Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefʿūlü fāʿilātü mefāʿīlü fāʿilün

Ey zümre-i sürūş-liḳā ādemī neseb
Ey maṭlaʿ-i meḥāsin-i ḳudret-nümā-yı Rab
Vaḥşetle münkesif görinür çehre-i ḥayāt
Siz luṭf idüp de sürmeseñiz ġāze-i ṭarab
Bir müncemid sükūta mübeddel olur cihān
Sizler vücūda olmasañız bāʿiŝ-i şeġab
Hep sizsiñiz medārı bütün arzūlarıñ
Fısḳ u ṣalāḥ-ı ʿāleme hep sizsiñiz sebeb
Her ḥāle biz faḳaṭ buluruz müstaʿidsizi
Sizlerce müktesebdir o kim bizce münteḫab
Biz beylerin fażīleti sizden ġarībdir
Bizden iderseñiz anı ümīdsiz ʿaceb
Bir keşmekeşde ḳaldı meziyyāt-ı merd ü zen
Mühmel bıraḳdı ṭıflı da ihmāl-i üm ü eb
Hürmet size meziyyet-i merdānedir bize
Şefḳat naṣıl ki bizlere sizlerce müsteḥab
Siz ḫilḳaten latīf ü melāʾik şiyemsiñiz
Bir gülsüñüz ki rāyiḥañız ʿismet ü edeb
Āġūş-ı pākıñızda yatan ṭıfl-ı nev-ḥayāt
Enfāsıñızla neşr idecek lemʿa yā Leheb
Bir şāʿir-i bedīʿa meʾāŝir ne ḫoş dimiş
İbdāʿ-i fikr iderken o burḳaʿ-küşā-yı şeb:
"Elbet siziñ fażīletiñiz iḳtiżā ider
Eŝmārımız olursa bezm-i ḥāʾiz-i ereb"

In English

1. O company with the faces of angels and the lineage of man; O rising-place of the beauties that show the Lord's power!

2. Did you not kindly put on the rouge of joy, the face of life would appear eclipsed with desolation.

3. Were you not the cause of a lively murmur in existence, the world would turn into a frozen silence.

4. You are ever the pivot of all desires; you are ever the cause of both the world's wickedness and its goodness.

5. We find you apt for every state; what for us is merely chosen is for you acquired.

6. The virtue of us gentlemen is a stranger beside yours; it is a wonder that you should expect it of us (the sense of the couplet is not entirely clear).

7. The merits of man and woman were left in a tug of war; the neglect of mother and father left the child neglected too.

8. Respect for you is a manly virtue for us, just as tenderness towards us is a fine thing on your part.

9. You are by creation delicate and of angelic nature; you are a rose whose scent is chastity and modesty.

10. The newly living child lying in your pure embrace will spread through your breaths either a gleam of light or the flame of (Abû) Lahab.

11. How well a poet of wondrous works said, unveiling the night while creating thought:

12. "If our fruits (our children) become a company of skill, surely it is your virtue that requires it." (The reading of the line is not entirely certain.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

"Nev'-i latîf", the delicate and graceful kind, is an Ottoman Turkish expression used for women. This poem praises women as a company with angels' faces, but ties the praise less to the beauty of the beloved than to their place in life. Women put the rouge of joy on the face of life and save the world from a frozen silence; they are the pivot of all desires and are counted the cause of both the goodness and the wickedness of the world.

The second half of the poem turns to the subject of upbringing. The seventh couplet speaks of the ongoing tug of war over the merits of man and woman, and of the neglect of mother and father leaving the child neglected; this recalls the debates over women's education carried on in the late Ottoman press. The tenth couplet expresses the mother's influence through a striking contrast: the child in her arms will become, through its mother's breath, either a gleam of light or the flame of Abû Lahab, named with his fire in the sura al-Masad. For Cûdî, who was a teacher, the child's first education is where a woman's true virtue appears. The last two couplets end with a quotation from an unnamed poet; who this poet was is not stated in the thesis.

Bibliography

  • Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 38-39 (poem no. 193; manuscript fol. 51b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf

Online sources