Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefāʿilün feʿilātün mefāʿilün feʿilün
Mayıs evāʾili sebz ü ṭarī ekincikler
Küme küme arada ḳırmızı gelincikler
Yoluñ yemīn ü yesārındaki meyīllerde
Yabān çiçekleri bir ṭarz-ı rūḥ-ı perverde
Ṣabā esince hemān hepsi ihtizāza gelir
Bize selām-ı muʿaṭṭarla būy-ı tāze gelir
Menāẓır öyle güzel; çirkini seçilmezdi
Ne görse gözlerimiz baḳmadan geçilmezdi
Olurdı gāh uzaḳlarda bir sürü manẓūr
Ḳaçardı mandalar ötdükçe öñdeki nāḳūr
Yeşil zemīndesin bir bulut gibi aḳarız
Uzunca köprü geçerken gürülderiz çaḳarız
Ṭurur bu heybete ḳarşı aḳan ṣular bir ān
Süyūle ögretiriz ṭarz-ı sürʿat-ı cereyān
Tiren, o tīr-i siyeh, ḳarşıya atılmış oḳ
Uçar feżāda faḳaṭ ḳuş gibi ḳanadları yoḳ
Ezer geçer ovayı pençe-i ḥadīdi ile
Ṭurur selāmına ṭaġlar ṣaf-ı medīdi ile
Ufuḳda māvi dumanlar içinde nīm-i pedīd
İken şu ḳarşıki ṭaġlar görür gibi tehdīd
Uyandı ḳalḳdı yerinde ki yükselir giderek
Ḳarardı çehresi māvilige vedāʿ iderek
Uzaḳdan anları biz māvi bir dumān diyerek
Meger ki ṭaş ile ṭopraḳmış aṣlına irerek
Düşerdi gāh bir ormān kenārına yolumuz
Żiyā, ẓilāl-i telāḳīsi ṣaġımız, ṣolumuz
Tünel didikleri sūrāḫdan gelüp geçdik
Süzüldük oḳ gibi gūyā ki ṭaġ delüp geçdik
İlāhi! Nevʿ-i beşer ʿaḳl ile neler yapmaz
Ṭarīḳ-i ʿaḳla giden semt-i zahmete ṣapmaz
Cünūn u cehl-i bezm-i şarḳa bir ḫaṣīṣa gibi
Kemāl-i ġarb görünmekde bir naḳīṣa gibi
Şimendifer ne güzel ṣunʿ-ı pāk ʿaḳl-ı selīm
Vebālimiz gibi ḥayvān da aldı bār-ı ʿaẓīm
Hani ḳaṭırcı dinen, kārvān dinen o gürūh
Hani o sebb ü şütūm u tefevvüh-i mekrūh!
Hani o ḳışda ḳıyāmetde bir ḳonaḳ aramaḳ
Hani yolu şaşırıp ḳarda ṭaġları ṭaramaḳ!
Hani refīḳ-i ġamı, ḳāṭıʿ-ı ṭarīḳ-i ġamı!
Hani ṣular ḳabarıp aldı köprüyü elemi!
Hani yıḳıldı yere beygir, oldı māl-ı şikest
Hani düşen yükü yükletmek üzre bir hem-dest
Diyüp cevābına naṣb-ı nigāh-ı istimdād
Çamurda, tozda, yaġmurda üst baş berbād
Şimendifer bu beliyyātı pāy-māl itdi
Medāʾini medeniyetle hem-viṣāl itdi
Semerci, nāʿl u nemedci vü ḫāndaki ʿallāf
Gibi ufaḳ tefek eslāfdan ḳalan eṣnāf
Egerçi münḳariż oldu kesād-ı ṣanʿatla
Faḳaṭ güler yüzü her tarlanıñ zirāʿatle
Ḳoşar şitābla her memleket mübādeleye
Bulundu sürʿate yol mevḳiʿ-i mücādeleye
Ḳıṭār-ı bend-i biġāl olma bin şimendifere
Şimendifer medeniyyet ṭarīḳidir beşere
In English
1. Early May, green and fresh young crops; among them red poppies in clusters.
2. On the slopes to the right and left of the line, wild flowers in a manner that nourishes the soul.
3. When the morning breeze blows they all at once begin to tremble; a perfumed greeting, a fresh scent comes to us.
4. The views were so lovely that nothing ugly could be made out; whatever our eyes saw could not be passed without a look.
5. Sometimes a herd would appear in the distance; the buffaloes fled as the whistle in front sounded.
6. We flow like a cloud over the green ground; crossing a long bridge we thunder and flash.
7. Before this majesty the flowing waters stand still a moment; we teach the torrents the manner of swift flowing.
8. The train, that black arrow, an arrow shot ahead; it flies through space, but it has no wings like a bird.
9. It crushes the plain and passes with its iron claw; the mountains stand in their long ranks to salute it.
10. While, half visible in blue haze on the horizon, those mountains across the way, as if seeing a threat,
11. woke and rose in their places, rising as we went; their faces darkened as they bade farewell to the blue.
12. From afar we called them "a blue haze"; it turns out, once we reached their substance, they were stone and earth.
13. Sometimes our line ran along the edge of a forest; to our right and left the meeting of light and shade.
14. We came and passed through the hole they call a tunnel; as if we had pierced the mountain, we slipped through like an arrow.
15. My God, what does mankind not do with reason! He who goes the way of reason does not turn aside towards hardship.
16. As if it were a trait of the East's gathering of madness and ignorance, the perfection of the West appears as a defect.
17. The railway, what a fine, pure work of sound reason! The animal too had taken on a great load, like our sin (the line is not entirely clear).
18. Where is that crowd called muleteers, called caravan? Where those curses and abuse, those ugly words?
19. Where is seeking a lodging in winter in a storm like the Day of Judgement? Where losing the way and combing the mountains in the snow?
20. Where is grief's companion, grief's highwayman? Where is the pain of the waters rising and carrying the bridge away?
21. Where is the horse collapsing to the ground and the goods broken? Where (looking for) a helping hand to load the fallen burden,
22. casting a glance that begs for help for an answer? In mud, in dust, in rain, clothes ruined?
23. The railway has trampled these afflictions underfoot; it has united cities with civilization.
24. The small trades left from our forebears, such as the saddler, the farrier, the felt-maker and the fodder-seller at the inn,
25. though they have died out through the slackness of their crafts, the face of every field smiles with farming.
26. Every country runs swiftly to exchange; speed has found a road to the field of struggle.
27. Do not be a string of tethered mules, ride the railway; the railway is the road of civilization for mankind.
Literary and Historical Commentary
After the "Şimendifer" muhammes, the same train journey spreads into a wider picture in this mesnevi. The first fourteen couplets are a poem of travel: green crops and red poppies in early May, buffaloes fleeing at the whistle, the train thundering over a bridge, a tunnel passed through like an arrow. Between the tenth and twelfth couplets there is a fine observation: the mountains, taken from afar for "a blue haze", wake and rise as the train approaches, darken as they bid farewell to the blue, and at last turn out to be stone and earth. The shifting perspective seen by a moving traveller gives the poem a motion almost close to cinema.
From the fifteenth couplet on, the poem turns to a thought: reason saves man from hardship. With a series of questions beginning "where is", the poet counts the old troubles of caravan travel: the muleteers' curses, looking for lodging in winter, losing the way in snow, the bridge carried away by the flood, the collapsed horse and the scattered load. The railway has trampled these afflictions underfoot. The poet also sees who loses: the old tradesmen, the saddler, the farrier, the felt-maker, the fodder-seller at the inn, are disappearing; but the field and trade have gained. In the sixteenth couplet the East's seeing the West's perfection as a defect is criticized, and the last couplet ends with an open call: "Do not be a string of tethered mules, ride the railway." Placed beside the divan's poems that look on Westernization with suspicion, the stance is clear: Cûdî opens his door to technical progress and keeps his distance from cultural imitation.
Bibliography
- Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 57-59 (poem no. 212; manuscript fol. 58b-59a). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf
Online sources
