Original Arabic Text

Metre: Rajaz (no metre is given in the thesis)

اعزتی اعزتی ترحموا بذلتی
قداقتفیت اثرکم فانتمو ادلتی
سعیت فی طریقکم وما انا بمسرع
فشد رجل همتی من الهوا تعلتی
انا الغی بالعنأ والهویبالهوا
اناالعلیل و معلل بکم علة
وقعت فی غیابة الغوایة اخرجوبیا
خذوا یدی لا توأخذوا عمی الجبلة
الا رجعوا و رائکم من الشموس اقتبس
سحی السحاب انجمی سری الطریق ضلت
توجهی الیکمو فوجهون لمعة
ایا شموس یابدور نوروا اهلتی
اسادتی رجوت ان تعاونوا فقیرکم
انالعدیم والمقل مااشد قلتی
فزادکم هی التقی و حملی المأتم
فاسرعت مطیکم وابطأت شملتی
فنوحتی هی الحداء والانین درتی
لعلنی - اذا ونت - اهید متشمعلتی
ترحلی بکم بکفکم زمان ذمتی
هدیت هدی مهجتی جنابکم محلتی
حییت عندحیکم تحیتی لاهلها
خیأمکم فبینهن الفیت مظلتی
فحبکم مححیتی ومهجتی و بهجتی
وعهدکم علی وفائه ابتناء ملتی

Reading in Latin letters made for this page:

Eʿizzetî eʿizzetî terahhamû bi-zilletî
Kadi'ktefeytu eserakum fe-entumû edilletî
Saʿaytu fî tarîkikum ve mâ ene bi-musriʿin
Fe-şedde ricle himmetî mine'l-hevâ taʿilletî
Ene'l-gaviyyu bi'l-ʿanâʾi ve'l-heviyyu bi'l-hevâ
Ene'l-ʿalîlu ve muʿallelun bi[kum] ʿilletî
Vakaʿtu fî gayâbeti'l-gıvâyeti ahricû bî
Huzû yedî lâ tuʾâhizû ʿama'l-cibilletî
E-lâ irciʿû verâʾekum mine'ş-şumûsi aktebis
[?]
Teveccuhî ileykumû fe-vechuhunne lemʿatun
E-yâ şumûsu yâ budûru nevvirû ehilletî
E-sâdetî recevtu en tuʿâvinû fakîrakum
Ene'l-ʿadîmu ve'l-mukillu mâ eşedde killetî
Fe-zâdukum hiye't-tukâ ve himliye'l-meʾâsimu
Fe-esraʿat matiyyukum ve ebtaʾat şimilletî
Fe-nevhatî hiye'l-hudâʾu ve'l-enînu [?]
Leʿallenî izâ venet [?]
[?]
Hudîtu [?] cenâbukum mahalletî
Hayyeytu ʿinde hayyikum tahiyyetî li-ehlihâ
Hıyâmukum fe-beynehunne elfeytu mizalletî
Fe-hubbukum mahaccetî ve muhcetî ve behcetî
Ve ʿahdukum ʿalâ vefâʾihî'btinâʾu milletî

In English

1. O my dear ones, my dear ones, have mercy on my lowliness; I have followed your trace, for you are my guides.

2. I ran upon your path, but I am not swift; the pretexts of desire have bound the foot of my resolve.

3. I am the one led astray by toil and fallen through passion; I am the sick one, and my ailment is afflicted (by you?) (in the first version: with every ailment).

4. I fell into the depths of the well of error; bring me out; take my hand, do not hold me to account for the blindness of my nature.

5. Turn back, that I may take light from the suns behind you; (the second line could not be read) ...

6. My turning is towards you, for your faces are a gleam; O suns, O full moons, illumine my crescents.

7. My masters, I hoped you would help your poor one; I am destitute and needy; how severe is my want!

8. Your provision is piety, my load is sins; your mounts sped on, while my camel fell behind.

9. My lament is the caravan song, and my moaning (unread) ...; perhaps, when (my camel) tires, (unread) ...

10. (Unread) ...; (unread) ... your threshold is my dwelling.

11. At your encampment I gave my greeting to its people; your tents, among them I found my shelter.

12. Your love is my road, my heart's blood and my joy; and on the keeping of your covenant the building of my faith is founded.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Directly after the previous Arabic poem in the divan stands a second version of the same poem with the note "correction and addition, change of title". This note shows openly that Cûdî worked on his own poem like a draft. The title has changed: in place of the first version's "plea of the one on foot to the mounted men", here there is "the traveller's plea to the guides of the caravans, or to the generous of the caravans". The contrast of walker and rider turns into the images of a caravan journey.

Three couplets have been added in the new version, and they make the caravan image concrete. In the eighth couplet the saints' provision is piety and the poet's load is sins; their mounts move on swiftly while the poet's camel falls behind. The ninth couplet joins the "hudâ", the song sung to drive camels on, with the poet's lament. In the eleventh couplet the traveller at last reaches the saints' encampment, gives his greeting and finds a shelter among their tents; this scene of arrival, absent from the first version, prepares a more hopeful ending for the poem. The order of the couplets has also changed, and the couplet asking for light from the suns has been brought forward. A few places where the Arabic-script typesetting is corrupt could not be read in this version either and remain blank in the translation.

Bibliography

  • Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 46-47 (poem no. 203; manuscript fol. 54a-54b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf

Online sources