Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fāʿīlātün fāʿilātün fāʿilātün fāʿilün

Elliyi geçdim ḥayātımda ḥalāvet ḳalmadı
Cism ü cān bīnende eski kerem-ülfet ḳalmadı
Bir alay zāʾid nümāyişdir güzeller çeşmime
Cām-ı neşʾemde şarāb-ı şevḳ-i vuṣlat ḳalmadı
Ben ne cāmıñ teşnesiydim ki içer ḳanmaz idim
Bir serāb içdim nihāyet kim ḥarāret ḳalmadı
Ḳuṭb-ı menfī cāẕibe-dār olsa da müŝbit hani?
Ḳuṭb-ı mıḳnāṭīs-ı eḥsāsımda ḳuvvet ḳalmadı
İḫtiyār oldıḳça insān ẓan ider dünyā daḫı
İḫtiyār oldı liḳāsında leṭāfet ḳalmadı
Mihr ü meh toġmakda ḥālāseniyy on dört ḳız gibi
Nice on dörtler ʿacūz oldı ṣabāḥat ḳalmadı
Diger on dörtler göziyle baḳ cihān ḥālā civān
Ey zavallı pīrler siz de o rüʾyet ḳalmadı
Bir zamān mey ṣun amān sāḳī diyen feryādlar
Şimdi mest ü pest olup dir ṣunma ṭāḳat ḳalmadı
Öyle vīrān oldı cismim kim barınmaz anda cān
Naḳle ḳaldı iş, evi taʿmīre ḥācet ḳalmadı
Bir selāmet var ise min-baʿd īmānımdadır
Cūdiyā bir başḳa ümīd-i selāmet ḳalmadı

In English

1. I have passed fifty in my life, no sweetness is left; the old generous friendship between body and soul is left no more.

2. The beauties are a superfluous parade of display to my eye; in the cup of my joy no wine of longing for union is left.

3. What cup was I thirsting for, that I drank and was never slaked? At last I drank a mirage, so that no thirst is left.

4. Even if the negative pole attracts, where is the positive? In the magnetic pole of my senses no force is left.

5. As a man grows old he thinks the world too has grown old, that no grace is left in its face.

6. Sun and moon still rise like girls of fourteen; many a fourteen has become an old crone, no comeliness left.

7. Look with the eyes of other fourteens: the world is still young; poor old men, that vision is left in you no more.

8. Those who once cried out "Mercy, cupbearer, pour the wine!" now, drunk and spent, say "do not pour, no strength is left".

9. My body is so ruined that the soul cannot shelter in it; it has come to moving out; there is no need left to mend the house.

10. If there is any safety from now on, it is in my faith; Cûdî, no other hope of safety is left.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Beginning "I have passed fifty in my life", this is the most open and most personal of the divan's poems on old age; with the refrain "kalmadı", is left no more, it records a loss in every couplet. Sweetness, the old friendship between body and soul, the longing for union, thirst and the force of the senses are counted one by one. The fourth couplet tells this loss with an image from physics: even if the negative pole of a magnet attracts, without the positive pole there is no attraction; in the magnet of the poet's senses no force is left.

Between the fifth and seventh couplets stands the ghazal's finest observation. The man who grows old thinks the world too has grown old; yet sun and moon still rise like girls of fourteen. The number "fourteen" has two senses here: it is a young girl's age and also the fourteenth night, when the moon is full. The world has not changed; what has changed is the eye that looks: seen with the eyes of other fourteens, the world is still young. The ninth couplet likens the body to a ruined house; there is no point in repairing it any more, it has come to moving out. The closing couplet sets a single hope against all the losses: from now on safety lies only in faith.

Bibliography

  • Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 117-118 (poem no. 272; manuscript fol. 80a-80b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf

Online sources