Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün

Şi’rden başka safâ peymânesi nûş etmedim
Bikr-i mazmûndan öte duhter der-âgûş itmedim
Mest-i fikrim neş’e-i idrâk ile dem-sâz olup
Vakti söyletdim zebân-ı hâli hâmûş itmedim
Bî-sadâ âheng-i ilhâmâta itdim vakf-ı gûş
Sâz-ı rûhânî-tarabdan başka ses gûş itmedim
Neş’e-i ûlâyı asla bulmadım hâlis ayâr
Neş’e-i uhrâyı bey’-i nakd-i mağşûs itmedim
Hiss-i hayvânîyi buldum bir kalender iştihâ
Sabra habs itdim gezer ber-hâne berdûş itmedim
Kılmadım deryûze-i mîr ü vezîr ü padişâh
Hırka-i haysiyyeti bir bâba mefrûş itmedim
Enderûn-ı sîneyi rüşdümle tevşîh eyledim
Sadrımı tıflâne zibâyişle menkûş itmedim
Tac ü destârın gurûrundan tehâşî’ eyledim
Nûr-ı irfân üstüne tercîh-i serpûş itmedim!
Çok şey öğrendim unutdum nakş-ı hâtır nâmına
Bir tesellî kaldı kim hakk-ı ferâmûş itmedim!
Yetmiş üç yıldır geçirdim nîg u bed çok rûzgâr
Ben tebahhur eyledim Cûdî fakat cûş itmedim

In English

1. I drank from no cup of joy but poetry; I embraced no maiden but the virgin conceit (bikr-i mazmûn, a poetic image never used before).

2. My thought was drunk, yet in harmony with the joy of understanding; I made time speak, and did not silence the tongue of circumstance (zebân-ı hâl, what events say without words).

3. I devoted my ear to the soundless melody of inspirations; I listened to no sound but that instrument which gladdens the spirit.

4. I never found the assay of the first joy (neş'e-i ûlâ, the joy of this world) pure; nor did I sell the last joy (neş'e-i uhrâ, the joy of the hereafter) for counterfeit coin.

5. I found the animal senses to have the insatiable appetite of a wandering dervish (kalender); I imprisoned them in patience and did not let them roam like a vagabond carrying his home on his back.

6. I begged nothing of emir, vizier or padishah; I spread the cloak of my dignity before no one's door.

7. I adorned the inside of my breast with my maturity; I did not embroider my chest with childish ornaments.

8. I shunned the pride of crown and turban; I did not prefer the headgear (the badge of rank and office) to the light of knowledge.

9. I learned much, and forgot it for the sake of memory's imprint; one consolation remains: I did not forget al-Haqq (the truth, and God).

10. For seventy-three years I have passed through many days good and bad; I, Cûdî, grew deep as a sea, but did not boil over.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of ten couplets. It is written in the remel metre in the pattern "fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün"; the identification of the metre is ours. The redif (refrain word) is "itmedim" (I did not), and the rhyme is the sound "-ûş": the words nûş, âgûş, hâmûş, gûş, mağşûş, berdûş, mefrûş, menkûş, serpûş, ferâmûş and cûş all end in it. In the last couplet the poet uses his pen name (mahlas), "Cûdî", as the ghazal tradition requires. Because every couplet ends in the same negative verb, the poem becomes a reckoning of a life, a declaration listing what the poet did not do.

The text is taken from Hüsameddin's Amasya Tarihi. Hüsameddin gives it within the letter he quotes from İbnülemin Mahmud Kemal İnal's Son Asır Türk Şâirleri. Havva Tok Yıldız's thesis publishes the same ghazal from İnal in a different spelling: "etmedim" instead of "itmedim", in the fifth couplet "Sabra hasb ettim" instead of "Sabra habs itdim", "gezer bir hâne berdûş" instead of "gezer ber-hâne berdûş", and in the last couplet "tebehhur" instead of "tebahhur". The only difference that changes the meaning is in the fifth couplet, where Hüsameddin's reading "habs" (to imprison) fits the thought of the couplet better.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal takes the wine and beloved imagery of divan poetry and fits it to the poet's own life. The words "peymâne" (cup) and "duhter" (girl) in the first couplet remind the reader of the wine party; in divan poetry wine is called "duhter-i rez", the daughter of the vine. But the cup Cûdî drinks is poetry, and the girl he embraces is the "bikr-i mazmûn", a fresh image no poet has used before. Thus the whole vocabulary of the libertine (rind) is used to say that the poet has no pleasure but poetry. The second and third couplets explain that this drunkenness is not a loss of awareness: the thought is drunk but in harmony with "the joy of understanding", and the ear is open to a silent music, the harmony of inspiration.

The fourth couplet rests on the Sufi distinction between two joys. "Neş'e-i ûlâ" is the first life, that is, this world; "neş'e-i uhrâ" is the next life, the hereafter. The poet never found the assay of worldly pleasures, to speak in the language of the money-changer the purity of their gold, to be trustworthy, and did not exchange the hereafter for counterfeit money. In the fifth couplet the lower self is likened to a wandering dervish (kalender) who roams with his home on his back, and is put in the prison of patience. The sixth and eighth couplets speak directly of the poet's life. Begging nothing of anyone, spreading the cloak of dignity before no door, shunning the pride of crown and turban, all agree with the portrait of Cûdî drawn by the sources; Ali Canip Yöntem writes that he never asked a favour of anyone in his life, and Cûdî introduced himself as a man who "does not run after fortune". The word "sadr" in the seventh couplet means both "chest" and "office, seat of honour"; not embroidering one's chest "with childish ornaments" can therefore also be understood as not chasing ranks and decorations. This second reading is ours.

The last couplet is the most skilful of the ghazal. "Tebahhur" means to widen like a sea, to grow deep in knowledge; "cûş" means to boil, to surge and overflow. The poet's pen name "Cûdî" also forms a relation of sound and meaning with these words. In the Qur'an, Noah's flood begins with the boiling of the oven, and the ark at last comes to rest on the mountain called al-Cûdî (Hûd 11:40, 11:44). To grow deep as a sea without overflowing, that is, to settle without turning into a flood, takes on a double meaning in the mouth of a poet who bears this name. That the poet intended this relation is our interpretation. The couplet also carries the idea that knowledge must not turn into display, and it completes the dignified solitude the whole ghazal describes.

Historical Context

The occasion on which the ghazal is mentioned is known. In a letter dated 6 June 1339 [1923], written from Yeşilköy to İnal after the death of İnal's brother Ahmed Tevfik Bey, Cûdî says that if he should die first he wishes to be buried beside Sünbül Efendi, whom he considered a fellow townsman because he came from Merzifon, and that if men of letters had the courtesy to set up a stone on his grave he would like this ghazal to be written on it as its inscription. The poem's "seventy-three years" also agrees with this date: the poet, born in November 1850, was in his seventy-third year in the summer of 1923 when he wrote the letter. The wish was not fulfilled. According to Hüsameddin, Cûdî was buried in 1931 in the Karaca Ahmed Cemetery, and the stone set at his head turned out to be one engraved in the name of "İbrâhîm Ağa of Divriği". This ghazal, which sums up his own life and was chosen for his gravestone, has thus survived written not on stone but in the anthologies. For the poet's life see the article Muallim İbrâhim Cûdî of Merzifon.

Bibliography

Online sources