Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿilün
Müslümāñ ġayr-ı milel olsa ne rütbe medenī
Nefse maġlūbdur ümmīd-i ṣalāḥ itme ṣaḳın
İtse de ahdle peymānla teʿmīn-i amān
İnanup kāfire teslīm-i silāḥ itme ṣaḳın
In English
1. However civilized other nations may be, (they) are overcome by the self; Muslim, beware of hoping for good (from them).
2. Even if they promise safety by covenant and oath, beware of trusting the unbeliever and surrendering your weapons.
Literary and Historical Commentary
The refrain "sakın", beware, sounds a warning twice, and the kıta is one of the divan's political admonitions. In the poem's sweeping claim, other nations, "gayr-ı milel", however civilized they may appear, are overcome by the self, and it is wrong to expect good from them; it is a polemical verdict that passes a single judgement on whole peoples. The second couplet ties this general judgement to a concrete counsel: even if safety is promised by covenant and oath, weapons must not be surrendered.
The date of the poem is unknown, but the use of the word "medenî", civilized, as an epithet and the warning about surrendering weapons call to mind the late period in which the treaties the Ottoman state made with the European powers and the conflicts in the Balkans were being discussed. Carrying the same scepticism as the divan's other poems on the debates over Westernization and civilization, the kıta this time speaks in a political and military rather than cultural language. Its polemical tone reflects the sense of insecurity of the period in which it was written.
Bibliography
- Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 125 (poem no. 174; manuscript fol. 42b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf
Online sources
