Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿilün

Bu ḥadiŝden bu ḥavādiŝden o dem pāk oluruz
Ki nāmaz ehli teyemmüm idecek ḫāk oluruz
Ṣāġ iken böyle tecāvüz ideriz ḥaddimizi
Mefsedet ḫamrına engūr viren tāk oluruz
Yeriñ üstünde iken añlamayız hiç merām
Yeriñ altında meger ḥāʾiz-i idrāk oluruz
İstemeyiz ʿāḳıbet “ŝümme radednā” yı ḫayāl
Oḳuyup aḥsen-i taḳvīmi feraḥ-nāk oluruz
Nevʿimiz nevʿ-i mükerrem diyerek faḫr ideriz
Almayız ḳāle ki seffāḥı ya seffāk oluruz
Ṭaleb-i ḫayrda ġāyetle yavaş ṭavranırız
Şedd-i taʾkībide şāhin gibi çālāk oluruz
Nāḫun-ı ḥıḳd ile çok dāġ-ı derūn ṭırmalarız
Sīneden mehdi ḳazup atmada ḥakkāk oluruz
Ḥasedi kibri digerlerde görünce ḳızarız
Nefsimiz tezkiyede hem-dem emlāk oluruz
Menfaʿat baḥŝine geldikde tereddüd yoḳdur
Digeriñ ḥaḳḳını teslīmde şegāl oluruz

In English

1. From this ritual impurity (hades) and these events (havâdis) we are cleansed only when we become the earth with which the people of prayer will perform their dry ablution.

2. While alive we thus overstep our bounds; we become the vine that gives grapes to the wine of corruption.

3. While above the ground we never understand the purpose; it seems we gain perception only beneath the ground.

4. We do not care to imagine our end, the verse "Then We reduced him to the lowest of the low"; we read "the best of forms" and grow cheerful.

5. We boast, saying "our kind is an honoured kind"; we do not reckon that we are fools or shedders of blood.

6. In seeking good we move very slowly; in pursuing (evil) we become as swift as a falcon.

7. With the nail of malice we scratch at many an inner wound; in scraping love out of the breast we become skilled engravers.

8. We grow angry when we see envy and pride in others; in clearing our own selves we count ourselves one with the angels. (The reading of the rhyme word is doubtful.)

9. When it comes to profit there is no hesitation; in granting others their due we become doubters (şükkâk). (The word read "şegāl" in the thesis must, by the rhyme, be "şükkâk".)

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Satire Spoken as "We"

The title sets out the ghazal's purpose like a scientific essay: "Mâhiyet-i Beşeriyyeyi Müşerrih", the ghazal that dissects, cuts open, the essence of man. Cûdî applies this dissection not to others but to "us"; the redif (refrain) "oluruz", we become, takes on all the poem's faults in the first person plural. We overstep our bounds, become the vine that gives grapes to corruption, move slowly towards good and run swift as a falcon towards evil. This language frees the moral lesson from the tone of a sermon and turns it into a confession.

The first couplet opens with paronomasia: "hades", ritual impurity, and "havâdis", events, come from the same root. Man will be cleansed of these stains only after death, when he becomes the earth with which someone about to pray performs the dry ablution. The third couplet continues the same reversal: above the ground we do not understand, we gain perception only beneath it. The fourth couplet sets two verses of the sura al-Tîn against each other. Man reads that he was created in "ahsen-i takvîm", the best of forms, and rejoices; he does not care to think of the verse that follows at once, "sümme radednâhu", then We reduced him to the lowest of the low. In the fifth couplet, too, people boast of the verse in the sura al-Isrâ' "We have honoured the children of Adam" and forget that man sheds blood.

The last three couplets list malice, envy and self-interest. People grow angry at pride seen in others while counting their own selves one with the angels; when profit is at stake there is no hesitation, while doubt begins when it comes to giving others their due. The thesis reading "şegāl" in the ninth couplet does not fit the rhyme; the "-âk" rhyme requires this word to be "şükkâk" (doubters).

Bibliography

  • Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 40-41 (poem no. 30; manuscript fol. 11a). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf

Online sources