Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefāʿilün feʿilātün mefāʿilün feʿilün

Kitāb-ı kevni muvāfıḳdır itseler taʿbīr
Kitāb-ı mümteniʿ elḥall-i ḳableʾt-tefsīr
Nemed maḳāṣıd-ı ṭūl u dırāz ʿömr-i ḳaṣīr
Ḥuṣūl-i maʾrifet-i ḥażret-i ilāh-i ḳadīr
Baḳılsa cümle cihān ʿaynı maḳṣada ḫadim
Bu ittiḥāda ḫalel virmez iḫtilāf-ı keŝīr
Tıbāʾ-ı ḫalḳ-ı taḥarrī-i ḫālıḳa mecbūl
İder ḳabāʾiḥe nefret, maḥāsini tevḳīr
Nüfūs-ı nāṭıḳa ʿirfānı nisbetinde ider
Vücūd u ḳudret-i ḥaḳḳı taṣavvur u taṣvīr
Egerçi ʿacz-i beşer ḥāʾil-i ḥaḳīḳatdir
Faḳat odur iden Allāh u ekberi tekbīr
Yazıḳ envāʿ-i şerīfi düşürdi birbirine
Bu gīr-ü-dār-ı teḳāżā-yı ʿālem-i tedbīr
Birāderān iken evlād-ı Ādem ü Havvā
İder belāyı cehāletle birbirin tedmīr
Kimi mezellet-i vaḥşetle bādeye peymā
Kimi refāh-ı temeddünle vaḳfe-gīr-i maṣīr
Kimi vücūdu beni nevʿini ider ihlāk
Kimi ḫamāid-i hem-cinsini ḳılar tenvīr
Kemāle meyl cibillīdir ādem oġlunda
Uṣūl-i terbiye nāḳıṣ, delīl-i pür-taḳṣīr

In English

1. If they set out to interpret the book of being, that is fitting; but it is a book whose solution is impossible before its commentary.

2. The end of the long aims of a short life is to attain knowledge of God the Almighty. (The word opening the line is unclear.)

3. Looked at closely, the whole world serves the same purpose; countless differences do not harm this unity.

4. The natures of men are created inclined to seek the Creator; they loathe ugliness and honour beauty.

5. Rational souls conceive and depict God's being and power in proportion to their knowledge.

6. It is true that man's weakness is a barrier to the truth; but it is that very weakness which cries the takbir "Allahu ekber".

7. Alas, the grabbing and tussling of the world of contrivance has set the noble human race against itself.

8. Though the children of Adam and Eve are brothers, through ignorance they bring calamity on one another and destroy one another.

9. Some roam the deserts in the abasement of savagery, some find their halting-place in cities amid the comforts of civilization.

10. Some destroy the very existence of their own kind, some bring light to the darkness of their fellows.

11. The inclination to perfection is innate in the son of Adam; but the method of education is lacking, and the guide is full of faults.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Three Parts of Bewilderment

In the thesis poems 39, 40 and 41 are additionally marked (1), (2) and (3), and the first bears the heading "Tahayyür", falling into bewilderment. The three, written in the same metre, form a series revolving round the same questions: what is the universe, how can man read it, why does mankind destroy itself? This first part opens the question with the image of a book. Being is a book and can be interpreted, but it is impossible to solve before its commentary; that is, a key is first needed to read it.

The third and fourth couplets are a kind of moral philosophy: all the differences of the world serve a single end, and human nature is inclined to seek the Creator, to dislike the ugly and to honour the beautiful. The sixth couplet holds a paradox. Man's weakness is a barrier to his seeing the truth, but it is that same weakness that cries "Allahu ekber", God is greatest; recognizing greatness is born of knowing one's smallness.

A Teacher's Diagnosis

After the seventh couplet the tone changes and the poem turns to the state of mankind. The brother-children of Adam and Eve destroy one another through ignorance; some live in savagery in the desert, some in the comforts of civilization in the city; some destroy their own kind, some enlighten their fellows. The last couplet gives the diagnosis of a poet who spent his life teaching: man's inclination to perfection is innate, the fault lies in the method of education and the inadequacy of the guide. This outlook, which counts ignorance the source of wars and enmity, is close to the Constitutional-era idea of salvation through education.

Bibliography

  • Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 47-48 (poem no. 39; manuscript fol. 14b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf

Online sources