Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefāʿīlün mefāʿīlün feʿūlün
Leb-i sīmīnin açdıḳça sitāre
Tebessümler ṣaçar saṭḥ-ı biḥāra
Ṣafā-yı sīneye mālikse deryā
Ṭolar āġūşı ḫand-ı pāre pāre
Bu āfāk enfüse bir istiʿāre
Nübüvvetsiz zamāndır ẓulmet-i şeb
Ḥekīmān var ise leyl-i mükevkeb
Semānıñ secde ʿaks-ı zāhirātı
Sünūḥāt-ı ḥakīm-i ṣāf-meşreb
Görir mi bedr işin biñlerce kevkeb
Aḳar mehtābdan bir seyl-i ebyaż
Açar deryāda bir minhāc-ı enver
Beyāż emvāc o minhācıñ içinde
Ḳanad çırpar perīlerdir şināver
Bunı fehm eylediñ mi ey dilāver
O mehtāb Aḥmed, ol minhāc, şerʿī
O deryā baḥr-ı tevḥīd-i ilāhī
O emvāc-ı beyāż efvāc-ı islām
Şināver ümmet-i ʿirfān-penāhı
Ḳamer şaḳ eyledi leyl-i siyāhı:
Ḳaranlıḳ baḥrdır deryā-yı vaḥdet
Yüzinde serv-i sīmīndir şerīʿat
Ḳaranlıḳda siyāh emvāc, ḳāfir
Derūn-ı serv-i sīmīn ehl-i cennet
Ṣırāṭ-ı müstaḳīme eyle diḳḳat
ʿUmūm-ı baḥre nisbet serv-i sīmīn
Feżāya ḳarşı engüşt-i şehādet
Anıñ çün küfr ü ṭuġyān çoḳṣuç az
İlāhī ʿaḳıl irmez bu ne ḥikmet
İrerse ʿaḳlıñ olmaz anda vüsʿat
Evet, öyle velākin bir de şöyle
Düşün: meclā-yı ḥaḳ ancaḳ bu yer mi
ʿAvālim nūra ġarḳ olmuş serāpā
Ki hūrşīd anlara nisbet şerer mi
Degil görmek ʿaceb insān sezer mi
Başıñ ḳaldır semāya iktināh it
O envār ʿāleminde bir şināh it
Bütün sükkānıdır ervāḥ-ı maʿṣūm
Saña dirler: Yere in de günāh it
Hemān ḳalbiñ temīz ṭut ḥaḳ-penāh it
Siziñ yerden çıḳan toz ẕerre gelmez
Yem-i ġufrān ġaffārü'ẕ-ẕünūba
Faḳaṭ üftādegān-ı çāh-ı işrāk
Düşer ġayyā-yı ʿallāmü'l-ġuyūba
Keŝāfetdir sebeb cümle ʿuyūba
In English
1. As the star opens its silver lip, it scatters smiles over the face of the seas; if the sea possesses the serenity of the breast, its embrace fills with laughter in pieces; these horizons (the outer world) are a metaphor for the inner worlds.
2. The darkness of night is a time without a prophet; if there are sages, the night is starry; (the middle lines are not entirely clear) ...; can thousands of stars do the work of the full moon?
3. From the moonlight a white torrent flows; it opens a luminous road on the sea; the white waves within that road are fairies swimming and beating their wings; brave one, have you understood this?
4. That moonlight is Ahmad (Muhammad), that road the Sharia; that sea is the sea of divine unity; those white waves are the hosts of Islam; the swimmers are the community whose refuge is knowledge of God; the moon split the black night.
5. The sea of unity is a dark sea; on its face the Sharia is a silver cypress; the black waves in the darkness are the unbeliever; within the silver cypress are the people of paradise; heed the straight path!
6. Compared with the whole sea, the silver cypress is like the finger of witness raised against space; that is why unbelief and rebellion are many, (faith) few; my God, reason cannot reach what wisdom this is; if it did, your reason would have no room there.
7. Yes, so it is, but think also thus: is this place alone where the Truth appears? Worlds are drowned in light from end to end; is the sun but a spark beside them? The wonder is not seeing; can man perceive?
8. Lift your head to the sky and fathom it; swim in that world of lights; all its dwellers are sinless spirits; they say to you, "Go down to earth and sin"; only keep your heart clean and take refuge in God.
9. The dust that rises from your earth is not even a mote to the sea of forgiveness of the Forgiver of sins; but those fallen into the well of polytheism fall into the Gayyâ of the Knower of the unseen; density is the cause of all faults.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Under the moon a night sea turns step by step into an allegory in the muhammes "Temsîl". Few poems in the divan are built so methodically. In the first stanzas the scene is given: the stars scatter smiles over the sea, the moonlight opens a white road on the sea, and the waves within that road are like fairies beating their wings. The last line of the first stanza is the key to the whole poem: "Bu âfâk enfüse bir istiâre", the outer world is a metaphor for the inner world.
In the fourth stanza the allegory is openly resolved: the moonlight is Muhammad, the road of light the Sharia, the sea divine unity, the white waves the hosts of Islam, the swimmers the community. The last line of the stanza is tied to the miracle of the splitting of the moon at the beginning of the sura al-Qamar (54:1). The fifth and sixth stanzas draw a darker conclusion from the same scene: the "silver cypress" of moonlight on the sea is, beside the whole of the dark sea, like a small raised finger of witness; believers are few, the dark waves many.
In the seventh stanza the poet widens the allegory: this world is not the only place where the Truth appears; there are countless worlds drowned in light, and beside them the sun is a spark. This is the feeling of cosmic breadth seen in the divan's astronomical poems. The saying "Go down to earth and sin" in the eighth stanza recalls with irony man's place before the sinless dwellers of the heavens. The last stanza ends with the concept of "kesâfet", density: the material density that weighs down the spirit is the cause of all faults. The second reading the copyist recorded for the ninth stanza suggests, too, that the poem was not written once and left.
Bibliography
- Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 53-55 (poem no. 209; manuscript fol. 57a-57b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf
Online sources
