Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Gül açılmayınca açılmaz dihanın ey bülbül.
Bedi'siz olamaz mı beyanın ey bülbül?
Güler cinan kızıdır ağzı var fakat dili yok
Lüzumu var güle bir tercümanın ey bülbül.
Tuyur içinde bedayı şinas olan sensin
Bahara dair olu dasitanın ey bülbül.
Küçük vücut ile alemde pek büyük
Hezarıdır anılır namı şanın ey bülbül.
(Bilâl) a benziyor avazı leyli bi darın
Seherden evvel okursun ezanı ey bülbül.
Gülün revayıhı (Attarı) andırırki okur
Çemende mantı tayrı zebanın ey bülbül.
Figan mı, şevkı terennüm mi kimseler bilmez
Lisanı gaybe müşabih lisanın ey bülbül.
Senin de nağmelerin bir akkıyde sazı mıdır
Hayale beste midir tarı kemanın ey bülbül.
Gülün hayatı kadardır devamı şevkı dilin
Geçer sükût ile pek çok zemanın ey bülbül.
Cihanda buyi vefa umud bulmadı Cudi
Gülün de var mı gülistaniyanın ey bülbül.

In English

1. Until the rose opens your mouth does not open, O nightingale; can your speech not be without the art of beauty, O nightingale?

2. The rose is a daughter of paradise; it has a mouth but no tongue; the rose needs an interpreter, O nightingale.

3. Among the birds you are the one who knows wonders; your epic is about spring, O nightingale.

4. With a small body you are very great in the world; your name and fame are spoken as "hezâr", a thousand, O nightingale.

5. Your voice in the sleepless night is like Bilâl's; before dawn you recite the call to prayer, O nightingale.

6. The scents of the rose recall 'Attâr, who reads in the meadow the "Language of the Birds" of your tongue, O nightingale.

7. Is it lament or a song of longing, no one knows; your tongue is like the tongue of the unseen, O nightingale.

8. Are your melodies too the instrument of a creed? Is the string of your violin composed for fancy, O nightingale? (the couplet is not entirely clear)

9. The longing of your heart lasts as long as the life of the rose; much of your time passes in silence, O nightingale.

10. Cûdî found no scent of faithfulness, no hope in the world; is there any in the rose of the rose garden, O nightingale? (the line is not entirely clear)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Every couplet of this ghazal, which was left outside the divan, ends with "ey bülbül", O nightingale; it addresses the bird from start to finish. The poet works the love of nightingale and rose, one of the best-known conceits of divan poetry, this time by describing the nightingale itself. The second couplet gives the relation a new sense: the rose is a daughter of paradise; it has a mouth but no tongue; the nightingale is its interpreter. The fourth couplet plays on the two senses of the word "hezâr": hezâr, the name of the nightingale, means "a thousand" in Persian; a small bird is as great by its name as a thousand.

The fifth and sixth couplets bring the nightingale together with two famous names: the nightingale singing before dawn recites the call to prayer like Bilâl the Abyssinian, the first muezzin of Islam; the scents of the rose recall Farîd al-Dîn 'Attâr, the poet of the "Language of the Birds"; the word "attâr" also means a seller of perfumes. The closing couplet ties the ghazal to the poet's own state: Cûdî, who found no scent of faithfulness in the world, asks the nightingale whether the rose carries that scent.

Bibliography

  • Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 180, 182-183 (Appendix, poem no. 4). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf

Online sources