Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fāʿilātün fāʿilātün fāʿilātün fāʿilün

Ḳīl ü ḳāl-i ʿālemiñ hep ʿaz u noḳṣāndır saña
Sevdigim bürhān-ı ḥüsnüñ ḥüsn-i bürhāndır saña
Bī-raḳībim şimdi ben ḳaldım yegāne ʿāşıḳıñ
Görmeyen sevmez seni kim görse ḳurbāndır saña
Hey ne cāzib ḥüsne māliksiñ ki olmuş bī-ḳarār
Āfitāb u māh-i tābān hep şitābāndır saña
Tel tel olmuş nūrlar zülf-i perīşāndır saña
Aṭlas-ı gerdūn muraṣṣaʿ telli ḳaftāndır saña
Şerḥa şerḥa sīneler cedvel göñüller lāle-zār
Dīdeler nüzhet-serā cānlar ḫıyābāndır saña
Sidre, ṭūbā parmaġıñda ser-nigūn bir dal çiçek
ʿÖmr-i cennet bir nefes, bir ḫande bir andır saña
Ṣorma Cūdīye kemāliñde ne cemāliñde ne
Bī-ḫaberdir senden ol günden ki ḥayrānıdır saña

In English

1. All the talk of the world falls short and is lacking before you; my beloved, the proof of your beauty is the beauty of proof itself.

2. I have no rival; now I alone am left as your lover; whoever has not seen you does not love you, whoever sees you is your sacrifice.

3. What an alluring beauty you possess, that the sun and the shining moon have lost their rest and all hasten towards you.

4. The lights spun into threads are your scattered locks; the satin of the heavens is a jewelled, gold-threaded kaftan for you.

5. Breasts slashed into strips are channels in your garden, hearts are tulip beds; eyes are pleasure pavilions, souls are the garden paths you walk.

6. The Sidra and the Tûbâ (trees of Paradise) are a flowering branch held upside down in your finger; the lifetime of Paradise is to you a breath, a smile, a moment.

7. Do not ask Cûdî what your perfection is or what your beauty is; since the day he was amazed by you he has known nothing of you.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Beloved of Truth

The title says from the start whom the ghazal addresses: "Mahbûbe-i Hakîkat", the beloved of truth. In divan poetry it is a familiar ambiguity that the beloved can be read as both human and divine; Cûdî closes this ambiguity with the title and ties all the images of the ghazal to absolute beauty. Across the seven couplets the redif "-dır saña" (is ... to you) turns every image back towards the beloved, with noksân, bürhân, kurbân, şitâbân, kaftân and hıyâbân rhyming on "-ân" before it.

The phrase "bürhân-ı hüsnün hüsn-i bürhân" in the first couplet is an example of reversal built by changing the place of words: the proof of beauty is the beauty of proof. That is, this beauty is not proved by anything else; it is its own evidence. The fourth and fifth couplets turn the universe into the beloved's finery and garden. Lights spun into threads become locks, the satin of the sky a gold-threaded kaftan; wounded breasts become channels, hearts tulip fields, souls garden paths. In this scene even the lover's wound is part of the beloved's garden.

The sixth couplet enlarges the scale: the Sidra and Tûbâ trees of Paradise are as small as a flowering branch held upside down in the beloved's finger, and the lifetime of Paradise is to the beloved a moment of a breath. The closing couplet declares that wonder does away with knowledge. One who is amazed can no longer describe what amazes him; this is why it is useless to ask Cûdî about the beloved's perfection or beauty.

Bibliography

  • Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 21-22 (poem no. 9; manuscript fol. 5a). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf

Online sources