Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefāʿīlün mefāʿīlün mefāʿīlün mefāʿīlün

Tevāżuʿ ḳāmetin ḳavs itmeyen ʿāli-maḳām olmaz
Mehī seyr et hilāl olmazdan evvel bedr tām olmaz
Kirām-ı enbiyānıñ ṭıynetī ḫāk-i edebdendir
Muḳīm-i sidre Cibrīl olsa da faḥrü’l-enām olmaz
Ṭoġar feyż-i ledünnī meşrıḳ-ı nefs-i müʾeddibden
Senā-yı berḳ-i Sīnā-perde bāzūce-kām olmaz
Dem-i evvelde ol kāmil kim olmuş kāmile’n-neşʾe
Ṣafā-yı neşʾesi muḥtāc-ı taʿmīr-i müdām olmaz
Hezārān perde-i tezvīri bir cünbīşde çāk eyler
Ḥaḳīḳat öyle bir şemşīredir kim der-niyām olmaz
Ṣarīr-i ḫāme-i ḳudsiyle hem-āhengdir naẓmım
Nevāyiler benim bezmimde ḫᵛānende ġulām olmaz

In English

1. No one reaches high rank who does not bend his stature like a bow in humility; watch the moon: before it is a crescent it cannot become full.

2. The clay of the noble prophets is from the earth of good manners; though Gabriel dwells at the Sidra, he cannot be the pride of mankind (the Prophet).

3. Divine (ledünnî) bounty rises in the east of a self trained in good manners; the gleam of the lightning behind the veil of Sinai is not granted to one who seeks only play.

4. The perfect man who was perfect at the first moment of his creation does not need the joy of his delight to be constantly repaired.

5. Truth tears a thousand veils of deceit in a single stroke; it is such a sword that it never goes into its sheath.

6. My verse is in harmony with the scratching of the holy pen; even Nevâyîs could not be singing slaves in my gathering.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Humility and good manners are the condition of exaltation in this six-couplet moral ghazal, which nonetheless ends in an unexpected boast. The comparison in the first couplet is the ghazal's most memorable place: before becoming full the moon bends as a thin crescent; so man cannot reach high rank without bending his stature like a bow in humility. Bending is the precondition of rising.

The second couplet carries the same thought to the prophets. The clay of the prophets is from the earth of good manners; though Gabriel sits at the Sidra, the highest station, he cannot reach the rank of the Prophet, because the Prophet was created from earth, that is, from humility. The third couplet says that divine knowledge rises in a self trained in good manners, and separates the manifestation at Sinai, the lightning seen by Moses, from those who seek only play. Truth, in the fifth couplet, is a sword that never goes into its sheath; it tears a thousand veils of deceit in a single stroke.

The last couplet seems to contradict the humility the ghazal has praised from the start: the poet's verse is in harmony with the scratching of the holy pen, and Nevâyîs could not even be singing slaves in his gathering. Using the name of Ali Şîr Nevâyî, the great master of Chagatai poetry, in the plural turns it into the name of a type. This boast (fahriye) fits the divan tradition of the poet's self-praise; coming after a lesson in humility, it gives the poem a light irony.

Bibliography

  • Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 39-40 (poem no. 29; manuscript fol. 10b-11a). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf

Online sources