Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefāʿilün feʿilātün mefāʿilün feʿilün
Ne nār u nūrdur esbāb-ı iştiʿāl-i vücūd
Gözümde olmadı rūşen dirīġ ḥāl-i vücūd
Bu kibriyā ki ola māverā-yı ḥadd-i ḫayāl
Ṣıġar mı dāʾire-i ʿaḳla ẕü'l-celāl-i vücūd
Vücūd ider yine māhiyyet-i vücūdı beyān
Ġılāf-ı lafẓdan eblaġdır insilāl-i vücūd
Feżā siyāh ṣaḥāʾif, ʿanāṣır aḥruf nūr
Nuḳūş-ı kevn, birer lafẓ-ı ḥaḳ meʾāl-i vücūd
Ḥudūŝ , ṭarz-ı tecellī-i vech-i pāk-ḳıdem
Vücūd ṣūret-i medlūl-i lā-yezāl-i vücūd
Gerek sürūş-ı muʿaẓẓam, gerek hevām-ı ḥaḳīr
Ḫülāṣa: herbiri bir zübde-i kemāl-i vücūd
Bu hīçlikler içinde ṣuver-peẕīr oluyor
Gehī ḫayāl-i ḥaḳīḳāt, gehī ẓılāl-ı vücūd
Degil degil bu heyūlā-yı hīç şekl-peẕīr
Ne ḥaddidir ki suṭūḥ itsün iştimāl-i vücūd
Suṭūḥ u şekl ü ṣuver serseridir eyleyemez
Ne intisāb-ı vücūd u ne iʿtizāl-i vücūd
Hezār-ı ṣafḥada her ān bī-tecezzīde
Bir öz ki şīvede ẓāhir olur cemāl-i vücūd
Füsūna reng-i ḥaḳīḳat viren menām gibi
ʿAyān, beyān görinür añlaşılmaz āl-i vücūd
Ṣulandı dīde-i dehr āfitāb-ı sermedden
Sevād-ı cünbüş-i mendīlidir leyāl-i vücūd
Ḥayāt, heykel-i kevniñ ẕekā-yı tīzi midir
Vücūdı añlamadan eyler intiḳāl-i vücūd
Cemād ü nābit ü ḥayvān heder midir yā Rab
Eger bu ʿaḳl ise terkīb-i iʿtidāl-i vücūd
Vücūdı bilmek içün ḫalḳ olunmadıḳsa eger
Nedir? Bu ʿaḳl diyenin ʿuḳde-i ʿiḳāl-i vücūd
Çi sūd? Derk-i ḥaḳāyıḳdan ey göñül ola gör
Meẕāḳ-ı ʿacz ile mecrā-yı ibtihāl-i vücūd
In English
1. Neither fire nor light are the causes of the kindling of being; alas, the state of being did not grow clear to my eye.
2. This majesty that lies beyond the bound of imagination: does the Lord of majesty of being fit into the circle of reason?
3. It is being again that explains the essence of being; the drawing of being from its sheath is more eloquent than the sheath of the word.
4. Space is black pages, the elements letters of light; the patterns of creation, each a word of God, are the meaning of being.
5. The contingent is the manner in which the pure, pre-eternal face is manifested; being is the form of what the everlasting being signifies.
6. Be it the mighty angel or the lowly insect, in short each is a quintessence of the perfection of being.
7. Within these nothingnesses there take form now the fancy of realities, now the shadows of being.
8. No, no; this prime matter of nothingness does not receive shape; what right have surfaces to contain being?
9. Surfaces, shape and forms are vagrants; they can neither be affiliated to being nor withdrawn from being.
10. On a thousand pages, every moment, without division, one essence in whose manner the beauty of being appears.
11. Like a dream that lends magic the colour of truth, the incomprehensible mirage of being appears plain (the line is not entirely clear).
12. The eye of time grew moist from the everlasting sun; the nights of being are the darkness of the waving of its handkerchief.
13. Is life the sharp intelligence of the temple of creation? Being passes on without understanding being (the couplet is not entirely clear).
14. O Lord, if reason is a balanced composition of being, are mineral, plant and animal in vain?
15. If we were not created to know being, what is this knot in the tether of being for the one who says "reason"? (the couplet is not entirely clear)
16. What use? O heart, (give up) grasping realities; with the taste of helplessness become the channel of being's supplication (the couplet is not entirely clear).
Literary and Historical Commentary
Cûdî's "Vücûd", being, which may be counted the essence of his philosophical poems, did not escape his contemporaries either. In his recollection quoted by Tok Yıldız, Ali Canip Yöntem tells that Cûdî jealously kept his poems unpublished, but that he found his long poem "Vücûd" in a newspaper published in Istanbul, probably the Resimli Gazete, and learned it by heart; when in 1903-1904 he recited the poem to the poet from memory, a closeness like that of father and son began between them. The second of the three couplets Yöntem quotes differs from the text in the divan. The ghazal asks what being is and returns to this question in every couplet with the refrain "vücûd". The first two couplets draw the limit of reason: the cause of the kindling of being is neither fire nor light; the majesty beyond imagination does not fit into the circle of reason.
The third couplet carries the ghazal's strongest invention: only being can explain the essence of being; being drawn from its sheath is more eloquent than the sheath of the word. The fourth couplet gives the likeness of the universe to a book, frequent in the divan, in its plainest form: space is black pages, the elements letters of light, the patterns of creation each a word of God. The sixth couplet counts every being, from the mighty angel to the lowly insect, a quintessence of perfection.
The second half of the ghazal thickens the language of philosophy: concepts such as prime matter, surface, shape and form are seen as "vagrant" moulds unable to contain being; there is one essence appearing undivided on a thousand pages. The last couplets question the power of reason: if reason is a balanced composition of being, are the lifeless, the plants and the animals in vain? The ghazal closes with the counsel to give up grasping realities and turn, with the taste of helplessness, to supplication. In a few couplets whose sense does not settle as read in the thesis, the translation offers only an approximation.
Bibliography
- Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 119-120 (poem no. 274; manuscript fol. 80b-81a). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf
- Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 6-7 (quotation from Ali Canip Yöntem, "Unutulmuş Şöhretlerden: Muallim Cûdî Efendi"). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf
Online sources
