Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fāʿilātün fāʿilātün fāʿilün

Olmuş idi Yūsuf-ı ṭabʿ-ı melūl
Gāʿib-i ġayyābe-i cübbü'l-ḫumūl
İtmege ārāyiş-i Mıṣr-ı ḳabūl
Eyledi Cibrīl nigāhıñ nüzūl
Ḥayyü'l-ilāhī mi nesin ey Besīm
Nuṭḳa getirdiñ beni Allāh ʿalīm
Küsmüş idim ṭāliʿ-i bed-kīşime
Renk ü ḫafā virmiş idim ʿayşıma
Ey şeb-i muẓlimde çıḳup peşime
Sen seher olduñ şeb-i teşvīşime
Nūru'l-ilāhī mi nesin ey Besīm
Cilveleriñ nüzhet-i dārü'l-naʿīm
Nāmeleriñ berk-i gül-i nev-bahār
Būy virir her süḫan-ı müşkbār
Nükte gibi nuṭḳa idüp istitār
Dilde maʿānī gibi ḳıldıñ ḳarār
Rūḥu'l-ilāhī mi nesin ey Besīm
Gülşen-i ḳalbimdesin olduñ Nesīm
Haydi göñül sür yüzini pāyına
Böylece ʿarż it derdü'l-cāyına
Ṭabʿıña olsaydı gönül āyına
Ġam yüzi görmez idi herāyine
Lüṭfu'llāh mı nesin ey Besīm
Sengelicek göñüle gider ḳayd-ı bīm
Nuṭḳ-ı revān-baḫşıñ iken hep ḥayāt
Ey ʿaceb öldirdi beni iltiḳāt
Gösteriyor feyz demek muʿcizāt
Cān virir enfāsıña ʿaẓm-ı rufāt
Nefḥü'l-ilāhī mi nesin ey Besīm
Nuṭḳuña eyler ḳısm-ı ʿaẓm-ı remīm
Sen uyanıḳ ben ise meşġūl-ı ḫvāb
Eyliyorum ṭoġrısı senden ḥicāb
Lāyıḳım itseñ de efendim ʿitāb
Ḳaldı ger menāmeleriñ bī-cevāb
Nevḥa-i ʿāşıḳ mı nesin ey Besīm
Gūş-ı teġāfülde olursın ʿadīm
Eyledim eyvāh seni dīde-vār
Muḥteriḳ-i nā'ire-i intiẓār
Geçdi ara yerde nice rüzgār
Çoḳ mıdır itseñ de baña iġbirār
Merdüm-i çeşmim mi nesin ey Besīm
Derd-i teraḳḳuble olursın elīm
Merdüm-i çeşmimsin ey insān-ı ʿayn
Derd-i teraḳḳub olur insāna dīn
Eylemez ebʿād bizi baʿde-bīn
İtmişim Allāh'ıma meddü'l-yedeyn
Vaṣlla ben şād olurum ey Besīm
Çekme elem Ḥażret-i Allah Kerīm
Āh mine'd-dehri ve ḥālātihī
Eşgale ẕihnī bi-ḫayālātihī

In English

1. The Joseph of my nature had grown weary, lost at the bottom of the well of obscurity; to adorn the Egypt of acceptance, your glance came down like Gabriel. Are you divine life, or what are you, Besîm? You brought me back to speech; God knows.

2. I had fallen out with my ill-natured fortune; I had given my life pallor and concealment. O you who came after me in the dark night, you became the dawn of my troubled night. Are you divine light, or what are you, Besîm? Your appearances are the delight of the Garden of Bliss.

3. Your letters are rose petals of the new spring; every musk-scented word gives fragrance. Hiding in speech like a subtle point, you settled in the heart like meanings. Are you the divine spirit, or what are you, Besîm? You are in the rose garden of my heart; you have become its breeze.

4. Come, heart, rub your face at his feet; present (your grief) thus (the line is not entirely clear). Had his nature a mirror of the heart, the face of sorrow would not appear in any mirror (the line is not entirely clear). Are you God's grace, or what are you, Besîm? When you come, the bond of fear leaves the heart.

5. While your life-giving, flowing speech is all life, how strange that your kindness has killed me. Miracles show what grace means; the rotten bone takes life from your breaths. Are you the divine breath, or what are you, Besîm? Your speech (revives) the decayed bone.

6. You are awake while I am sunk in sleep; truly I feel ashamed before you. Sir, if your letters have remained unanswered, I deserve it even if you reproach me. Are you the lover's lament, or what are you, Besîm? In the ear of neglect you fade away.

7. Alas, I waited for you like an eye, burning in the fire of waiting. Much time has passed between; is it too much if you are offended with me? Are you the pupil of my eye, or what are you, Besîm? With the pain of waiting you cause pain.

8. O man of the eye, you are the pupil of my eye; the pain of waiting becomes a debt upon a man. Distances do not make us far from each other; I have opened both hands to my God. With union I shall be glad, Besîm; do not grieve, God is generous. (Arabic:) "Ah for time and its turns; it has filled my mind with its fancies."

Literary and Historical Commentary

A letter in verse, this müseddes was written to a friend named Besîm. According to Havva Tok Yıldız's thesis, Cûdî formed a friendship lasting many years with Mehmed Besim Bey, a nineteenth century Ottoman statesman and poet, and wrote a ghazal for him; the Besîm of the poem is most probably this friend. As the poem shows, Besîm sent the poet letters and poems, and the poet for a long time could not reply. The fifth line of every stanza ends with the question "... mi nesin ey Besîm?", are you ..., or what are you, Besîm?: divine life, divine light, divine spirit, God's grace, divine breath, the lover's lament, the pupil of my eye. This refrain-like repetition measures the friend's effect in each stanza by another lofty concept.

The first stanza tells through the story of Joseph what the letter did for the poet: the poet's nature lies, like Joseph cast into the well, at the bottom of obscurity; the friend's glance descends like Gabriel and raises it to the "Egypt of acceptance", that is, makes the poet speak again. In the third stanza a play of sounds is made between "Besîm" and "Nesîm", the dawn breeze; the fifth stanza, with the phrase "azm-ı remîm", decayed bone, which recalls the verse of the sura Yâ Sîn on the raising of rotten bones (36:78), likens the friend's word to a reviving breath. The sixth and seventh stanzas carry the apology for answering letters late; the last stanza closes with the consolation "God is generous" and has an Arabic couplet complaining of the turns of time added at its end. In the fourth stanza a few words in two lines yield no sense in the present reading, so these places are noted in brackets in the translation.

Bibliography

  • Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 35-36 (poem no. 191; manuscript fol. 49b-50a). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf
  • Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 7 (friendship with Besim Bey). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf

Online sources