Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefāʿilün feʿilātün mefāʿilün feʿilün
Ṭutuşdı baḥŝe örümcekle bir ipek böcegi
Didi: Nedir şu ḥabīŝiñ hevāda ördicigi
Hevāda ḳursa faḳaṭ dest-gāh yoḳ māniʿ
Arar menābir ü miḥrāb ü ṣavmaʿa, cāmiʿ
Ne iḥtirām-ı ḥarām var ne ḥürmet-i miḥrāb
Gavur mı yoḳsa müselmān mıdır o ḫān-ı ḫarāb
Hücūmı gördü örümcek cevāba davrandı
O leng u lūk şu yolda ḫiṭāba davrandı:
Didi: Nedir bu taʿarruż baña a dūd-ı ḥarīr
Ḫacīl olursuñ eger vaṣfım eylesem taḳrīr
Benim ḳilidis-i meşhūre ḫvāce-i evvel
Ki fenn-i hendeseye ben ḳodum ḳadīm-i temel
Ne metre vardır elimde ne ālet-i perkār
Pesend ider şu benim dāʾirem gören miʿmār
Devāʾir-i mütedāricle merkez-i vāḥid
Ḳadīm-i heyʾete beñzer nesīcim ey ḥāsid
Fevāṣıl-ı mütenāsıple çekdigim evtār
Miŝāl-i mınṭıḳatü'l-burc ʿilm-i devvār
O cānbāzım ki resen-bāzlıḳda yoḳdur işim
Cihāt-ı sitte bilā-vāsıṭa cibāl-keşim
O cānbāzım ki terāzūya iḥtiyācım yoḳ
Gider gelir ḳoşarım ḳılca iʿvicācım yoḳ
Füsūn u siḥr oḳurum tār u pūd olur nefesim
Baña ilişme ki kendimce ben de ḫayli kesim
Cihān bilir ki benim perde-dār-ı ġārını
Seniñ meziyyetiñ āyāndır ḳuzum çelebī
Yegāne mefḫaretiñ bir ḳozañ degil mi seniñ
Faḳaṭ meziyyeti andan ziyādedir kefeniñ
Ricāl, gördi nesīciñde töhmet-i ḥürmet
Atıldı rūyuña ḳarşı ḳumāş-ı bī-ḳıymet
Seniñ ufāḳ ḳozañ ancaḳ netīce-i yek-sāl
Bu kār-gāh ben açmaḳdayım hezārān-ı şāl
Ben eylerim bu şebigeyle iktināṣ-ı ẕübāb
Seni nesīciñ ider tāb-ı tāba içre kebāb
Seniñ eviñle benim ḫāne hem meziyyet mi
Eliyle kendini ḥabs eylemekde ṣanʿatımı
Sen iftiḫār idecek yerde aġlasan yeri var
Bu ṣunʿ-ı bü'l-ʿacebiñ bir ʿaẕāb-ı ekberi var
Düşün ki düşdi yaḳañ dest-i nevʿ-i insāna
Fürūnda ḫaşlanacaḳsıñ yarın a divāne
Bu serzenişleri gūş itdi dūd-ı per temkīn
Didi : ḫatīb! Sözüñ oldı mı ḫitām-ı rehīn
Bilindi maʿrifetiñ ey mühendis-i eflāk!
Bu kār-gehde meger sensiñ aḥsenü men ḥāk
Çıḳup da minbere biñ ḫutbe vü nuʿūt oḳusañ
Ṣabāḥ-ı maḥşere dek beyt-i ʿankebūt oḳusañ
Medīḥa-i hüneriñ " evhenü'l-buyūt"yeter
Yeter yeter bu tefāḫür ey ʿankebūt yeter!
Ḳumāş-ı nārgülüñi pek de aṣma dīdāra
Süpürge açmasun endām-ı nermiñe pāre
Benim nesīc-i laṭīfim Ḫudā idüp tevḳīr
Libās-ı ehl-i naʿīme dimiş : "Libās-ı ḥarīr"
In English
1. A silkworm fell into a dispute with a spider; it said: "What is this thing the vile creature weaves in the air?"
2. "If it set up its loom only in the air there would be no objection; (but) it seeks out pulpits, mihrab, cloister, mosque."
3. "It keeps neither the sanctity of the sacred precinct nor reverence for the mihrab; is the master of that ruined house an infidel or a Muslim?"
4. The spider saw the attack and turned to answer; that lame and crooked (creature) set about its address thus:
5. It said: "O silkworm, what is this attack on me? You would be ashamed if I set out my merits."
6. "I am the first teacher of the famous Euclid; it was I who laid the ancient foundation of the science of geometry."
7. "I have neither a measure nor the instrument of compasses in my hand; the architect who sees this circle of mine approves it."
8. "With concentric circles round a single centre, my web resembles the old astronomy, O envious one."
9. "The threads I stretch at proportional intervals are like the belt of the zodiac in the science of the spheres."
10. "I am that acrobat who has no business with rope-walking; I stretch ropes in six directions without help."
11. "I am that acrobat who needs no balancing pole; I go, come and run, without a hair's swerve."
12. "I recite spells and magic, my breath becomes warp and weft; do not meddle with me, for in my own way I am somebody too."
13. "The world knows that I am the curtain-keeper of the cave; your merit, my lamb, my fine sir, is plain to see."
14. "Is not your only pride a cocoon? But the merit of your shroud exceeds even that."
15. "Men saw in your weaving the stain of being forbidden; it was thrown back in your face as worthless cloth."
16. "Your little cocoon is only the product of a single year; on this loom I am opening thousands of shawls."
17. "With this net I hunt flies; your weaving roasts you like a kebab in the heat."
18. "Is your house of the same merit as mine? Is imprisoning (oneself) with one's own hand my art?" (the couplet is not entirely clear)
19. "Instead of boasting you would do well to weep; this wondrous work of yours has a great torment."
20. "Consider that your collar has fallen into the hands of mankind; tomorrow you will be boiled in the furnace, you fool!"
21. The composed silkworm listened to these reproaches and said: "Preacher, has your speech reached its pledged end?"
22. "Your skill is known, O engineer of the heavens! It seems that on this loom you are the best of weavers."
23. "Though you climb the pulpit and recite a thousand sermons and eulogies, though you recite 'the house of the spider' until the morning of the Resurrection,"
24. "for the praise of your skill, 'the frailest of houses' is enough; enough, enough of this boasting, O spider, enough!"
25. "Do not hang your fire-flower cloth too much upon the wall; let not the broom tear your soft body to pieces."
26. "God has honoured my fine weaving; He has called the garment of the people of the Garden of Bliss 'a garment of silk'."
Literary and Historical Commentary
The silkworm and the spider are the two disputing heroes of the fable "Dûd u Ankebût"; the poem comes from the same vein as the divan's didactic poems for children and the young. The silkworm opens with an attack: it would say nothing if the spider set up its web only in the air, but it seeks out pulpits, mihrabs and mosques. The spider answers with a long boast: it is Euclid's first teacher; the concentric circles it draws without ruler or compasses recall the old astronomy's model of the spheres, and its proportional threads the belt of the zodiac; it is an acrobat that needs no balancing pole.
A satire on both sides
The spider's strongest proof is in the thirteenth couplet: "The world knows that I am the curtain-keeper of the cave." This alludes to the well-known report that during the Hijra a spider wove its web over the mouth of the cave of Thawr where the Prophet and Abû Bakr were hiding. It then counts the silkworm's weaknesses: its cocoon is its own shroud, silk is thrown back in its face as "worthless cloth" because it is forbidden to men, and at last it will fall into human hands and be boiled in the furnace.
The silkworm's answer is short and rests on Qur'anic proofs. The sura al-'Ankabût says, "The frailest of houses is the house of the spider" (29:41); though the spider boast until the Resurrection, this verse is enough for it. The last couplet ties silk to the verse of the sura al-Hajj, "their garments there are silk" (22:23): God has named the garment of the people of paradise silk. The fable is built in a wide-ranging language of knowledge that brings together geometry, astronomy and exegesis and mocks both sides a little; against proud learning it sets forward a humble labour praised by the Qur'an. For a few words in the tenth, seventeenth, eighteenth and twenty-fifth couplets the thesis offers no firm reading; the translation points these places out.
Bibliography
- Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 63-65 (poem no. 219; manuscript fol. 61a-61b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf
Online sources
