Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ûlü fâ‘ilâtü mefâ‘îlü fâ‘ilün

Bir (dağ) ki dameninde (Hıdırlık) niyaz eder
Orman bülendi zirvesi üstünde naz eder.
Sürmüş öne hıdırlığı gûya imam edüp
Saf tutmuş arkasında edayu namaz eder.
Bir neyli gûni gışaye bürünmüş rekıyku saf
Göstermeden şikâfilerin ihtizaz eder.
Bir şehr öper ayağını ol kuku dilberin
Sahra neşatı zemzemden ihtizaz eder.
Bir şehri kim cevanibin almış hezarı bağ
Köhne arusa nev be nev arzı cihaz eyler.
Zanusi üstünde oturan bir cemel gibi
Âli cebel o hey’et ile imtiyaz eder.
Kaldırmış asumane senaimü sevdiğimi
Sırtına çifte zerve ne hoş irtikaz eder.
Kahı beyaz pamuk gibi hurde sahabeler
Bir fırsatı temas arayup intihas eder.
İlanı aşk eder dağa ebri havanişin
Yoktur sebatı ışkı meşkı mecaz eder.
Maşukasın açıkta uyur zannedüp
Şemsiyesin açar serine saye saz eder.
Üstünde pare pare olur ebri nev bahar
Çıplak periyi tiyneti came gübaz eder.
Açmış kanad gelir nazarı şairaneye
Çeşmim nasıl ki perrini ol şuha baz eder.
Tavşan dağı ile, ak dağın endamı dilberi
Şehrin şimalı şarlını dide nuvaz eder.
Ey muhterem vatan sılayi rahm eder iken
CUDİ sanırki kendini azmi hicaz eder.

Zeyl

Ey dağ senin suyunla başlar şehri bağu rağ
Hatta bütün mezaria bağın diraz eder.
Şehre getirmiş (Mustafa paşa) anı heman
İçtikçe teşne ruhuna rahmet niyaz eder.
Başsız bedenle gitti bu dünyadan ol şehit
Ukbanda rahmetiyle huda ser firaz eder.
Şehrin tam orta yerinde o cami
Şirin minaresiyle ne hoş ihtizaz eder.
CUDİ gelir hayalime ol cami’l latif
Hala şebabım anda edayi namaz eder.

In English

1. Such a mountain that at its skirt Hıdırlık stands in supplication, while its forest preens upon its lofty summit.

2. It has pushed Hıdırlık forward as if making it the imam; standing in rows behind it, it performs the prayer.

3. Wrapped in a bluish (nîlî-gûn) veil, fine and clear, it quivers without showing its clefts.

4. A town kisses the foot of that beloved mountain (kûh-ı dilber); the joy of the plain quivers with this melody (zemzeme).

5. A town surrounded by a thousand vineyards, which offers that old bride ever new trousseaux.

6. Like a camel kneeling on its knees, the lofty mountain is distinguished by that posture.

7. It has raised its humps (senâm) to the sky; how pleasantly the twin summit rises on its back. (The place of the word "sevdiğimi" in this line could not be understood.)

8. Sometimes small clouds like white cotton watch for a chance to touch it.

9. The cloud that dwells in the air declares its love to the mountain; but it has no constancy, its love and passion are figurative (passing).

10. Thinking its beloved sleeps in the open, it opens its umbrella and casts a shade over its head.

11. The spring cloud breaks into pieces above it; it wraps the naked fairy in a garment. (The second line is corruptly transcribed; the meaning is conjectural.)

12. As if with wings spread it appears to the poetic gaze; and my eye, like a falcon (bâz), spreads its wings towards that coquette.

13. The graceful figure of Tavşan Mountain and Akdağ makes the north and east of the town a delight to the eye.

14. O revered homeland, when Cûdî visits you to see his kin he thinks he is setting out for the Hijaz (the pilgrimage).

15. O mountain, the town, its vineyards and meadows begin (grow green) with your water; indeed your water raises all the fields.

16. (Kara) Mustafa Pasha brought it (the water) to the town; whoever is thirsty, as he drinks, prays for mercy on his soul.

17. That martyr left this world with a headless body; in the hereafter God, with His mercy, raises his head high.

18. Right in the middle of the town that mosque sways so pleasantly with its charming minaret.

19. O Cûdî, that graceful mosque comes to my mind; my youth still performs the prayer there.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem consists of a kaside (qasida) of fourteen couplets given in Havva Tok Yıldız's thesis under the title "Merzifonda (Tavşan Dağı ve Hıdırlık hakkında)" (In Merzifon, on Tavşan Mountain and Hıdırlık) and five couplets appended to it under the heading "Zeyil" (Continuation); the thesis publishes the two under separate numbers (8 and 9). Here they are given as a single text, and the point where the continuation begins is marked in the original text. The metre is the muzâri pattern "mef'ûlü fâ'ilâtü mefâ'îlü fâ'ilün"; the identification is ours. The redif (refrain word) is "eder" (does, makes), and the rhyme is the sound "-âz": niyâz, nâz, namâz, ihtizâz, imtiyâz, mecâz, sâye-sâz, bâz, nüvâz, Hicâz, dırâz and ser-firâz end in it. In the fifth couplet the redif appears as "eyler"; this too may be an example of the corruptions in the transcription. The pen name (mahlas) "Cûdî" appears twice, in the last couplet of the main kaside and in the last couplet of the continuation.

The thesis states that it took the appended poems from the works of İnal, Aşkun and Eldem without touching the spelling of its sources; many words in the transcription are misread. The phrase "neyli gûni gışaye" in the third couplet can be understood as "nîlî-gûn gışâya" (in a bluish veil), "kuku dilberin" in the fourth couplet as "kûh-ı dilberin" (of the beloved mountain), and "zanusi" in the sixth couplet as "zânûsı" (its knee). In the seventh and eleventh couplets one line each could not be read with confidence. The original text has been left in the form found in the source, and suggested readings and uncertainties are marked in the English section.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The real subject of the kaside is Tavşan Mountain, which rises to the north of Merzifon. The poet first shows the mountain within a scene of prayer: Hıdırlık at its skirt is the imam, and the mountain is the congregation standing in rows behind it. Then the mountain becomes a beloved; the town kisses its foot, and the town ringed with vineyards offers that "old bride" new trousseaux every year. In the sixth and seventh couplets the comparison changes and the mountain becomes a camel kneeling on its knees with its humps raised to the sky; the twin summit is the two humps. From the eighth to the twelfth couplet the clouds enter the scene. Small clouds like cotton watch for a chance to touch the mountain, and the cloud dwelling in the air declares its love to it but is inconstant; here the poet recalls the Sufi distinction between real and figurative love and counts the cloud's love as "figurative". Like a lover opening an umbrella over a beloved asleep in the open, the cloud casts a shade over the mountain's head. The word "bâz" in the twelfth couplet means both "falcon" and, in Persian, "open"; the poet's eye spreads its wings like a falcon towards that beauty.

The fourteenth couplet closes the main kaside with a personal feeling. To visit his homeland is for the poet like a journey to the Hijaz, that is, the pilgrimage. The continuation turns to the mountain's water and to Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha, who brought this water to the town. In the seventeenth couplet there is an antithesis between "headless body" and "ser-firâz", having one's head raised high: God will raise in the hereafter the head of the pasha who left this world headless. In the last couplet the poet remembers the mosque in the middle of the town and says that his youth still prays there; this is a fine hyperbole expressing how a memory lives on by being bound to a place.

Historical Context

The place names and events in the kaside agree with the sources. In the first volume of his Amasya Tarihi Hüsameddin writes that the town of Merzifon was built on a hill at the southern foot of Taşan Mountain, surrounded by vineyards, that this mountain is the largest in the sanjak of Amasya after Akdağ, and that in his day it was called "Tavşan Dağı". In the same volume he records that the grand vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha built a stone mosque in the middle of the town in 1090 [1679], brought water to the town from Taşan Mountain through underground channels two kilometres long and had some thirty stone fountains built. According to the entry in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Kara Mustafa Pasha was executed in Belgrade on 25 December 1683; his body was buried in Belgrade, and his head or flayed scalp was taken to Edirne. The words "he left with a headless body" in the continuation allude to this event; the building mentioned in the poem as the mosque in the middle of the town is very probably the Kara Mustafa Pasha Mosque, but the poem does not name it.

The date of the poem is not known. Since the last couplet recalls that the poet spent his youth in Merzifon, in that mosque, the kaside must have been written during a visit to his home town years after he went to Istanbul, or at a time when he remembered it with longing; this is an inference. For Merzifon's water structures see the article The Historic Water Structures and Fountains of Merzifon, for the pasha's life Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha, and for the poet's life Muallim İbrâhim Cûdî of Merzifon.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources