Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿilün

Ḫoşca terkīb idik encāma irüp ḥal olduḳ
ʿUḳde-i müşkilemiz ḳalmadı münḥal olduḳ
Ḫamr idik ṭurdıġımız küpde ḫurūş eyler idik
Atdı devrān bir avuç ṭoz, ṭurulup ḫal olduḳ
Ḥüsn-i taḳvīm ile bir munṭazam endām aldıḳ
Yaşadıḳ köhneleşüp eñ ṣoñu muḫtel olduḳ
Ḥīn-i ḫilḳatde idik ḥarf-i ṣaḥīḥa maḳrūn
Leff-i eyyām u leyālī ile muʿtel olduḳ
Didiler rūh ḳalıcıdır ki ġılāfı tendir
Atdıḳ ey Cūdi ġılāf teni münsel olduḳ

In English

1. We were a fine compound; reaching the end, we dissolved; no knot of difficulty was left in us, we were untied.

2. We were wine foaming in the jar where we stood; time threw in a handful of dust, we settled and became vinegar.

3. We took a well-ordered form in the finest stature; we lived, wore out and at last fell into disorder.

4. At the moment of creation we were joined to a sound letter; with the folding of days and nights we became a weak letter.

5. They said, "The spirit endures; its sheath is the body"; Cûdî, we threw off the sheath of the body and were drawn.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Terms taken from chemistry, grammar and exegesis tell human life and death in this ghazal, and in each couplet the same rhyme, "-l olduk", we became ..., announces another transformation. The first couplet speaks from chemistry: man is a fine "terkîb", compound, and at the end separates through "hall", dissolution; the same word also expresses the untying of a knot. The second couplet tells of wine in a jar settling with a handful of dust and turning into vinegar; the likeness of sound between "hal", dissolved, and "hal", vinegar, links the two couplets.

The third couplet alludes with the expression "hüsn-i takvîm" to the verse of the sura al-Tîn, "We created man in the finest stature" (95:4), and says that this fine stature wears out and falls into disorder. The fourth couplet is taken from Arabic grammar: in Arabic the "sahîh" letters are sound and the "mu'tel" letters are "ill", weak letters. At creation man is joined to a sound letter, but with the passing of days and nights he becomes weak; the grammatical term joins with the sense of illness. The closing couplet binds the whole ghazal with the image of a sword: the spirit is the sword, the body its sheath; with death the sheath is thrown off and the spirit becomes "münsel", drawn from its sheath. That the poet, a teacher, carried the language of the textbooks into the thought of death is the most original side of the ghazal.

Bibliography

  • Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 62 (poem no. 217; manuscript fol. 60b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf

Online sources