ḳalbi ihtizāz
Aʿdāya ḳarşı gerçi dili ḳorḳulu degil
Ol ḥażretiñ bütün elemi dīn yolundadır
Dünyāya göñli baġlı degil ḳayġulu degil
Bir intibāh virmiş aña devlet-i yaḳīn
Ḳalb-i şerīfi şekli, gözi uyḳulu degil
Cūdī kimiñ içinde ki var baʿż-ı murtaża
Peyġamber ümmeti degil, Allāh ḳulı degil
Rabbim Ḫudā, peyamberim Aḥmed Resūl-ı ḥaḳ
Zehrā, ʿAlī, Ḥüseyn ü Ḥasan sevmege eḥaḳḳ
In English
1. Again I saw on the horizon the crescent of Muharram; it has given the sign for sighs to be kindled. The first night of the sacred month is the basmala of the new year; the book repeats the meaning of life. While it was a glorious crown on the head of the months, it became a bloody crown; in this month God showed His beauty and His majesty. The moon-place of the new crescent becomes a waning moon in the sky; it proclaims to the world its fullness and its decline. In a month that road is full for only a night or two; at times fortune lets its wing be caught by eclipse. The sun has its eclipse, the shining full moon its eclipse; I saw the world's grief prevailing over its delight. A face the colour of dried blood, but its brow white: the crescent depicts the beauty of the martyr. Mars has sprung up with the sword of fury in his hand and pursues the phantom of the enemy on the horizon. Do not think it is the new moon in Mercury's hand; it is the pen that shines as it writes the likeness of that moon. That moon that nurtures the sun, and that sun (the line is incomplete), has unfurled like the sun the banner of its ceremony. The radiance of the grace of its breath has given the world another colour; the lights of the red have spread over both worlds. The roses and tulips and twilight glows that appear are the lights of the red blood of 'Alî's darling child.
2. Again I remembered Hüseyin; hush, O nightingales, hush! In the heart "Blessings be upon you" has come to roar; hush. Cut short the songs of the bird and the murmur of the brook; O rose garden, become the silence of the deserts; hush. The rite of mourning is not done with wailing and crying; the kingdom of silence weeps with clamour; hush. Karbala is the kin-visit of the tear of longing; O sigh, let the heart flow and pay its visits; hush. Your road never passes near the wronged; O deliverance, my head is content with calamities; hush. Hush, do not babble, be ashamed; these tents weep without water; the blood of the thirsty-lipped is flowing, O Euphrates, hush. I weep that you smiled at the people of cruelty; from now on do not smile in my face, shameless life; hush. I do not know what this affair is with the people of faithfulness; O faithless world, unsteady sky, hush. The cry of Karbala has filled the ear of the world; nothing more terrible than that can enter the ear; hush. It does not enter the ear of this faithless congregation; O calls of "Come to prayer" that adorn the minaret, hush. For the sake of the governorship of an unlucky province, O father of neglect who cut off allegiance, hush. Everything passes, life passes, (a word is missing) passes; do not think that what clings to Yezid will pass.
3. The sun rose and opened the veil from its bloody face; weeping, it shed its fiery water from its eye. As if it were offering haste and warmth for service, exalting the lofty station of Hüseyin. With burning and melting it rubbed its face on the dust of his feet; with perfect longing it kissed his golden stirrup. When the king mounted the grey horse of the desert of martyrdom, the sun kissed the dust of that moon's feet. He bade farewell and pressed the children to his breast; he left to God the tent that was the shelter of chastity. At that moment a cry that shattered the heavens rose in the tent; the sun drew over its face the cloud of shame. Gabriel, seeing this from the Lote Tree, came down to earth at once and held the rope of the tent. For Hüseyin's tent is the Prophet's house; its fall calls forth the ruin of the world. He drove the dagger at the place God's mercy had kissed; Shimr cut off his account with God and the Prophet. Hüseyin's company was slaked with Kawthar; Yezid's army drank the mirage of the world. Drunk, the brigands do not know what they do; may God not make His servant drink the wine of heedlessness. (The line is incomplete) with its ill omen and ill fortune it drove out the nobility of lineage.
4. He would have been "the excellent commander" had he taken Istanbul; but Yezid kept to the road left by his father. He made the Prophet's family the target of the arrow of hatred; the blind, rheumy eye of the Arab takes the wrong aim. He destroyed the lofty station of Quraysh; the Umayyads took the treacherous road of the Mongols. How can Arab nobility accept the shameless role that dynasty played? The disgrace of humanity, wretches, bankrupt in debt, paupers in the zeal of Islam. Even now the waters of the earth weep remembering that state; every vessel is empty of water, only the eyes are full. O Karbala, distress and calamity rain upon your ground; the thunderbolt fears it, the hail flees from it. The Tigris keeps far from that dry soil of calamity; the misguided Euphrates stretched its arm to it by mistake. There it met misguided ones like itself; black-hearted calamities held its right and left. The Euphrates, turned water of life, was left in darkness; even were he Hızır, God's servant could not reach it. As the children of the Prophet's House cried "water!", there was none in the army who feared God to listen. Ruby would have melted had it touched the thirsty lips; no effect reached those stone-hearted Arabs.
5. The naked Arab who strips off his religion for a robe of honour lays the whole earth in ruins for one city. Its brigands prevail over its pious; the reckoning of leadership makes them neighbours of hell. Who would dare the cruelty that the accursed 'Umar and 'Ubayd and Shimr and Yezid commit? I cannot see those wretches as belonging to Islam, who kill the imam and take daughters and sons captive. Strangest of all, the hypocrite's word does not fit his deed; he demolishes the Sharia and seals the clear Book. "Bless Muhammad" shines on his lips, but in his hand the family of Muhammad moans. Look at the faithless one who is commander of the faithful, (the beginning of the line is missing) the believers. Strangest of all, that the honoured Commander of the Faithful should be that shameless one who (an unread word) the trusted Messenger. The hypocrites of Quraysh and Damascus and Iraq leave the Mahdi and seat the Antichrist on the sheepskin. Whoever harms the Prophet's sons deserves blame; "Perish the hands" makes this judgement self-evident. Those arrows are not like the thorns Umm Jamîl threw, which (are like) the thorns of the acacia (the couplet is not entirely clear). The mufti gave no permission (the line is incomplete); those who tore the Sharia took it as their shield.
6. A hundred times, God bless you, O pen of Muhtasham! A thousand thousand praises to you, O great Persian! Under (your banner) the bright plain of resurrection gathers and disperses; your pen has planted a lofty banner on this field. Sunni and Shiite, even the Kharijite, everyone reads it; that well-ordered verse touches no sect. With that surging feeling and that purity of courtesy it makes you, O worthy one, honoured among the nations. That work is a special grace of love and devotion to the Prophet's House; the pen in your hand has become a wondrous burning reed. Its grace is not confined to Kashan and Isfahan; those fiery melodies fill the ear of the world. I envy your burning elegy! The pen has truly rendered poetry its due. Let Damascus and Iraq look to their pleasure in hypocrisy; let Hajjâj tear down the House, (trampling) the sanctity of the Haram; we poor men who own the sincerity of the heart, let us weep thus for the Prophet's family moment by moment. What cruelty, that to give a proud smile to a life of three days makes a community weep until the resurrection! To the ascetics the delight of worship, to the dissolute the delight of wine, to the lovers the blood of the eye, to the strangers morsels of grief; everyone goes on this field by a way to his taste; I want a way that is the way of Abû Turâb ('Alî).
7. Keep to the road of uprightness, not right or left; do not go, the road the extremists went is not God's road. The arm of Haydar tears off the gate of Khaybar; the path of the wretched is not Haydar's arm. Haydar is God's special friend, a pure servant; he is not God, he is not greater than the true Prophet. He does not abandon fast and prayer and turn his back on the Sharia; his cup of delight is not filled with arrack. The honour of Muslims is not trampled by his appetite; his rite is not the rite of all the gatherings of the extremists. He honours the Companions, great and small; he does not put on airs of loftiness before his elders. Though he had attained the fortune of the good tidings of paradise, still his inner self was not free of anxiety. His heart trembled with the fear of God, though his tongue was not fearful before the enemy. All that excellent man's grief is on the road of religion; his heart is not bound to the world, not anxious for it. The state of certainty gave him wakefulness; his noble heart (is awake), his eye is not drowsy. Cûdî, whoever bears hatred for Murtazâ ('Alî) is not of the Prophet's community, not God's servant. My Lord is God, my prophet Ahmad, the true Messenger; Zehrâ, 'Alî, Hüseyin and Hasan are most worthy to be loved.
Literary and Historical Commentary
The martyrdom of Hüseyin at Karbala in 680 is the subject of this seven-stanza elegy, one of the longest poems in the divan, which joins a broad tradition of elegies on the event. Each stanza consists of a body of twenty-two lines and a linking couplet rhyming within itself; this form is the known order of the terkib-bend. In the thesis some lines are given with missing words; these are openly marked in the text and the translation.
From the crescent of Muharram to the desert of Karbala
The first stanza opens with the crescent of Muharram seen on the horizon and turns the heavenly bodies into witnesses of mourning: the crescent is a martyr's face "the colour of dried blood, but its brow white"; Mars pursues the enemy with the sword of fury; the red of the twilights, the roses and the tulips comes from the blood of 'Alî's darling child. The second stanza is a call to mourning with the refrain "hush": the nightingales, the brooks, the rose gardens and even the Euphrates must fall silent; while the blood of the thirsty-lipped flows, the Euphrates' babbling is a shame. The third stanza builds the scene of the day of martyrdom: the sun kisses Hüseyin's stirrup, Hüseyin bids his children farewell, Gabriel comes down to earth to hold the rope of the tent. The phrase in this stanza "the place God's mercy kissed" alludes to the report telling that the Prophet kissed his grandson on the neck.
History and anger
The fourth stanza opens with a historical judgement: Yezid could have attained the good tidings the Prophet gave of the commander who would conquer Istanbul, "what an excellent commander", through the siege of Istanbul in which he himself took part; but he kept to his father's road. The stance of the Tigris and the Euphrates before Karbala, the thirsty lips at which even ruby would melt, and a stone-hearted army are the places in the stanza where mourning turns into anger. The fifth stanza names 'Umar ibn Sa'd, 'Ubaydullâh ibn Ziyâd, Shimr and Yezid and describes them as hypocrites with blessings on their lips and the Prophet's family moaning in their hands.
Praise of Muhtasham and against extremism
The sixth stanza is praise, within the elegy, addressed to another poet, Muhtasham of Kashan (d. 1588), the author of the most famous Karbala elegy in Persian. Cûdî says that Muhtasham's terkib-bend is read by everyone, Sunni, Shiite and even Kharijite, that it touches no sect, and that its grace cannot be confined to Kashan and Isfahan; this shows that his own elegy too is tied to that great model as a nazire. The last stanza sets the love of the Prophet's House in a Sunni frame: 'Alî is God's special servant, not God, not greater than the Prophet; the "ghulât", the extremists who abandon prayer and fasting and do not honour the Companions, are not on his road. The elegy closes with a judgement that whoever hates 'Alî cannot be counted of the community, and with a couplet declaring that Zehrâ, 'Alî, Hasan and Hüseyin are most worthy to be loved. The poet of the Bektashi polemics here claims the love of the Prophet's House as a shared value, while wishing to keep it within the bounds of the Sharia.
Bibliography
- Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 126-130 (poem no. 285; manuscript fol. 83b-84a-84b-85a-85b-86a). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf
Online sources
