Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fāʿilātün fāʿilātün fāʿilātün fāʿilün

Bezm-i ʿīşim bī-tekellüf ŝaḥn-ı meyḫānem ḫarāb
Bir şikeste sāġar u ecdād-mānde bir şarāb
Ḫāne ber-dūşum sükūnum kūşe-i ḳalbimdedir
Muttaŝıl ʿömrüm sefer-ber, kār u bārım iġtirāb
Menzilim sevḳeʾt-ṭabīʿa himmetim fevḳe’t-ṭıbāʿ
Ben nüzūle ser-fütāde pāy-ı himmetdir rikāb
Naḳd-ı ḥālim bī-temettuʿ yād-ı māżī nā-müfīd
Fikr-i istiḳbāl-i ḫūlyā ḥāŝılım ŝıfreʾl -ḥisāb
Cān nedir, cānān ne maʿnā? ʿaşḳ hangi derd-i ser?
Bir bilen yoḳ ṭoġrusın, vallāhu aʿlem bi’ṣ-ṣavāb
İltifāt sākī-i devrān-ı bahār-ı ḫande-rīz
Devre-i tekrār-ı meclis devr-i cām-ı āfitāb
Şuʿle-i mehtāb-ı sīmīn sāḳ-ı sāḳīden nişān
Şeme-i ezhār-ı ḫoş-bū bir nedīm-i müsteṭāb
Şemʿ-i bezmim her gice āvīze-i ʿaḳdü’n-nücūm
Cāme ḫābımdır çimenler, āb-dānımdır seḥāb
Muṭrib-i dil-keş terānem cūybār bī-ḳarār
Çengi-i meydān-ı cevlān-ı gird-bād pür-şitāb
Her nihāl-i rūḥ-perver elde ḫāme bir edīb
Her varaḳ bir ḳıṭʿa ḥikmet her ŝadā faŝle’l-ḥiṭāb

In English

1. My feast of pleasure is unadorned, the courtyard of my tavern in ruins; one broken cup and a wine handed down from forefathers.

2. I carry my house on my back, my peace lies in a corner of my heart; my life is ever ready for the road, my trade and business is exile.

3. My halting-place is wherever nature drives me, my aspiration is above all natures; I come down to rest with head bowed, but the foot of aspiration is always in the stirrup.

4. The cash of my present state brings no profit, remembering the past is of no use; thinking of the future is a fancy, and my yield in the reckoning is zero.

5. What is the soul, what does the beloved mean, what kind of headache is love? No one knows the truth of it; God knows best what is right.

6. Favour is the cupbearer of the smiling season of spring; the round of the gathering coming again and again is the round of the sun's cup.

7. The radiance of the silver moonlight is a token of the cupbearer's leg; the scent of fragrant flowers is a pleasant companion (nedim).

8. The candle of my gathering every night is a chandelier from the necklace of stars; my bed is the meadows, my water jug the clouds.

9. My heart-catching musician and my song is the restless stream; the dancing girl of the riding field is the hurrying whirlwind.

10. Every soul-nourishing sapling is a man of letters with pen in hand; every leaf a section of wisdom, every sound a decisive word (faslü'l-hitâb).

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Tavern of Nature

This ten-couplet ghazal takes the rind's tavern out of an enclosed space and carries it into open nature. In the first couplet the gathering is unadorned, the tavern in ruins, the cup broken, the wine handed down from forefathers; in the second the poet is a man of exile who carries his house on his back and whose life is spent ever on the road. There is no redif; the weight is carried by the "-âb" rhyme, which begins with harâb and runs through şarâb, iğtirâb, rikâb, hisâb, savâb, âfitâb, müstetâb, sehâb, şitâb and hitâb.

The fourth and fifth couplets state the philosophy of this poor gathering. The cash of the present brings no profit, the past is of no use, the future is a fancy, and the result is "sıfrü'l-hisâb", zero in the reckoning. The questions asked about the soul, the beloved and love receive no answer either: "vallâhu a'lem bi's-savâb", God knows best what is right. The use of this formula, which closes debates in the madrasa, in a ghazal and in the mouth of a rind gives the poem a light irony.

From the sixth couplet on, all the elements of the gathering are gathered from nature. The sun becomes a cup going round, the moonlight the cupbearer's silver leg, the scent of flowers a companion, the stars a chandelier, the meadow a bed, the cloud a water jug, the stream a musician, the whirlwind a dancing girl. The last couplet turns the scene into a book: every sapling is a man of letters holding a pen, every leaf a section of wisdom, every sound a decisive word. Here lies the difference from the divan's other scenes of nature: nature first sets up a gathering and then becomes a text to be read.

Bibliography

  • Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 29-30 (poem no. 18; manuscript fol. 7b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf

Online sources