Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿilün

Rūḥı inkār ideniñ cām-ı vücūdındaki nūr
Eylemiş farṭ-ı şuʿāʿıyla iki çeşmini gör
Rūḥı inkār iden Allāhı da inkār eyler
Kendini kendi mi ḫalḳ itmiş o zındıḳ-ı küfür
ʿAyn-ı taḥḳīḳa bedīhī vü muḥaḳḳaḳsıñ sen
Olmasun kimseye Yā Rabbi bedāhet mestūr
Ẓāhir ü bāṭına envārıñ idüp istīlā
Kimine dindi güneş kimisine ḥis ü şuʿūr
Doḳtor ol ṭoġramacı ustaya beñzer ki yapar
Çalmayı bilmedigi ḥalde mükemmel ṭanbūr
Bilmez aʿṣābe bu teʾŝīr ü teʾessür nereden
Ne dimekdir bu ḥayāt anda nedir ḥüzn ü sürūr
Ne bu ecsām-ı ḥayātiyyede āheng-i ṭarab
Ne bu ʿālemdeki tertīb ü niẓām ü destūr
Bir ulūhiyyete ser-māye-i iḳrār olacaḳ
Rütbeden dūn mıdır aʿlām-ı kemāl-i menşūr?
Deyivirmekle "natur yapdı" hemān oldı bu iş
Naturı kimdir iden böyle zebūn u maḳhūr
Bu ṭabīʿat müteʾeŝŝir; ya müʾeŝŝir kimdir
Anı görmez bu ḳaranlıḳda ṭabīʿī maḥṣūr
Doḳtoruñ belledigi, gördigi teşrīḥ-i cüsūm
Rūḥ-ı bī-renk, o güzellikliye olmaz manẓūr
Maddesiz ḳuvveti keşf eyleyemez çeşm-i fünūn
Madde vü ḳuvvet ile mümtezic olduḳça ẓuhūr
"Ḳonsiyans" nāmınasın sen de ṭuyarsıñ bir şey
İkide birde lisānıñda o şeydir meẕkūr
Anı lāyıḳlıca tedḳīḳe iderseñ himmet
Açılır pencereden belki birazcıḳ pancūr!

In English

1. Look at the light in the cup of being of the one who denies the spirit: with the excess of its rays it has (blinded) his two eyes.

2. Whoever denies the spirit denies God too; did that heretic of unbelief create himself?

3. To the eye that seeks the truth You are self-evident and certain; O Lord, let what is self-evident be hidden from no one.

4. When Your lights overran the outward and the inward, some called them "the sun", some "sense and consciousness".

5. The doctor is like a master turner who makes a perfect tambour without knowing how to play it.

6. He does not know where this action and reaction in the nerves comes from; what life means in it, what sorrow and joy are.

7. Neither the harmony of delight in these living bodies, nor the arrangement, order and law in this world,

8. these spread-out signs of perfection, are they lower in rank than to be capital for confessing a divinity?

9. By just saying "Nature made it", is the matter at once settled? Who is it that has made Nature so feeble and subdued?

10. This nature is acted upon; who, then, is the actor? The naturalist imprisoned in this darkness does not see Him.

11. What the doctor learned and saw is the dissection of bodies; the colourless spirit, that beautiful being, is not visible to him.

12. The eye of the sciences cannot discover force without matter, as long as appearance is blended with matter and force.

13. You too feel something by the name of "conscience"; every now and then that thing is spoken of on your tongue.

14. If you set yourself to examine it properly, perhaps a shutter will open a little at the window!

Literary and Historical Commentary

One of the most orderly examples of the divan's critique of materialism bears the title "Hafâ-yı zuhûr", the hiddenness of manifestness. The title expresses a thought often repeated in Sufism: God is hidden because of His excessive manifestness, just as the eye that looks at the sun is dazzled and cannot see. The first couplet applies this thought to the one who denies the spirit: the light in his cup of being is so bright that it has blinded his eyes.

From the fifth couplet the target is clear: the doctor and the naturalist. The doctor is one who dissects the body but does not know the life within it, its sorrow and joy; he is like a turner who makes a perfect tambour but does not know how to play it. The words "natur" in the ninth couplet and "konsiyans" in the thirteenth are the Ottoman Turkish spellings of the French words "nature" and "conscience", taken directly from the scientific debates of the period. The expression "matter and force" in the twelfth couplet recalls the title of Ludwig Büchner's materialist book "Kraft und Stoff" (Force and Matter), which was read among Ottoman intellectuals too at the end of the nineteenth century. The last two couplets call the addressee to his own experience: if he admits that he feels something called conscience, examining it carefully will be like opening a shutter on a closed window.

Bibliography

  • Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 106-107 (poem no. 255; manuscript fol. 76b-77a). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf

Online sources