Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefʿūlü fāʿilātü mefāʿīlü fāʿilün

Ḫāricde ṣanma levḥ-i derūnumdadır ṣafā
ʿAḳlıñ ḫilāfı zevḳ-i cünūnumdadır ṣafā
Çeşmim iʿāre eyledigi bir laṭīfedir
Manẓarda yoḳ nigāh-ı füsūnumdadır ṣafā
Bir ẕirve-i bülende ḳadar yükselir göñül
Fevḳu'l-ḫayāl, o ẕevḳ ile dönmededir ṣafā
Her cünbüşi ḥayātıñ olur laṭme-i ḥużūr
Baʿde'l-memāt belki sükūnumdadır ṣafā
Cūdī şarāb-ı bezm-i meẓāhir serābdır
Söyler ẓuhūr, kūb-ı kümūnumdadır ṣafā

In English

1. Do not think it is outside; delight is on the tablet of my inner self; contrary to reason, delight is in the pleasure of my madness.

2. It is a subtlety that my eye lends; it is not in the view; delight is in my enchanted gaze.

3. The heart rises as high as a lofty summit; above fancy, delight goes round with that pleasure.

4. Every stirring of life becomes a slap to peace; perhaps delight is in my stillness after death.

5. Cûdî, the wine of the gathering of appearances is a mirage; manifestation says: delight is in the jug of my hiddenness.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Asked where delight, that is, inner peace and joy, is to be found, this short reflective poem gives the same answer in every couplet: within. Delight is not in the outer world but on the tablet of the heart; not in the view but in the magic of the eye that looks. The eye lends the view its beauty; the same view may look ordinary to another eye. The expression "contrary to reason, in the pleasure of my madness" in the first couplet agrees with the divan's other couplets that prefer Mecnûn to reason.

The fourth couplet reaches a darker conclusion: every stirring of life is a slap to peace; perhaps true delight lies in the stillness after death. The closing couplet ties in with the idea of unity: the wine of the gathering of appearances is a mirage; manifestation itself, what is visible, says that delight is kept in the jug of its own hiddenness. This contrast between kümûn, hiddenness, and zuhûr, manifestness, is close to the thought of the divan's ghazal "Hafâ-yı Zuhûr".

Bibliography

  • Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 112 (poem no. 264; manuscript fol. 78b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf

Online sources