Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿilün

Var imiş şimdi, ya bundan evvel
Düşmen-i saʿy u ʿamel bir tenbel
Sürmeyüp ʿömri içinde işe el
Dir imiş bence kesel ʿayn-ı ʿasel
Ne gelirse öñüme yer içerim
Şu cihāndan naṣıl olsa geçerim
Ḥükemādan geçinüp hem de ḥerīf
Ekŝer ḥalḳı idermiş tezyīf
Baḳ ne söyler imiş ol ẕāt-ı şerīf
“Bülehā bilse ʿaṭālet ne laṭīf”
Şöyle bir köşede rāḥat yaşarım
Şu çalışḳanlara vallāh şaşarım
Köhne dünyāya kim atmış ki temel
Ben daḫi eyleyeyim ṭarḥ-ı emel
Çekilir mi bu kadar ceng ü cedel
Baḳmaya cürmüme ḥaḳḳ azze ve cel
Çūnki ṭāʿat daḫi müşkil bence
Ḳalḳamam öyle ṣabāḥ irkence
Kimi ıṣlāḥ-ı enāme-i sāʿi
Kendi ḥaḳḳında belā-yı dāʿi
Kimi ġayrıñ sever bī-çūn-i rāʿi
Kimi ḳavvāl u kimi semmāʿi
Ḳapumuñ mandalını sürgülerim
ʿĀlemiñ ḥāline gizli gülerim
Çiftçiniñ düşmez elinden ṣapanı
Ṣavurur biçdigiñi un-ḳapanı
İşi sevmem severim iş yapanı
Allāh ıṣlāḥ ide yoldan ṣapanı
Düşünüp ben de yoruldum ḫayli
Var imiş saʿye ḳafamıñ meyili
Ḥażreti saʿy aña açdı deheni
Didi “Kim virdi saña pīreheni”
Yoḳ yoḳ ey cānlı cenāze kefeni
Sevmez Allāh da beni sevmeyeni
Ṭuymadıñ mı ki buyurmuş mevlā
Saʿyeden başḳa yoḳ insāna rehā
Yedigiñ, giydigiñ āŝār mıdır
Yatdıġıñ evde benim dārımdır
ʿĀṭılān sāʾil-i bī-ʿar mıdır
Çalışan nān-u niʿam-ḥᵛār mıdır
İste benden ki ey aḥmaḳ vireyim
Yoḳsa aç yatda saña ḥaḳ vireyim

In English

1. Now, or some time before, there was a lazy man, an enemy of toil and labour. All his life he never set his hand to work, and he would say, "To me idleness (kesel) is honey (asel) itself: whatever comes before me I eat and drink; one way or another I shall pass from this world."

2. The fellow passed himself off as a sage besides, and looked down on most people. Listen to what that noble person used to say: "If only fools knew how sweet idleness is! I live at ease in a corner like this; by God, I marvel at these hard workers."

3. "Who has laid a foundation in this old world, that I too should lay the foundation of a hope? Can one bear so much strife and wrangling? May God the Mighty and Glorious overlook my fault; for worship too is hard for me, I cannot get up so early in the morning."

4. "Some strive to reform mankind and call down trouble on themselves; some are shepherds who love others without return; some are singers of hymns, some listeners at the samâ'. As for me, I bolt the latch of my door and laugh in secret at the state of the world."

5. "The plough never falls from the farmer's hand; the flour market winnows what he reaps. I do not love work, I love the one who works; may God set right the one who has strayed. Thinking all this over I too have grown quite tired; it seems my head too has a leaning towards work."

6. His Excellency Effort opened his mouth and said to him: "Who gave you this shirt? No, no, you living corpse, it is a shroud! God too does not love one who does not love me. Have you not heard that the Lord has said: for man there is no salvation but in striving?"

7. "Whose work is what you eat and what you wear? The house you sleep in is my house too. Are the idle shameless beggars, and the workers the ones who eat bread and bounty? You fool, ask of me and I shall give; otherwise go to bed hungry, and I shall grant that you are right."

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Lazy Man and His Excellency Effort

"Tenbel" (The Lazy Man) is the liveliest of the moral poems in the divan. Zeynep Adıyahşi records that this poem was much admired in the poet's circle. The poem opens like a tale: "Now, or some time before" there was a lazy man. The first five stanzas are the lazy man's own words, and the last two lines of each stanza sum up his philosophy of life like a rhymed maxim: whatever comes before me I eat and drink, one way or another I shall pass from this world; I bolt the latch of my door and laugh in secret at the state of the world. The language constantly draws near to everyday Turkish with words such as "herif" (fellow), "vallâh şaşarım" (by God, I marvel) and "ṣabāḥ irkence" (early in the morning).

The poem's humour lies in the lazy man's self-defence. In the first stanza a play of sound is built between "kesel" (idleness) and "asel" (honey); in the second the lazy man counts himself among the sages; in the third he says he puts off even worship because getting up early in the morning is hard. The end of the fifth stanza is the funniest place in the poem: the lazy man has grown tired from thinking all this over and marvels at himself, "it seems my head too has a leaning towards work".

In the last two stanzas the personified "Hazret-i Sa'y", His Excellency Effort, takes the floor. He says that the lazy man's shirt is a shroud, that he is "a living corpse", and recalls the verse "man has nothing but what he strives for" (al-Najm 53:39). The closing line, "otherwise go to bed hungry, and I shall grant that you are right", ends the counsel with a joke. With its six-line stanzas, its short aruz pattern that flows close to syllabic metre, and its fairy-tale opening, this poem can be counted an example of Cûdî's effort to write moral verse for children and the young.

Bibliography

  • Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 66-67 (poem no. 49; manuscript fol. 21a-22a). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf
  • Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 3. http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf

Online sources