Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Outside the rubai metre (no metre is given in the thesis)
Mavī semā, ẓıll-ı siyāh-ı ġabrā
Gīsū-yı dü-hem-ser gibi Leylā ḳavuşur
Encüm geriden göz ḳıpar ay lamba ṭutar
Biri yuḳarı, biri aşaġı ṣavuşur
In English
1. The blue sky and the black shadow of the dark earth meet like two matching tresses, as Leylâ (night) comes.
2. The stars wink from behind, the moon holds up a lamp; one slips away upward, one downward.
Literary and Historical Commentary
A night scene is built in this small kıta almost like a comedy of love. In the first couplet the blue sky and the shadow of the dark earth join and night comes down; the word "Leylâ" recalls both night and the beloved of the famous lover Mecnun. Sky and earth meet like two matching tresses; the coming of night is like the meeting of two lovers.
The second couplet adds witnesses to the scene. The stars wink from behind, the moon holds up a lamp; some slip away upward, some downward. This lively, playful picture recalls onlookers who wink at a secret meeting and then disappear. The wording "the moon holds up a lamp" makes the night landscape as close as a domestic scene by likening moonlight to an everyday object. The endearing power of observation seen in the divan's nature poems appears in these two couplets in its plainest form.
Bibliography
- Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 122 (poem no. 161; manuscript fol. ). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf
Online sources
