Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefāʿilün feʿilātün mefāʿilün feʿilün
Henüz elif dimeden ḫilḳatim kitābından
Göñül ṣorar bu kitābıñ ṣonuncu bābından
Evet şu ẕerreyi sormaḳda ḥaḳlıdır göñlüm
Suʿāl iderse muḥiḳḳdir hem āfitābından
Bu mübtedīyi gözetmez şu ḫvāce-i devrān
Esef o sürʿat-i engüşt-i inḳılābından
Ne feraḳı şu ḥayātıñ hemīşe gevrāna
Deñizde çöbciñiziñ ḥāl-i pīç-tābından
ʿAdem sükūna çekilmiş vücūd-ı pür-ḫalecān
Ḫitāb-ı ʿizzetiñ īcāb-ı ıżṭırābından
Cemād cān bulur elḥān-ı nā-şinīdenden
Ḥayāt dem çeker āheng-i müsteṭābından
Ḫam-ı vücūd henüz ihtizār-peymādır
O ġunneden ki gelir "Kāf u nūn" ḫiṭābından
Birer icābet-i "Lebbeyk"dir bu velehler
Mücīb yek-digerin ezmede şitābından
Zemīne düşdi ḥaḳīḳat semāya ṣaḳlandı
Türāb-ı ādemiñ idrāka intisābından
Hezār-ı ṣubḥ açılır cünbüş-i niḳābından
Zülāl-i cān ṣaçılır mevce-i serābından
Kitāb-ı kāmil-i"Lā raybe fīh" dir bu şühūd
Egerçi añlamaz īmān iden ġıyābından
Degil mi nefsine maḥmūl-ı ʿayn-ı mevżūʿāt
Ne ġam meyānede bir nisbet iḥticābından
Meʾāl-i mesʾele ŝābit, suʾāl zāʾiddir
Sükūt şekline girmiş ṭuran cevābından
Bu iʿtilā nedir ey ṭabʿ sen de secdeler it
Ḳurur o sebz ki baş ḳaldırır türābından
In English
1. Before even saying "alif" from the book of my creation, the heart asks about the last chapter of this book.
2. Yes, my heart is right to ask about this mote; if it asks about its sun, it is right as well.
3. This master of time does not look after this beginner; alas for the speed of its finger of revolution (the couplet is not entirely clear).
4. What is the difference between this life and a turning whirlpool? Like the twisting state of your stick in the sea (the couplet is not entirely clear).
5. Being, full of tremors, has withdrawn into the stillness of non-being, from the agitation the address of glory requires (the couplet is not entirely clear).
6. The lifeless finds life from unheard melodies; life draws breath from its pleasing harmony.
7. The bend of being is still in its death throes from that nasal sound which comes from the address of "Kâf and Nûn".
8. These bewilderments are each an answer of "Here I am"; those answering crush one another in their haste.
9. Because of the bond of Adam's clay with understanding, truth fell to the earth and hid in the sky.
10. A thousand dawns open from the waving of its veil; the sweet water of life is scattered from the wave of its mirage.
11. This visible world is the perfect book of which it is said "no doubt is in it", though the one who believes in the unseen does not understand it.
12. Is not each subject the predicate of itself? What grief in a relation being veiled in between? (the couplet is not entirely clear)
13. The sense of the question is fixed, the question superfluous; (this is clear) from its answer, which stands in the shape of silence.
14. O nature, what is this pride? You too prostrate yourself; the green that raises its head from its soil dries up.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Reading creation as a book, this ghazal carries on the thought of "Vücûd". The first couplet turns the book image into a picture of impatience: the heart asks about the last chapter of the book of creation before it has even said "alif", its first letter. Man wants to learn the secret of being at once; he is right to ask both about the mote and about the sun.
The strongest image in the middle of the ghazal is in the seventh couplet: God's command "Be!", in Arabic "kun", is made of the letters "kâf" and "nûn"; the nasal sound of the letter nûn, the "ghunna", is for the poet a sound that still echoes, and the bend of being trembles as if in its death throes under the effect of that sound. The eighth couplet sees the wonders of being as so many answers of "Here I am" given to that command. The eleventh couplet applies the verse at the beginning of the sura al-Baqara, "That is the book, no doubt is in it" (2:2), to the visible world: the universe too is a book admitting no doubt.
The twelfth and thirteenth couplets pass into the language of logic: the relation between subject and predicate, the superfluity of the question, and the answer in the shape of silence. The last couplet addresses nature with a counsel: it should leave its pride and prostrate itself, for the green that raises its head from its soil dries up. The sense of a few couplets is unclear, and their renderings should not be taken as certain.
Bibliography
- Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 120-121 (poem no. 275; manuscript fol. 81a-81b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf
Online sources
