Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefāʿīlün mefāʿīlün mefāʿīlün mefāʿīlün

Hezārān sāl uçup sürʿatle itdim cūde cevlānı
Geçirdim ḥalḳa şems eṭrāfına beyżī-i ṭūlānī
Güneşlerden idüp teşkīl bir çārūb-i nūrānī
Feżā-yı muẓlimi gördüm ki yoḳ tenvīriñ imkānı
Sebāḥatle çalışdım geçmege deryā-yı sübḥānı
Ne baḥriñ ḥaddi var ne sābiḥātiñ anda pāyānı
Baña beñzer nice ḥayrānları gördüm ki seyrānda
Alup eṭrāfına seyyāresin mestāne devrānda
Żiyādan nūrdan biñ seyl aḳarda şöyle her yanda
Düşer baḥr-ı muḥīṭe ṣanki bir ḳaṭre ṣu nīsānda
Sebāḥatle çalışdım geçmege deryā-yı sübḥānı
Ne baḥriñ ḥaddi var ne sābiḥātiñ anda pāyānı
Ḳaṭār-ı nūr-ı teşkīl eyledim ʿazm ü sefer ḳıldım
Nice şemse naẓar ḳıldım nice ṭamsa güzer ḳıldım
Teṣādüf itdigim cezb eyledim baʿżan ḥazer ḳıldım
Ḳuvā-yı ʿālemi cemʿ eyleyüp pervāze per ḳıldım
Sebāḥatle çalışdım geçmege deryā-yı sübḥānı
Ne baḥriñ ḥaddi var ne sābiḥātiñ anda pāyānı
Güzergāhımdaki iḳlīmler titrerdi nāmımdan
Düşerdi velvele sükkānına ḳurb-ı ḫırāmımdan
Ḳaçardı ceyş-i ẓulmet mevkib-i nūr-iḥtişāmımdan
Gelirdi muttaṣıl imdād, rūm u mıṣır u şāmımdan
Sebāḥatle çalışdım geçmege deryā-yı sübḥānı
Ne baḥriñ ḥaddi var ne sābiḥātiñ anda pāyānı
Süreyyā fırlamış birḳaç güher-tāc-ı geyimdendir
Şihāb u necm-i ŝāḳıb baḥşiş u pey-der-peyimdendir
Felekde kehkeşanlar mess-i mikvātı kemīdendir
ʿAlevler lavlar u volkanlar āh-ı lā şemīdendir
Sebāḥatle çalışdım geçmeğe deryā-yı sübḥānı
Ne baḥruñ ḥaddi var, ne sābihātiñ anda pāyānı
Benim daʿvā-yı şiʿrimdir ki yüksekdir delīlimden
Ŝüreyyā ṣanma terṣīʿāt-ı iklīl-i kelīlimden
Güneşlerdir muʿaẓẓam kendi metbūʿ-ı celīlimden
Uzaḳdır kehkeşanlar mess-i temŝīl-i ẕelīlimden
Sebāḥatle çalışdım geçmege deryā-yı sübḥānı
Ne baḥruñ haddi var, ne sābihātiñ anda pāyānı
Der-i mevlā ne hoş bir mevlevī dergāhıdır ʿālī
Semāʿ eyler şemūs olmuş mukaddem, peykler nālī
Yem-i subbūḥu ṣanma cünbiş-i tesbīḥden ḫālī
Bu deryā "sebbiḥ isme Rabbükü'l-aʿlā" ile mālī
Sebāḥatle çalışdım geçmege deryā-yı sübhānı
Ne baḥruñ ḥaddi var, ne sābiḥātiñ anda pāyānı
Oḳu "ves-sābiḥāt-i sebḥān"ı "sabḥan ṭavīle" yi
Sebāḥat eyleyen icrāmı seyr et baḥr-ı mevlāyı
Ṭavan ṣanma şu māvī saḳf-ı merfūʿ-ı muʿallāyı
Ḫayāl-i ʿacz öper peyveste pāy-ı ʿarş-ı aʿlāyı
Sebaḥatle çalıştım geçmege deryā-yı sübḥānı
Ne baḥruñ ḥaddi var, ne sābiḥatiñ anda pāyānı
Sedīr-i sidre ʿaḳl-ı külle sedd-i müntehā olmuş
Ne sidre cümle ʿālem zīr-i pāyinde hebā olmuş
Nice milyon güneşler dāmeninde bir sehā olmuş
Anıñ mā-fevḳi her türlü taṣavvurdan rehā olmuş
Sebāḥatle çalıştım geçmege deryā-yı sübḥānı
Ne baḥruñ haddi var, ne sābiḥātiñ anda pāyānı
Temāşā eylediñ mi mescid-i aḳṣā-yı ey Cūdī
Düşürmüş secde-i kübrā-yı vecde cümle mevcūdı
Düşün artıḳ nedir bu secde-gāhıñ mescūdı ẕāt
Fe-lā fiʾl-yemmi yemşī ve'stevāʾl-fulku ʿalaʾl-Cūdī
Sebāḥatle çalışdım geçmege deryā-yı sübḥānı
Ne baḥruñ ḥaddi var, ne sābiḥātiñ anda pāyānı

In English

1. For thousands of years I flew with speed and roamed the void; I drew a long elliptical ring around the sun. Making a luminous broom (a tail) out of suns, I saw the dark void where there is no possibility of light. I strove to cross God's sea by swimming; neither has the sea a bound, nor have those who swim there an end.

2. In my wandering I saw many bewildered ones like me, taking their planets about them and turning as if drunk. A thousand torrents of radiance and light flow on every side so that each falls into the encircling ocean like a drop of water in April rain. I strove to cross God's sea by swimming; neither has the sea a bound, nor have those who swim there an end.

3. I formed a train of light, set out and travelled; I gazed on many suns, passed many extinguished (stars?). Some of those I chanced upon I drew to me, from some I kept away; gathering the forces of the world I made wings for flight. I strove to cross God's sea by swimming; neither has the sea a bound, nor have those who swim there an end.

4. The climes along my path trembled at my name; my approaching march threw their people into uproar. The army of darkness fled from my luminous and majestic procession; help came without end from my Rûm, my Egypt and my Damascus. I strove to cross God's sea by swimming; neither has the sea a bound, nor have those who swim there an end.

5. The scattered Pleiades are a few pearls of the crown I wear; shooting stars and piercing sparks are among my gifts one after another. The galaxies in the sky (the second half is not entirely clear) ...; flames, lavas and volcanoes (this line too is not entirely clear) .... I strove to cross God's sea by swimming; neither has the sea a bound, nor have those who swim there an end.

6. (But these) are my poetic claim, and it is higher than my proof; do not take the Pleiades for the inlay of my weary crown. Suns are great through their own sublime Lord; galaxies are far from the touch of my lowly comparisons. I strove to cross God's sea by swimming; neither has the sea a bound, nor have those who swim there an end.

7. The Lord's threshold is a lofty Mevlevî lodge, how fine; the suns, gone ahead, whirl in the semâ, the planets play the reed flute. Do not think the sea of the All-Glorified empty of the motion of glorification; this sea is full of "Glorify the name of your Lord, the Most High". I strove to cross God's sea by swimming; neither has the sea a bound, nor have those who swim there an end.

8. Recite "By those who swim along" and "a long swimming"; behold the heavenly bodies swimming, the sea of the Lord. Do not take this raised and lofty blue ceiling for a ceiling; the fancy of helplessness ever kisses the foot of the Highest Throne. I strove to cross God's sea by swimming; neither has the sea a bound, nor have those who swim there an end.

9. The throne of the Lote Tree has become the farthest bound for the Universal Intellect; not the Lote Tree alone, the whole world has become dust beneath its feet. Many millions of suns have become in its skirt like Suhâ (a faint star); what lies above it is freed from every kind of conception. I strove to cross God's sea by swimming; neither has the sea a bound, nor have those who swim there an end.

10. O Cûdî, have you beheld the Furthest Mosque? It has cast all that exists into the great prostration of ecstasy. Think now: what is the one prostrated to in this place of prostration? The Essence. (Arabic:) "It walks no more upon the sea; the ark has come to rest on al-Cûdî." I strove to cross God's sea by swimming; neither has the sea a bound, nor have those who swim there an end.

Literary and Historical Commentary

"Necm-i gîsû-dâr", the star with tresses, is the heavenly body popularly called the tailed star or broom star, the comet. In this müseddes Cûdî gives the word to the comet itself: in the first five stanzas the star tells of its journey of thousands of years, the long ellipse it draws around the sun, the luminous "broom" that forms its tail and the dark voids it passes. The other suns turning with their planets about them, the torrents of light and the encircling ocean carry the late nineteenth century astronomy's picture of the heavens into the language of divan poetry. The passage of Halley's comet in 1910 took up much space in the Ottoman press; the poem may be connected with this event, but there is no date or open reference in the text.

In the fourth and fifth stanzas the star's voice turns into a ruler's boast: climes tremble at its name, the army of darkness flees its procession, the Pleiades are a pearl of its crown, shooting stars its gifts. The old belief that comets were heralds of disaster gives this boast a background. Since the last two lines of the fifth stanza cannot be fully resolved as read in the thesis, they have been left blank in the translation.

In the sixth stanza the tone changes: all these words are "my poetic claim" and higher than proof; the suns take their greatness from their own sublime Lord. From the seventh stanza on, the sky is seen as a Mevlevî lodge: the suns whirl in the semâ, the planets play the reed flute. The "sâbihât", swimmers, of the refrain comes from the verse of the sura al-Nâzi'ât, "By those who swim along" (79:3); the eighth stanza names this verse openly together with the phrase "a long swimming" of the sura al-Muzzammil (73:7). The heavenly bodies are thought of as swimming in a sea, and this sea is God's boundlessness.

The last stanza plays on the poet's name. The sura Hûd tells that after the flood Noah's ark came to rest on Mount Cûdî (11:44); Cûdî took his pen name from this mountain. The comet's journey across the endless sea ends with an Arabic line: "the ark has come to rest on al-Cûdî". This Arabic line is given in the thesis in Arabic script; the reading is ours and was made by correcting a letter error in the thesis.

Bibliography

  • Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 25-27 (poem no. 184; manuscript fol. 44a-44b-45a). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf

Online sources