Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefʿūlü mefāʿilün feʿūlün
Ey şāʿir-i māhirim diyen ẕāt
Şiʿriñse bu iddiʿāya iŝbāt
İŝbāt ile iddiʿā münāḳıż
Sensiñ yine kendiñe muʿārıż
Dirseñ ki şuhūd-ı ʿadl-perver
Olmaz mı ya iddiʿā müzevver
Dirseñ ki şuhūd-ı ġayr-ı ʿādil
Daʿvā yine ol zamānda bāṭıl
Çoḳ olmalı kiẕb-i iʾtilāfıñ
Farḳında degilsiñ iḫtilāfıñ
Şāʿir ola bī-şuʿūr heyhāt
Beyne’l-arżiyye ve’s-semāvāt
Ey naẓm-ı kelāmdan uran dem
Tanẓīm-i şuʿūr ḳıl muḳaddem
Eşʿārıñı meyle mezc iderseñ
Efkārıñı herc ü merc idersiñ
Beyhūde midād-ı harc idersiñ
Tervīc-i cünūn ider gidersiñ
Ḳoyduñ geri Kays-ı ʿİmrīyi
Geçdin hele ʿİcl-i Sāmirīyi
Mażmūn-ı ḫᵛārıñız (innallāh)
Ṣad tövbe hezār ıʿyāz-i billāh
Dirseñ bu meslek-i taṣavvūf
Var bunda da bir büyük teḫallüf
Bulduñsa ḥaḳḳı ne lāzım iʿlān
Aṣlı yoġısa degil mi bühtān
Sözde ola tārike’l-Ferāiż
Hem naġme-i şeyḥ, ibn-i Fāriż
Çapḳınca ḥerīf iken Ferezdaḳ
Söylerdi kelāmı ʿAbede’l-yaḳ
İşte mütenebbī-i mübāhī
Baḳ sen gibi söylüyor mu vāhī
Bir seyyiʾesidir ehl-i ḥāliñ
Hep menşeʾi bizdeki ḫılāliñ
Evhām u ḫayāle ṭaldı ümmet
Erbāb-ı ʿuḳūle ḳaldı himmet
Meydān-ı ḥaḳāyık u bedāyiʿ
Aŝār-ı maḥāsin-i ṭabāyiʿ
Eşʿār ise maḳṣadıñ be ādem
İşte ḳalem işte levḥ-i ʿālem
In English
1. O you who say "I am a masterly poet"! Your poetry ought to be the proof of this claim.
2. The proof and the claim refute each other; once again it is you who contradict yourself.
3. If you say "my witnesses are just", then would the claim not be false?
4. If you say "my witnesses are not just", the case is again void.
5. You must have made up many lies; you do not notice your contradiction.
6. Alas that a poet should be without understanding! The difference is as between earth and the heavens.
7. O you who talk of verse! Put your understanding in order first.
8. If you mix your poems with wine, you throw your thoughts into confusion.
9. You waste ink in vain; you keep madness in fashion and go your way.
10. You have left Imru' al-Qays behind; you have even surpassed the calf of the Sâmirî.
11. From your images of wine a hundred times we repent, a thousand times we seek refuge in God. (The "(innallāh)" in the line is left as given in the thesis.)
12. If you say "this is the Sufi path", there is a great inconsistency in this too.
13. If you have found the Truth, what need to proclaim it? If it has no basis, is it not slander?
14. That one who in word has abandoned the obligatory duties should sing the song of the sheikh, of Ibn al-Fârid!
15. Though Farazdaq was a rakish fellow, (still) he spoke his words in measure. (The end of the second line is unclear as read in the thesis.)
16. Here is al-Mutanabbî the boastful; see, does he talk nonsense as you do?
17. (This) is an evil of those who pass for people of spiritual states; it is ever the source of the crack among us.
18. The community has sunk into fancies and imaginings; aspiration is left to the people of reason.
19. (Before you) lies the field of truths and wonders, the works of the beauties of nature.
20. O man, if poetry is your aim, here is the pen, here is the tablet of the world.
Literary and Historical Commentary
A Satire on the Poets of Wine
The long title gives this mesnevi's subject and date together: it was composed twenty years earlier as a jibe at poets who kept wine in fashion and swam in mirages, that is, consoled themselves with fancies. Cûdî names no one in the poem; he calls his addressee "ey şâir-i mâhirim diyen zât", O you who say "I am a masterly poet", and argues with him in the language of a law court. The first couplets are built with the words claim, proof and witness: if poetry is the witness of a claim, either the witness is not just or the claim is false.
The target of the criticism is the poets who try to cover their images of wine with Sufism. After the twelfth couplet Cûdî rejects this defence: one who has found the Truth does not proclaim it, and one who in word has abandoned the obligatory duties should not presume to sing the song of Ibn al-Fârid. The great names of Arabic poetry are called as witnesses in this debate. Imru' al-Qays is the pre-Islamic poet famed for his poetry of wine and love; Farazdaq, though a rakish man, spoke his words in measure; al-Mutanabbî, boastful as he was, did not talk nonsense. The calf of the Sâmirî is, in the Qur'an, the name of the idol that led the Israelites astray, and suggests that the poetry of wine is seen as an idol that misleads people.
The last two couplets state the poem's positive proposal: before us lies the field of truths, wonders and the beauties of nature; if poetry is the aim, here is the pen, here is the tablet of the world. This call looks in the same direction as the debates after the Tanzimat that proposed taking nature and truth as subjects instead of the imaginary images of divan poetry. Coming from Cûdî, who often uses images of wine and tavern in his own divan, this satire is a valuable document for seeing the idea of poetry in his time and the tension within it.
Bibliography
- Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 83-84 (poem no. 59; manuscript fol. 28a-28b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf
Online sources
