Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefāʿilün mefāʿilün mefāʿilün mefāʿilün
Alır ḫayāle geçmişi baḳar da ḥāle aġlarım:
Ölen kemāle aġlarım ṭoġan zevāle aġlarım
Bizim yeri ṣorarsañız ġarīb girye menbʿaı:
Ṣuyı, havāyı, ṭopraġı, ider ki nāle aġlarım
Bu ḫāke ḫūn-ı pākını revān iden şehīdler:
Ṣu istiyor ki eşkimi ider isāle aġlarım
Ey ibtidāsı gördigim hilāl ebü’l-bedūr idi
Gülerdi, şendi, ey ṣoñı sönük hilāle aġlarım
Cihān güler ḥūżur içinde bī-ḫaber çocuḳ gibi
Ben āh u vāh idüp hemān ṭalar melāle aġlarım
Cihān ḥūżur içinde mi cihān degil, mihāndır o
Mihān ki şimdi dirler ehl-i ibtiẕāle, aġlarım
Var ey kūh-ı ḳāfa düşmüşüm ki dīv içindeyim
İçimden ilticā ider de Ẕü’l-celāle aġlarım
Bir āşinā döker de aġlar āşināya derdini:
Baña yoḳ āşinā-yı dil şu dest-māle aġlarım
Ben aġlamam çocuḳ gibi ḳadın gibi ʿabeŝ yire
Bu giryeler ki eylerim sezā ricāle, aġlarım
Ḳışın açıḳda ṭaġ başında çıblaḳ aç silaḥ-bedest
Edā-yı nevbet eyleyen nefer Bilāle aġlarım
ʿAceb bu yıl gelir mi anne ʿaskere giden babam
Diyüp analar aġladan o nev-nihāle aġlarım
Cevābı hep sükūtdur ümīde yeʾs-i laṭme-zen
İçimde aç yatan suʾāle yoḳ nevāle aġlarım
Rehīn-i ẕillet olması revā mı ṣunʿ-ı ḳudretiñ
Ḳarīn-i ġarr-ı ʿiffet olmayan cemāle aġlarım
Şu yaylalar güzel ḳoyunlarıñ çerā-gehi iken
Ḳalırsa dübbe, ḳurda, tilkiye çaḳala aġlarım
Çocuḳları ṣavup başından eñ güzel cevārīş
Bir iki dānesiyle ṣoḥbet eyleyin ḫanım gibi
Semā-yı ṣāf içinde māhı ṣarsa hāle aġlarım
In English
1. I bring the past to mind, look at the present and weep: I weep for the perfection that has died, I weep for the decline that is born.
2. If you ask about our land, it is a strange spring of weeping; its water, its air, its soil moan, and I weep.
3. The martyrs who poured their pure blood on this soil ask for water; I shed my tears, I weep.
4. O crescent whose beginning I saw, you were the father of full moons; it laughed, it was gay; I weep for the crescent whose end is dim.
5. The world laughs at ease like a child that knows nothing; I sigh and groan, sink at once into grief and weep.
6. Is the world at ease? It is not a world but a place of abasement; now base people call it "mihân", and I weep. (The sense of the line is not entirely clear.)
7. Go on, (O heart); it is as if I had fallen onto Mount Qâf and were among demons; from within I take refuge in the Lord of Majesty and weep.
8. An acquaintance pours out his trouble to an acquaintance and weeps; I have no acquaintance of the heart, I weep into this handkerchief.
9. I do not weep for nothing like a child or a woman; these weepings of mine befit men; I weep.
10. I weep for the soldier named Bilâl who in winter stands guard in the open on a mountain top, naked, hungry, rifle in hand.
11. I weep for that sapling who makes mothers weep, saying "Mother, will my father who went to the army come back this year?"
12. Its answer is always silence; despair slaps hope; I weep for that question lying hungry within me, with nothing to eat.
13. Is it right that the work of God's power (man) should be held in pawn to abasement? I weep for beauty that is not joined to the brightness of chastity.
14. These uplands, which were the pasture of fine sheep, if they are left to the bear, the wolf, the fox and the jackal, I weep.
15. Driving away the children, the loveliest slave girls... Converse with one or two like a lady... If a halo wraps the moon in a clear sky, I weep. (In the thesis this unit is given as three lines; the order and connection of the lines are unclear.)
Literary and Historical Commentary
The Lament of a War Year
A lament built on the refrain "ağlarım", I weep, "Kendi Kendime" (To Myself) is among the divan's texts that bear the most historical traces. The poet brings the past to mind, looks at the present and weeps: for the perfection that has died, for the decline that is born. The crescent in the fourth couplet is a crescent that at its beginning was "the father of full moons", laughing and gay; its end is dim. The fading of the crescent, which was also the emblem of the Ottoman flag, suggests that the couplet mourns the decline of a state; the poem does not say so openly.
The tenth, eleventh and twelfth couplets give scenes of a war year. The soldier Bilâl, standing guard in winter on a mountain top, naked, hungry and rifle in hand; the child asking "Mother, will my father who went to the army come back this year?"; the question whose answer is always silence and which lies hungry within. The martyrs of the third couplet too have poured their blood on this soil. The date of the poem is unknown, but these details bring to mind the years of the Balkan Wars or the First World War; Cûdî's kaside "Harb-i Umûmî", dated 1915, tells the same pain in another language. In the fourteenth couplet the uplands that were the pasture of fine sheep being left to the bear, the wolf, the fox and the jackal can be read as an allegory of lost lands.
The eighth couplet is the poem's most personal place: people pour out their trouble to an acquaintance and weep, but the poet has no acquaintance of the heart and weeps into his handkerchief. The ninth couplet insists that these tears are no idle weeping; they are a mourning "that befits men". The final unit, given in the thesis as three lines, stays dark, since no link between its lines can be established.
Bibliography
- Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 86-87 (poem no. 61; manuscript fol. 29a-29b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf
Online sources
