Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefāʿilün feʿilātün mefāʿilün feʿilün

Şu māh-ı rūzede rūz oldı mı, sürūş oluruz
Ki ekl ü şürb ü şehiyyāta perde-pūş oluruz
Mülk-i berāʾet-i şehvetle ʿaḳl-ı ṣarf oldı
Biz ekl ü şürbi bıraḳsaḳ berī-i hūş oluruz
İder ẓalām-ı ṭabīʿatle ṭabʿımız ʿavdet
Ḫuluvv-i rūzeyi imlāya pür-ḫurūş oluruz
Ẓuhūr-ı ẓuhr ile başlar hücūma ejder-cūʿ
Tütün belāsı da varsa amān ne ḫōş oluruz
Tefevvühāt-ı ṭufūlāne, ṭavr-ı mestāne
Vehimde sübḥa-be-dest ittiḳā-fürūş oluruz
İkindiden dem-i ifṭara dek hemān ṣıḳ ṣıḳ
Baḳar da sāʿate lā-ḥavle dir ḫamūş oluruz
Baḳıñ ne mertebe aç gözlüyüz ki hem-çü ẕübāb
Ne görse gözlerimiz iştihā be-dūş oluruz
Cenāb-ı baḳlavadan al da turşısına ḳadar
Niyāza baş keseriz, ḫulḳa-bend-gūş oluruz
Gözüñ naṣībesidir zeyn-i sofra-i ifṭār
Degil mi miʿdeye kāfī ki çorba-nūş oluruz
Yeri çemenle, gögi necm ile Ḫudā Cūdī
Donatdı, çünki bilir māʾil-i nuḳūş oluruz

In English

1. In this month of fasting, when day comes, we become angels; for we draw a veil over eating, drinking and desires.

2. Reason has been spent on the realm of freedom from appetite (the line is not entirely clear); if we give up eating and drinking we lose our wits.

3. Our nature returns to the darkness of nature; we roar to fill the emptiness of the fast.

4. When noon appears, the dragon of hunger begins its attack; and if there is the curse of tobacco too, mercy, how pleasant we become!

5. Childish talk, a drunken manner; in our fancy, rosary in hand, we become sellers of piety.

6. From the afternoon prayer until the time of iftar we keep looking at the clock, say "lâ havle" and fall silent.

7. See how greedy-eyed we are: like flies, whatever our eyes see, we shoulder the appetite for it.

8. From His Excellency the baklava down to its pickle, we bow our heads in supplication and become slaves with rings in our ears.

9. The ornament of the iftar table is the eye's share; is it not enough for the stomach that we drink soup?

10. Cûdî, God adorned the earth with meadow and the sky with stars, for He knows we are inclined to ornaments.

Literary and Historical Commentary

An ironic mirror is set against the children's Ramadan: "Ramazân-ı ricâl", the men's Ramadan. While the children live Ramadan with the joy of a feast, grown men fall into a comic state while fasting. The first couplet opens with a claim: since we give up eating and drinking by day, we become angels. But the couplets that follow undo this claim step by step: hungry reason is lost, nature returns to its darkness, we roar to fill the emptiness of the fast.

From the fourth couplet the picture takes on the sharpness of satire: at noon the dragon of hunger attacks, and for the smokers things are worse still; rosary in hand, a manner of selling piety is put on; from the afternoon prayer until iftar the clock is checked again and again and "lâ havle" is murmured. The expression "His Excellency the baklava" in the eighth couplet playfully exalts the star of the iftar table, welcomed with reverence; the faster bows like a slave with a ring in his ear to everything from baklava to pickle. A forgiving thought closes the ghazal: God adorned the earth with meadow and the sky with stars, for He knows that man inclines to ornament; the ornament of the iftar table is part of that inclination too. The poet counts himself within this "we" and turns the criticism into laughing at oneself.

Bibliography

  • Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 101 (poem no. 248; manuscript fol. 74b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf

Online sources