Cûdî, Ghazal 67: No Refuge but the Heart

Ghazal 67 — Añladım yoḳdur göñülden başḳa bir meʾmen baña

Amasya05 Editorial Board • Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk • 01 October 2026 • Updated: 14 October 2026 • 4 min reading

Cûdî's ghazal that sees the heart as the only refuge: a man who is both refugee and refuge, the weapon of patience, the body as armour, non-being as rest, and a poet who wants no showy grave.

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fāʿilātün fāʿilātün fāʿilātün fāʿilün

Añladım yoḳdur göñülden başḳa bir meʾmen baña
Ẓāhir oldı maʿnī-i ḫayrü'l-biḳāʿ eymen baña

Maḥż-ı lütfuñdur göñül yā Rab ṣıġındım lütfuña
Mültecī vü mültecā olmaḳ ne ḫōşdur ben baña

Ḳahramān rūḥımı bu rezm-gāha sevḳ iden
Şükr kim virmiş silāḥü's-ṣabr-ı ṣaʿb-efgen baña

Çāk ideñ ey ḥādiŝāt işte tenimdir cevşenim
Bir ikinci ḥarb yoḳ lāzım degil cevşen baña

Maḥż-ı raḥatdır ʿadem, āşūb-ı aʿẓamdır vücūd
Ḥamdülillāh, evvel ü āḫir odur mesken baña

Renk alır çeşmim ṣafā-yı neşʾe-i tevḥīdden
Ḥüsn-i sīret gösterir her ṣūreti aḥsen baña

Sırr olup zeynü'ṣ-ṣudūr olduḳ da Cūdī olmasun
Sāfile maḫṣūṣ olan ālāyiş-i medfen baña

In English

1. I have understood that I have no refuge but the heart; the meaning of "the best of places is the safest" has become plain to me.

2. O Lord, the heart is pure grace; I have taken refuge in Your grace; how fine it is to be both refugee and refuge, I to myself.

3. Thanks be (to God) who drove my heroic spirit to this field of battle and gave me the weapon of patience that fells the hardest.

4. O events that tear, here, my body is my coat of mail; there is no second war, I need no coat of mail.

5. Non-being is pure rest, being the greatest tumult; praise be to God, at first and at last that is my dwelling.

6. My eye takes its colour from the serenity of the joy of oneness; good character shows me every form as the most beautiful.

7. Cûdî, once I have become a secret and the ornament of breasts, let me have none of the ornament of the grave that belongs to the base.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The heart is man's only refuge: that is the starting point of this poem of surrender with the refrain "baña", to me. The first couplet names an Arabic saying, "hayru'l-bikâ'", meaning "the best of places is the safest", and says that the poet now understands this saying in his heart. The second couplet builds a fine paradox: the heart is God's grace; the man who takes refuge in that grace becomes both refugee and refuge, that is, he takes refuge in himself.

The third and fourth couplets build an image of war: God has driven the heroic spirit to this field of the world and given it the weapon of patience that fells the hardest; events tear, but the body is already a coat of mail, and since there will be no second war there is no need of other armour. The fifth couplet repeats one of the divan's pessimistic thoughts: non-being is pure rest, being a great tumult. The closing couplet is the poet's wish about his own grave: once he has become a secret and an ornament in hearts, he does not want the showy grave ornament that belongs to the base. The epitaph for his own gravestone in the divan carries the same humility about death and the trace he would leave behind.

Bibliography

Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 124 (poem no. 280; manuscript fol. 82b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf

Online sources