Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Yadında mıdır doğduğun zamanlar
Sen ağlar idin gülerdi âlem
Bir öyle ömür geçir ki olsun
Mevtin sana hande, halka matem
In English
1. Do you remember the time you were born? You were weeping, and the world was laughing.
2. Live such a life that your death may be a smile to you and mourning to the people.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Not found in the divan, these two couplets were taken into the Appendix of the thesis. According to Tok Yıldız's note, the texts in the Appendix are quoted from the works of İbnülemin Mahmud Kemal İnal, Vehbi Cem Aşkun and İsmail Hakkı Eldem with their spelling; so, unlike the transcribed poems of the divan, the text is given in simplified letters.
The kıta sets up a mirror between birth and death: man weeps when he is born while those around him rejoice; he should live his life so that when he dies he himself smiles and those left behind weep. This thought is a known piece of wisdom circulating in different forms in the literatures of the East and is sometimes ascribed to Persian poets. Cûdî says it in short, plain Turkish. Compared with the pessimistic tone of the epitaph for his own gravestone in the divan, this kıta shows a brighter face that looks on death with the joy of a life well lived.
Bibliography
- Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 180, 182 (Appendix, poem no. 2). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf
Online sources
