Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿilün

Yoḳdur endişe-i aġyār göñülden göñüle
Ḳurılur encümen-i yār göñülden göñüle
Ten ü men, ṣavt ü süḫan cümlesi bīgāne ḳalır
Ṣoḥbet-i cān ider aḥrār göñülden göñüle
Aṣfiyā rūḥdur ervāḥa olur mu ḥāʾil
Seyr ider seyr-i ṣafā-vār göñülden göñüle
Nitekim bād-ı ṣabāmız hireden mezhereye
Yayılır nükhet-i esrār göñülden göñüle
yāḫūd Açılır ġonçe-i gülzār seḥerden seḥere
İnkişāf eyler o esrār göñülden göñüle
Görinür levḥa-i āfāḳda puşīde-i liḳā
Gösterir vechini settār göñülden göñüle
Dār-ı dünyāda zuḥūr itse ider dārı medār
Sırr-ı manṣūr-ı pedīdār göñülden göñüle
Devr-i bünyān-ı tecellī-i ilāhīdir hep
ʿAdesāt-ı dil-i ebrār göñülden göñüle
Rāṣīd-ı aʿẓamıñ āyinesine nāzır olur
Ümmet-i Aḥmed-i muḫtār göñülden göñüle
Ufḳ-ı rūḥ-ı mükerremde ṭoġan mihr-i ezel
Döker envārını her bār göñülden göñüle
Küḥl-i "mā-zāġ" ile zāġlandıracaḳ çeşm-i dili
Nigeh-endāz olur ebṣār göñülden göñüle
ʿArş-ı aʿlā-yı tecellāya olurlar mirḳāt
Dizilir sübḥa-veş aḫyār göñülden göñüle
Cūdiyā vaḥy iniyor ṣanki felekden felege
Güzer itdikçe bu güftār göñülden göñüle

In English

1. From heart to heart there is no fear of rivals; the beloved's gathering is set up from heart to heart.

2. Body and self, voice and word, all remain strangers; the free hold the soul's converse from heart to heart.

3. The pure are spirit; can anything bar the spirits? Like a journey of delight they travel from heart to heart.

4. Just as our dawn breeze (blows) from the cave to the flower bed, the scent of secrets spreads from heart to heart. Or: the bud of the rose garden opens from dawn to dawn; those secrets unfold from heart to heart.

5. The hidden face appears on the tablet of the horizons; the Concealer (God) shows His face from heart to heart.

6. If it appears in the house of the world, it makes the gallows its pivot; the manifest secret of Mansûr (passes) from heart to heart.

7. The lenses of the hearts of the righteous are all the turning of the structure of divine manifestation, from heart to heart.

8. The community of Ahmad the Chosen looks into the mirror of the greatest observer from heart to heart.

9. The sun of pre-eternity, rising on the horizon of the honoured spirit, pours its lights each time from heart to heart.

10. To polish the heart's eye with the kohl of "the eye did not swerve", eyes cast glances from heart to heart.

11. They become steps to the high Throne of manifestation; the good are strung like prayer beads from heart to heart.

12. Cûdî, it is as if revelation came down from sphere to sphere as this word passes from heart to heart.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The title is modest, "Ebyât-ı perîşân me'âl", couplets of scattered meaning; yet the ghazal gathers around a single idea: knowledge and love passing from heart to heart. The refrain "gönülden gönüle", from heart to heart, repeats the same road in every couplet and tells of a communication that takes word, voice and body out of the way. It is like a Sufi widening of the popular saying "there is a road from heart to heart".

The ghazal's images are gathered from a wide field. The sixth couplet names al-Hallâj Mansûr: the secret revealed in the house of the world makes the "dâr", the gallows, its pivot; the word "dâr" is played on in its senses of both house and gallows. In the seventh and eighth couplets, however, there is an unexpected scientific image: the hearts of the righteous are seen as "adesât", lenses, and the Prophet's community as a company looking into the mirror of the "râsıd-ı a'zam", the greatest observer. The lens and mirror of the telescope turn into a modern simile for the divine light passed from heart to heart. The tenth couplet rests on the verse of the ascension in the sura al-Najm, "the eye did not swerve, nor did it overstep" (53:17). The second wording given by the copyist for the fourth couplet shows that the poet reworked the couplet.

Bibliography

  • Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 50-51 (poem no. 206; manuscript fol. 55b-56a). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf

Online sources