Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefʿūlü fāʿilātü mefāʿīlü fāʿilün

Ey sen ki benden evvel idiñ āşinā baña
Virdiñ şuhūde rūşenī-i rūşenā baña
Benlik ḫarābe-zār yine reh-berlik eylediñ
Sensin vuṣūl içünde saña reh-nümā baña
Lā-şey iken vücūd virüp cān baġışladıñ
Vācib degil mi cānımı virmek saña baña
Yā Rabb ŝenā-yı nefsüñe ʿāciz vesīleyim
Benden saña ŝenā daḫi senden ʿaṭā baña
Rūşende lāne seyr iderim zerreden seni
Gelmiş bu kevkebeyle semādan ġınā baña
Yā Rabb fenā-yı muṭlaḳadır nām-zedligim
Billāhi ben didikce gelir bir ḥayā baña
Yoḳluḳla mest-i neşʾe–i tevḥīd ḳıl müdām
Lāyıḳ saña vücūd muvāfıḳ-ı fenā baña
Kesdim ḥesābı ʿaḳldan açdım kitābıñı
ʿAşḳıñ olunca fātiḥa-i ihtidā baña
Cūdīyi eyledikce ṭabīʿat keder-peẕīr
Sen vir müdām ʿaşḳla yā Rabb ṣafā baña

In English

1. O you who knew me before I was; you gave me a bright clarity for beholding (şuhûd) you.

2. Selfhood was a ruin, yet you guided me; it is you who show me the way to reach you.

3. When I was nothing you gave me being and granted me a soul; is it not my duty to give my soul to you?

4. O Lord, I am only a feeble means of your praising yourself; from me to you praise, from you to me bounty.

5. With an enlightened heart I behold you in a mote; through this gleam riches have come down to me from the sky. (The opening words of the first line are unclear as read in the thesis; this is the direction of the sense.)

6. O Lord, my candidacy is for absolute annihilation (fenâ); by God, whenever I say "I" a shame comes over me.

7. Make me for ever drunk with nonbeing and with the joy of God's unity; being befits you, nonbeing suits me.

8. I closed my accounts with reason and opened your book, once your love became for me the opening (fâtiha) of guidance.

9. Whenever nature brings sorrow to Cûdî, O Lord, give me lasting joy through love.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The divan's second poem titled "Münâcât" (supplication) leans more on the Sufi idea of "fenâ" (annihilation of the self) than the plain entreaty of the first. Before the redif (refrain word) "baña" (to me) come the "-â" rhymes âşinâ, rûşenâ, reh-nümâ, atâ, gınâ, hayâ, fenâ, ihtidâ and safâ. Each couplet is built on a correspondence that sets the relation between servant and Lord at two poles: from me praise, from you bounty; being to you, nonbeing to me.

The opening couplet points to an eternal knowledge by saying that God knew His servant while he did not yet exist. The third couplet draws a debt from this knowledge: one who was brought into being from nothing owes his soul. The word "nâm-zedlik", candidacy, in the sixth couplet is worth noticing; Cûdî uses this word, which spread at the end of the nineteenth century with the language of elections and official posts, in the sense of being a candidate for fenâ, for annihilating oneself in God. The shame of saying "I" in the same couplet is the plainest expression of the Sufi view of the self as a veil.

The eighth couplet sets reason against love. The poet says he closed his accounts with reason and opened God's book, and that love became for him the "fâtiha" of guidance; Fâtiha is both the opening sura of the Qur'an and the beginning of anything. The pen name, in the last couplet, stands between the sorrow that nature gives and the joy that love gives. The thesis gives "Rūşende lāne" in the fifth couplet; corrected to "rûşen-dilâne", with an enlightened heart, it falls into place, though the correction remains a guess.

Bibliography

  • Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 20-21 (poem no. 8; manuscript fol. 4b-5a). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf

Online sources