Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefāʿīlün mefāʿīlün feʿūlün

Gezer āfāḳda bir ebr-i giryān
Güneş ḳorḳar libās-ı māteminden
Arar gökde, arar yerde o berşi
Bulunmaz sevdigi aġlar ġamından
Ricā eyler bulutlar cūy-bāra:
"Ṭolaş bir kerre baḳ var mı o berşi ?
Bu vādīden ṣadef eylerseñ eyle
Gelir bizden o maṣraflar pey-ā-pey"
İder teşmīr-i sāḳenhār-ı pür çūş
Ḳoşar baḥre, ṣapar gāhīce berre
Baş urdıḳça biḥārepürsiş eyler
Görür pürsişdedir ḫūrşīd ü zerre
Ṣorar enhāra deryā: Aṣlıñız kim
Dir anlar: "Bizleri ebritdi tevlīd
O da sizden tevellüd eylemişdir
Ḥarāretle sizi öpdükçe ḫūrşīd"
Hemān enhārı deryālar ḳucaḳlar
Temās eyler acı, ṭatlı dudaḳlar
Virir maḥṣūlünü ammā hevāya
Egerçi ẓāhiren ḳoynunda saḳlar
Teceddüdler, teʿayyünler fürūzān
Ṭurur gördükleriñ cümle girīzān
Olur peyveste deryā evc-peymā
Döner tekrar olur deryāya rīzān
Vardar ovasından geçiyorum vaḳit: ṣabaḥ saʿat 11.

In English

1. A weeping cloud wanders the horizons; the sun fears its garb of mourning; it searches in the sky, it searches on earth for that (which it seeks); it does not find its beloved and weeps for grief.

2. The clouds beg the stream: "Go round once and look, is that (which we seek) there? If you would make a pearl shell of this valley, do; those costs will come from us one after another."

3. The foaming stream rolls up its sleeves; it runs to the sea, at times it strays onto the land; each time it strikes its head it asks the seas; it sees that the sun and the mote too are asking.

4. The sea asks the rivers: "Who is your origin?" They say: "The cloud gave birth to us; and it was born of you, as the sun kissed you with its heat."

5. At once the seas embrace the rivers; bitter and sweet lips touch; yet the sea gives its yield to the air, though outwardly it keeps it in its bosom.

6. Renewals, individuations shine; all you see is fleeing; the sea rises to the heights and reaches them; it turns again and pours into the sea.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The water cycle becomes a tale of searching in the six quatrains titled "Seyyâh-ı bî-vukûf", the uninformed traveller. The cloud wanders the horizons weeping and seeks its beloved; it asks the stream for help, the stream runs to the sea; the sea asks the rivers their origin and learns that the cloud gave birth to the rivers and that the cloud was born of the sea kissed by the sun. So the seeker and the sought turn out to be different states of the same water. The "uninformed traveller" of the title is the water itself, wandering without knowing that what it seeks is its own origin.

The poem joins a knowledge of nature told in nineteenth century school books, evaporation, condensation, rain and flow, with the Sufi idea of "return to one's origin". The "teceddüdler, taayyünler", renewals and individuations, of the last quatrain tie in with the divan's idea of a world renewed at every moment: every shape we see is passing, while the essence goes round and pours into the sea again. The note at the end of the poem is a record of date and place rarely seen in Cûdî's divan: it was written on 13 May 1320 in the Rumi calendar, that is, 26 May 1904, at eleven in the morning, as the train was passing through the Vardar plain. The "Şimendifer" poems that follow directly in the divan are also products of this journey.

Bibliography

  • Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 55-56 (poem no. 210; manuscript fol. 57b-58a). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf

Online sources