Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fāʿilātün fāʿilātün fāʿilātün fāʿilūn

Āsumāne bir duʾā, bir rūḥ-ı ḳurbānıñ çıḳar
Her ikisi bekler aġzımda ne fermānıñ çıḳar
Çıḳsa cānım ṣanma tenden derd-i hicrānıñ çıḳar
Ḳabr içinde üstüḫᵛān-pāremde sūzānıñ çıḳar
Sīnede dāġım eger teşrīḥ ḳılsa bir ṭabīb
Şübhe yoḳ kim anda pāre pāre peykānıñ çıḳar
Şükr kim cemʿiyyet-i ḫāṭır naṣīb olmaz baña
Belki dilden fikret-i zülf-i perīşānıñ çıḳar
Tīġ urup yoḳlar ser-i şekm ḳaṭresin müjgāndım
Al ile gözden ḫayāl-i vird-i ḫandānıñ çıḳar
Rūz-ı maḥşerde girībānıñdan el çeksem nola
Ey melik şāyed elimden çāk-ı dāmānıñ çıḳar
Saḥn-ı ʿālem ser-te-ser bīmār ḫāneñdir seniñ
Bunda Loḳmānlar daḫī muḥtāc-ı dermañın çıḳar
Āşinālıḳ ʿarż ider ol ġamze Cūdī el-ḥaẕer
Āşinā ẓann itdigiñ bir düşmen-i cānıñ çıḳar

In English

1. A prayer and a soul that is your sacrifice rise to the sky; both wait in my mouth: let us see what command of yours comes forth.

2. Do not think that if my soul leaves the body the pain of separation will leave too; in the grave your burning fire comes forth from the fragments of my bones.

3. Were a physician to dissect the wound in my breast, no doubt your arrowheads would come out of it in pieces.

4. Thank God that composure of heart is not granted me; were it granted, perhaps the thought of your scattered locks would leave my heart.

5. Your lashes strike with the sword and probe the drop of my tears; with bloody tears the image of your laughing rose (your cheek) comes forth from my eye.

6. What if I let go of your collar on the Day of Judgement; O angel, perhaps the tear of your skirt would come out of my hand. (The couplet is not entirely clear.)

7. The courtyard of the world is from end to end your hospital; here even Luqmans turn out to need your remedy.

8. Cûdî, that glance makes a show of acquaintance; beware! The one you think a friend turns out to be a mortal enemy.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A prayer rises to the sky, fire comes from bone in the grave: the pain of love reaching the very depths of the body has been one of Turkish poetry's favourite subjects since Fuzûlî, and here it is worked through the redif (refrain) "-ıñ çıkar", your ... comes forth. After the rhymes kurbân, fermân, hicrân, sûzân, peykân, perîşân, handân, dâmân, dermân and cân, each couplet is built on something "coming forth": arrowheads come from the wound, the image of the rose comes from the eye.

The second and third couplets speak of death and of dissection, the scientific examination of the body. Even if the soul leaves the body, the pain of separation does not go; in the grave the beloved's burning comes out from among the fragments of bone. Were a physician to open the wound in the breast, the heads of the arrows the beloved has shot would come out of it in pieces. The word "teşrîh" (dissection) is the poet's way, writing at a time when medical training was being modernized, of refreshing the old image with a new term.

The reversal in the fourth couplet is striking: the poet gives thanks that his heart is not composed, for if it were, the thought of the scattered locks might leave it. By the seventh couplet the world has become the beloved's hospital, and even Luqman, the emblem of medicine, looks to the beloved for a cure. The last couplet warns against the deceptive familiarity of the glance. The fifth and sixth couplets are murky in the thesis, and the English there only indicates which way the sense leans.

Bibliography

  • Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 32 (poem no. 21; manuscript fol. 8b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf

Online sources