Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿilün

Uzanır gizlice minḳārı bahārıñ femine
Ṣulanır bülbül-i şūrīde gülüñ şebnemine
Gülleriñ ḫande-i ḫāmūşını taṣvīt eyler
Bülbülüñ ʿāʾid olur feyż-i demi gül demine
Bir teṣādüfdür a bülbül bu ḥayātıñ ẕevḳi
Güẕeriñ düşdi dikenlikde ṣafā ʿālemine
Şāne-i bād-ı nesīm açdı gülüñ ʿuḳdesini
Sünbülüñ degmedi merġūle-nümā perçemine
Cūdiyā bir gülüñ üftādesiyim gülse eger
Ġoncalar hep ḳasem eyler o gülüñ mebsemine

In English

1. Spring's beak reaches secretly to the (rose's) mouth; the frenzied nightingale drinks its fill of the rose's dew.

2. He gives voice to the silent laughter of the roses; the grace of the nightingale's breath returns to the rose's breath.

3. Ah, nightingale, the pleasure of this life is a chance; your way fell, in the thorn bed, into a world of delight.

4. The comb of the dawn breeze opened the rose's knot; it did not touch the curling forelock of the hyacinth.

5. Cûdî, I am fallen for a rose, if only she would laugh; the buds all swear by that rose's smile.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The familiar love story of the nightingale and the rose is retold in this short ghazal through the small details of a spring morning. In the opening couplet spring, like a bird, stretches its beak to the rose's mouth; the nightingale drinks its fill of the rose's dew. In the second the nightingale turns the rose's silent laughter into sound: the rose opens in silence, the nightingale sings on its behalf, and its breath returns again to the rose. This reciprocity turns the nightingale's love, often told one-sidedly in divan poetry, into a two-sided exchange.

The third couplet adds a light philosophy: the pleasure of life is a chance; the nightingale, losing its way in the thorn bed, has fallen into a world of delight. In the fourth couplet the dawn breeze opens the rose's bud like a comb but does not touch the curls of the hyacinth; the breeze opens only what is to open. The closing couplet makes the poet too one fallen for a rose and says that the buds swear by that rose's smile. In the thesis the second and third couplets are set together; here they are given as separate couplets.

Bibliography

  • Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 85-86 (poem no. 236; manuscript fol. 69a). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf

Online sources