Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefāʿīlün mefāʿīlün mefāʿīlün mefāʿīlün

Yazar mirʾate ḥüsnün şiʿr-i nev-inşād lāzımsa
Naẓar ḳıl sevdigim mażmūnun istişhād lāzımsa
Riyāż-ı cenneti güllerle, sünbüllerle ʿarż eyler
Baḳup mirʿata gül, seyr-i behişt ābād lāzımsa
īrād oluna geldigine bināʾen şiʿre 'şāhid-i kelām' dinmişdir.Ve eger kelāmdan kelām -ı beşer ḳaṣd
olunursa 'şāhid' maḥbūb maʿnāsına olaraḳ 'ey kelāmıñ maḥbūb ḳısmı' dimek olur.
Cemāliñ pertev-efşān oldıġı yerlerde ġam ḳalmaz
Görün bir kerre, ġamdan göñlimi āzād lāzımsa
Benim ʿaşḳım seniñ ḥüsnüñ ider īżāḥ-ı māhiyyet
Cihānda ḥüsn ü ʿaşḳa bir miŝāl īrād lāzımsa

In English

1. If a newly composed poem is needed, your beauty writes it on the mirror; look, my love, if a witness to its conceit is needed.

2. It shows the gardens of paradise with roses and hyacinths; look in the mirror and smile, if a view of flourishing paradise is needed.

3. Where your face scatters its light no grief remains; show yourself once, if my heart's release from grief is needed.

4. My love explains the essence of your beauty, if an example of beauty and love must be brought forth in the world.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The refrain "lâzımsa", if it is needed, turns this four-couplet ghazal into a chain of conditions; in every couplet the beloved is asked to do or show something. The opening couplet builds a comparison between poetry and mirror: if a new poem is needed, the beloved's beauty writes it on the mirror; if a witness to that poem's conceit is needed, the beloved should look into the mirror. Beauty here is a poem that tells itself.

The second and third couplets open the same mirror onto paradise and consolation: the beloved who looks in the mirror and smiles shows gardens of paradise with roses and hyacinths; where her face scatters light, no grief remains. The fourth couplet, in the place of the closing couplet, tells the mutual bond between love and beauty: the poet's love explains what the beloved's beauty is and is an example that can be brought forth in the world for beauty and love. The first couplet of this ghazal is also written on its own a few pages earlier in the divan; it may be thought that the poet first noted down an opening couplet and later completed the ghazal.

Bibliography

  • Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 115-116 (poem no. 270; manuscript fol. 79b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf

Online sources