Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fāʿilātün fāʿilātün fāʿilātün fāʿilün

Gösterir her neşʾesinde lā-beḳā dünyā baña
Bir fenā ṣābit ḳılar herdem fenā dünyā baña
Ḫaṭve-i semt-i ʿademdir cünbiş-i ʿaraḳ vücūd
Ḳaṭʿ-ı menzilçün ider sevḳ-i hevā dünyā baña
Ey olan ḳāʾīl beḳā-yı intiẓām–ı ʿāleme
İtme de iṣbāt ʿaks-ı müddeʿā dünyā baña
Ben beḳā-yı cevher-i ferdi saña baḫş eyledim
Çāk çāk olduḳ da el virmez dehā dünyā baña
Feylesofān ḳoy araşdırsın medār-ı istinād
Ben emīn oldum ki olmaz müttekā dünyā baña
Mevcelen çeşmimde ey deryā-yı ḥayret mevcelen
Olmasun taʿbīr-i nefs çeşm āşinā dünyā baña
Çeşm-i ḥasret iltifāt eyler ʿamā-yı muṭlaḳa
Cūdiyā açdıḳca bāb-ı ibtilā dünyā baña

In English

1. In every joy the world shows me that it does not last; the passing world proves to me a nonbeing at every moment.

2. The stirring of being is a step taken towards nonbeing; the world drives desire on in me so that I may cover this stage. (A word in the first line is unclear as read in the thesis.)

3. O you who claim the order of the universe will last! The world is proving to me the opposite of your claim.

4. I have left to you the idea that the indivisible particle (cevher-i ferd) endures; once all is torn to shreds the world gives me no mind to grasp it. (The sense of the couplet is not certain.)

5. Let the philosophers search out the point on which being rests; I am sure the world will be no support for me.

6. O sea of wonder, surge in my eyes, surge; let the world not seem to me a familiar eye. (The second line is not entirely clear.)

7. Cûdî, the more the world opens to me the gate of affliction, the more the eye of longing turns to absolute blindness, absolute hiddenness (amâ).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Against the Philosophers

These seven couplets turn the theme of the world's transience into a philosophical debate. Tied to the redif (refrain) "dünyâ baña", the world ... to me, the rhymes lâ-bekâ, fenâ, hevâ, müddeâ, dehâ, müttekâ, âşinâ and ibtilâ also supply the terms of the debate. The third couplet turns to someone who says that "the order of the universe will last" and answers that the world proves the opposite of this claim. The "cevher-i ferd" of the fourth couplet is the smallest indivisible particle of kalâm theology, that is, the atom; in the fifth couplet the "feylesofân", the philosophers, are left to search for the point on which being rests. For his own part Cûdî is sure that this world will be no support for him.

Such language takes on meaning in a period when views holding that matter is eternal and enduring were debated in the Ottoman press. The poem gives no scientific answer to these views; it puts the feeling of transience in place of proof. Within every joy there is impermanence, within every stirring a step taken towards nonbeing. The second, fourth and sixth couplets contain words that the thesis's reading leaves unresolved, so the English for those three is approximate.

The last couplet closes with a word of two meanings. "Amâ" means blindness, and in Sufism it is also the name of the degree of hiddenness of God's essence, which can in no way be known. The more the world opens the gate of affliction, the more the eye of longing turns to this absolute darkness: it chooses not to see, or it turns towards the unknowable itself.

Bibliography

  • Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 26 (poem no. 14; manuscript fol. 6b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf

Online sources