Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fāʿilātün fāʿilātün fāʿilātün fāʿilün

Ġūr-ı ṭabʿa düşdüm envārım güzār itmez baña
Baḥtı seyr et yār-ı cānım yār-ı ġār itmez baña
Ṭabʿ-ı tārīkimden olmaz nūr-ı cānım müncelī
Heyy-i muẓlim şeb ki yā Rabb inficār itmez baña
Cūy-bār olsam revān olsam ayaġın öpmege
Serv-i nāzım sāyesin zīb-i kenār itmez baña
Kātib-i kātim degildir yoḳsa eşk-i ġam-nüvīs
Bir muhāsib derdimi öyle şümār itmez baña
Bilmese cānān cemālinden ebed kesmem nigāh
Pāy-i raḫşı böyle teheyyüc ġubār itmez baña
Ey semend-i yār gül sīnemde cevlān eylesen
Ḫāk-sārım gök yire inse ḫasār itmez baña
Cūdiya cānānımıñ ḥayrān-ı istiġnāsıyım
ʿArş u ferş olsam da itmez iʿtibār itmez baña

In English

1. I have fallen into the grave of nature (the body), my lights do not pass my way; behold my fortune: my dearest friend will not be a friend of the cave to me.

2. The light of my soul does not shine forth from my dark nature; O dark night, O Lord, that will not break into dawn for me.

3. Were I to become a stream and flow on to kiss her feet, my cypress of coquetry would not make her shade an ornament for my bank.

4. The tear that writes my grief is no secret-keeping clerk; otherwise not even an accountant would reckon up my pain for me like that.

5. Even if my beloved did not know it, I would never take my gaze from her beauty; (had she not known) the hoof of her horse would not raise dust at me so eagerly.

6. O beloved's steed, (come) gallop on my breast, wounded like a rose; I am lowly as the earth, were the sky to fall to the ground it would do me no harm.

7. Cûdî, I am in awe of my beloved's proud indifference; whether I be the highest heaven or the ground, she pays me no regard, none.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The redif (refrain) "itmez baña", does not ... to me, keeps a list of deprivations: light does not pass, night does not break, the cypress gives no shade, the beloved pays no regard. Each item on the list is knotted on a word ending in "-âr": güzâr, gâr, inficâr, kenâr, şümâr, gubâr, hasâr, i'tibâr. The "yâr-ı gâr", friend of the cave, in the first couplet is an old idiom for the faithful friend, based on the Prophet's hiding with Abû Bakr in the cave of Thawr during the Hijra; the poet complains that his dearest friend shows him no such loyalty.

The first two couplets place the lover's darkness inside the body. "Gûr-ı tab'", the grave of nature, is the soul's burial in the body; "tab'-ı târîk", dark nature, prevents the light of the soul from appearing, and the night will not turn to morning. The third couplet sets a classical scene: the lover is ready to become a stream in order to kiss the beloved's foot, but the cypress, the indispensable ornament of a riverbank, will not let its shade fall on his bank.

The tear of the fourth couplet is a clerk. It keeps no secret and writes down the pain item by item, so that not even an accountant could count so carefully. The pen name of the last couplet stands in awe of the beloved's "istiğnâ", her proud indifference that needs no one. Whether the lover be as high as the Throne or as low as the ground the outcome does not change; the repetition of the refrain twice in the last line underlines this certainty.

Bibliography

  • Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 25 (poem no. 13; manuscript fol. 6a). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf

Online sources