Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefʿūlü fāʿilātü mefāʿīlü fāʿilün
Yatmış firāş nāzına bir tāze ḳız gibi
Mestāne çeşmi nīm-i küşād ḫumār-ı ḫvāb
Almış anı ḳucaġına kühsār-ı sebz-pūş
Yüz sürmede ayaġına ṣaḥrā-yı pür ḫiḍāb
Şelāleler ḳulaġına söyler terāneler
Yelpāze ṣallar üstüne her dem perī-i āb
Taḳdīm ider revāyiḥin ezhār, pāyına
Şemm eyledikçe zülfün alır bād-ı pīçtāb
Gül-būy-ı cāme-ḫvāb-ı bahārın ṭavāf ider
Bülbül oḳur devāmına daʿvāt-ı müstecāb
"Ṭūbā lehüm ve ṣan-ı meʾāb" āyetin yazar
Ẓıll-ı dıraḫt u sebz-i çemen, gülşen-i şebāb
Atmış ridā-yı pākını saḥrā-yı sebzine
Ruḫsār-ı āfitābı öpüp raḳṣ iden seḥāb
Sermiş feżā-yı feyżine seccādeler yeşīl
Olmuş cenāb-ı ḫıżra meger cāy-ı intiḫāb
Her dem bahār, çehresi olmaz ḫazān-nümā
Virmez temūz o veche ḫużāret-meʾāba tāb
Ḫoş bir zemīn ki muttaṣıl-ı ilhām iner
Ḥüsn-i beyāna ḳor anı envār-ı āfitāb
Manẓūr olur meʾāl-i refīḳi ṭabīʿatıñ
Oḳşar nigāh-ı diḳḳati mażmūn-ı müsteṭāb
Yoḳdur mecāl, bikr-i ḫayāliñ firārına
Āġūş-ı ṭabʿ-ı şāʿire eşʿār ider şitāb
Cūlar ṣafā-yı ṭabʿıma cūyā-yı intisāb
Şellāle feyż-i kilkime timŝāl-i inṣibāb
Bir şehr-i şāʿirāne ki ʿaşḳ āşiyānedir
Çekmiş liḳāsı üzre yeşīl nūrdan niḳāb
Pür-şiʿr olan ḫilāl-i ẓılālında ʿaşḳ uyur
Her ihtizāz bergine dil eyler inciẕāb
Bir ṭatlı ses virir derelerden revān olur
Bülbülleriñ ṣadāsını nūş eyledikçe āb
Siz sevdigim ṣabāḥ u mesā hep güzelsiñiz
Her şām ider bu levḥa güzellikden insilāb
Binlerce böyle manẓar-ı cennet-nümā diger
Düşdükçe nūr vechiñize ẓıll-ı müşk-nāb
Sizden tehī münāẓara göz açmadım henüz
Ḫoşdur ḥużūruñuz naẓarımda ʿani'l-ġıyāb
In English
1. Like a young girl stretched on the bed of coquetry, her drunken eye half open, the languor of sleep (a word is missing in the line).
2. The green-clad mountains have taken her into their lap; the henna-dyed plain rubs its face at her feet.
3. Waterfalls sing melodies in her ear; the water fairy ever waves a fan above her.
4. The flowers offer their scents at her feet; the curling breeze takes her tresses as it keeps smelling them.
5. The scent of roses circles the bedchamber of her spring; the nightingale recites answered prayers for her lasting.
6. The shade of the tree, the green of the meadow, the rose garden of youth write the verse "Blessedness is theirs, and a goodly place of return".
7. The cloud that dances after kissing the sun's cheek has thrown its pure mantle over her green plain.
8. She has spread green prayer rugs in her space of grace; it seems she has become the chosen place of Hızır.
9. Ever spring, her face never shows autumn; July does not give its heat to that face whose end is greenness.
10. A fine land on which inspiration ever descends; the lights of the sun set it in beautiful expression.
11. The sense of nature's companion becomes visible; a pleasing conceit caresses the attentive gaze.
12. There is no way for the maiden of fancy to flee; poems hasten to the embrace of the poet's nature.
13. Streams seek kinship with the serenity of my nature; the waterfall in its pouring is like the grace of my pen.
14. A poetic town that is a nest of love; it has drawn a veil of green light over its face.
15. Love sleeps among its shades full of poetry; at every trembling of its leaves the heart is drawn.
16. The water flowing from the streams gives a sweet sound as it drinks in the voices of the nightingales.
17. You whom I love, morning and evening you are always beautiful; every evening this picture is stripped of beauty.
18. Thousands of other such views like paradise, as a shade pure as musk falls on your face (the couplet is not entirely clear).
19. I have not yet opened my eyes on a view without you; your presence is sweet to my sight even in absence.
Literary and Historical Commentary
"Kara Firye" is the Macedonian town named Karaferye in Ottoman sources and known today in Greece as Veria (Veroia). This town, attached to the province of Salonica, was known for its abundant waters, gardens and green slopes. According to Ali Canip Yöntem's recollection quoted by Tok Yıldız, Cûdî taught for a time at the Salonica İdadi; the train note of 1904 from the Vardar plain in the divan also confirms that the poet was in Macedonia in these years. But the poem does not say when or on what occasion he went to the town.
The kaside personifies the town as a young girl stretched on the bed of coquetry with her eye half open, and widens this comparison couplet by couplet: the green mountains have taken her into their lap, the henna-dyed plain rubs its face at her feet, the waterfalls sing in her ear, the water fairy waves a fan for her. The sixth couplet uses the verse of the sura al-Ra'd, "Blessedness is theirs, and a goodly place of return" (13:29), for a likeness to paradise; the eighth, with its green prayer rugs, sees this place as the spot chosen by Hızır, the figure of greenness and plenty.
The second half of the kaside turns to poetry itself: in this place inspiration descends without pause, the maiden of fancy cannot flee, the streams are like the poet's nature and the waterfall like the grace of his pen. In the last couplets a "you", someone loved, is addressed; whether this addressee is the town itself or someone who was there is not clear. The thesis's footnote notes that a word is missing in the first couplet; the eighteenth couplet's sense is offered in the translation only as an approximation.
Bibliography
- Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 69-71 (poem no. 224; manuscript fol. 63a-63b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf
- Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 6 (Cûdî's teaching at the Salonica İdadi). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf
Online sources
