Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fāʿilātün fāʿilātün fāʿilātün fāʿilün

Gösterüp cevlān dil-ḫᵛāhımca bir hāldin baña
ʿAşḳdan virmiş ḳażā āḥkāmı bir ḳānūn baña
ʿAşḳdır destimde zāhid başlı düstūrüʾl-ʿamel
Med pāyı olmaz ḥudūd Allāhdan bīrūn baña
Bir maḳāma ḫaŝdır ẓann itmeyiñ āhengimi
Öndedir ḳānūn-ı ʿaşḳ āhenk gūnā-gūn baña
Muġni-i rūḥum beyān ister ḥurūf-ı cismile
İḳtiżā itmiş bu şekli bendeki mażmūn baña
Māʾilim billāh şu dolābıñ şu ḫoş āhengine
Gerçi çoḳ gösterdi devrān devr-i nā-mevzūn baña
Bildiñiz efsāne-i devrāndan ey ḫūbān ḫoşum
Eyleyiñ Allāh içün sizler de bir efsūn baña
Ḳalmadı ḫaṭırda cemʿiyyet, perīşān söylerim
Zülf-i şeb-gūn oldı bir sevdā-yı rūz-efzūn baña
Ben miyim cānān mıdır Cūdī sezā-yı merḥamet
Yaḳdı cānānım niçün yā Rabb bu gün maḥzūn baña

In English

1. (The sphere) moving as my heart desired, fate has given me the rulings of love as a kanun (both a law and the zither of that name). (The word at the end of the first line is unclear as read in the thesis.)

2. O ascetic, the chief rule of conduct in my hand is love; there is no limit for me outside God. (The opening of the second line is not entirely clear.)

3. Do not suppose my melody belongs to a single makam; before me lies the kanun of love, and it gives me harmonies of every kind.

4. The singer of my soul wants to express (its song) with the letters of the body; the meaning in me has required this form of me.

5. By God, my heart inclines to the pleasing harmony of this wheel (the sphere); though time has shown me many a turn out of measure (a rhythm without its proper usul).

6. O fair ones, you know that I delight in the tale of time; for God's sake, you too cast a spell on me.

7. No composure is left in my mind, I speak in disarray; the night-dark lock has become for me a passion that grows day by day.

8. Cûdî, is it I or the beloved who deserves mercy? O Lord, why did my beloved feel such sorrow for me today?

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Kanun of Love

The key word of the ghazal is "kânûn", and it works in both its senses: law, and the stringed zither of Turkish music. In the first couplet fate places this kanun in the lover's hands; in the second love becomes a "düstûrü'l-amel", a rule of conduct, declared against the ascetic; in the third the same kanun, as if set before a player, brings forth harmonies of every kind. The word also heads the rhyme series; bîrûn, gûnâ-gûn, mazmûn, nâ-mevzûn, efsûn, rûz-efzûn and mahzûn follow it on "-ûn" before the redif (refrain) "baña", to me.

Musical terms spread through the whole poem. Besides makam (mode), ahenk (harmony) and mugannî (singer), "devr" and "nâ-mevzûn" in the fifth couplet are also read two ways: devr is both the turning of the sphere and the usul (rhythmic cycle) in music; nâ-mevzûn means out of measure. The poet says he still gives his heart to the harmony of the sphere's wheel, but that time has often shown him a turn without measure, a limping cycle. The fourth couplet is a remark on the writing of poetry itself: the song of the soul can only be sung with the letters of the body, that is, meaning asks for a form.

In the last two couplets the poem returns to the familiar ghazal scene: scattered locks, scattered speech and a passion that grows day by day. The closing question goes in an unexpected direction; it asks whether the lover or the beloved deserves mercy, for this time the beloved, in a sorrowful mood, has pitied the lover. One word in each of the first two couplets stays unresolved in the thesis, and the English there rests on a guess.

Bibliography

  • Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 27-28 (poem no. 16; manuscript fol. 6b-7a). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf

Online sources