Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿilün
Seniñ ey şiʿr-ter elḥānıñı biñ gülfem öper
Leb-i maʿṣūm şeker-ḫandı bütün ʿālem öper
Jāleden ṣāfsıñ öp laʿl-i siḥir-ḫandeleri
Dehen-i ġonçayı elbette dür-i şebnem öper
Baña ʿāʾiddir o gül-būseler āġūşuñda
Anları sen, seni de ḫāme-i muʿciz-dem öper
ʿAraḳ-ālūde dudaḳlarla temās itseñ de
Pāk aġızlarda daḫı şāʿibe-i zemzem öper
Ḥüsn-i tesḫīrde bir mühr-i Süleymān gibisiñ
Seni perīler oḳur ṭut ki per-i ḫātem öper
Ḥacle-i bikr-i meʿānīye degildir maḥrem
Keyd-i ebnā-yı zamān duḫter-i nā-maḥrem öper
Cūdiyā sāġar-ı serşār-ı ṣafādır naẓmım
Ḥayret ol rinde ki meyḫānede cām-ı cem öper
In English
1. O fresh poetry, a thousand rose-mouthed ones kiss your melodies; your innocent lip laughs like sugar, and the whole world kisses it.
2. You are purer than dew; kiss the ruby lips with their magic laughter; surely the pearl of dew kisses the mouth of the bud.
3. Those rose kisses in your embrace belong to me; you kiss them, and the pen with miraculous breath kisses you.
4. Even if you touch with lips smeared with sweat or arrack, even in pure mouths the taint of Zemzem kisses (the couplet is not entirely clear).
5. In conquering hearts you are like Solomon's seal; suppose the fairies read you and the wing of the signet ring kisses you.
6. The trickery of the sons of the age is no intimate of the bridal chamber of virgin meanings; it kisses a girl who is no kin.
7. Cûdî, my verse is a brimming cup of delight; one wonders at that rind who kisses the cup of Cem in the tavern.
Literary and Historical Commentary
The addressee of this ghazal seems to be poetry itself: the address beginning "Ey şi'r-ter", O fresh poetry, continues throughout the ghazal as if speaking to a beloved. The refrain "öper", kisses, puts a kiss on stage in every couplet: the rose-mouthed kiss poetry's melodies, the dew kisses the bud's mouth, the pen with miraculous breath kisses the poem. The third couplet ties this chain to the poet himself: the rose kisses in the poem's embrace belong to him, for the pen that writes the poem is his.
The fifth couplet likens poetry to Solomon's seal: according to legend the fairies and jinn bowed to this seal; poetry too rules over hearts with the same power. The sixth couplet uses again the term "ebkâr-ı meânî", virgin meanings: the poets of the age cannot enter the bridal chamber of these meanings; they can only kiss "girls who are no kin", that is, the meanings of others. This is a jibe at imitating and plagiarizing poets. The closing couplet counts the poet's own verse a brimming cup of delight and wonders at the rind who kisses the cup of Cem in the tavern: with such poetry in hand there is no need for another cup.
Bibliography
- Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 109 (poem no. 257; manuscript fol. 77b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf
Online sources
