Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefʿūlü fāʿilātü mefāʿīlü fāʿilün
Taḥrīk ider cenāḥıñızı ẕevḳ-i bālıñız
Bir mūsiḳī-i şevḳ ü ṭarabdır fiʿāliñiz
Bir ḫoş vızıltı, ṭatlı uġultu revān olur
Birden hevāyı oḳşasa ṭanbūr-ı bālıñız
Öpsem diyüp gidersiñiz ebsem çiçekleri
Pek şāʿirāne saʿy-i ḥalāvet-meʿāliñiz
Zenbūrlar! Melek misiñiz nūr yersiñiz
Ol nūrdan mı ṭatlı ḥaṣūr böyle bālıñız
Var iḳtiṣāda ṣoñ derece ihtimāmıñız
Bir İngiliz melīkesi varsa ḳrālıñız
Bir tek ḳovan büyük medeniyyet nümūnesi
ʿAḳla veleh virir hüner-i bī-miŝāliñiz
Bir şehr-i muntaẓam ki müretteb soḳaḳları
Dārü'ṣ-ṣınāʿalar o müseddes ḥicāliñiz
Tedbīr-i menzil ögretiyor kim reʾīseñiz
Bir intiẓām-ı tām ile işler ricāliñiz
Efrād-ı ġayr-ı fāʿileyi ṭard iderseñiz
Taʿṭīle gelmez encümen-i iştiġāliñiz
Kimyāda, fenn-i hendese, ʿilm-i idārede
ʿİnde'l-ḳıyās bizlere fāʾiḳ kemāliñiz
Ṭaġlarda ḫāne yapmaġa vaṣy eylemiş size
Taʿlīm-i ṭıbb iden melek-i ẕü'l-celāliñiz
Āŝār-ı luṭf-ı terbiye-i Rabb-i ʿālemīn
Memdūḥdur ʿacīn-i şifā iştimāliñiz
Ḳur'ān şifā-yı şehdiñize aʿdel-i şühūd
Memdūḫdur ʿacīn-i ṣafā iştimāliñiz
Siz beñzemezsiñiz şu hevāmıñ ʿavāmına
Maḫṣūṣ kendi nevʿiñize kendi ḥāliñiz
Maḥfūẓdur taʿarruẓ-ı düşmandan ülkeñiz
Bir ecnebī yanaşsa yamāndır cidāliñiz
Bir ittiḥād-ı ḫāṣ u vaṭan-perverānedir
Cemʿiyyetiñ niẓāmına hep imtiŝāliñiz
Ancaḳ miyānda vālideñizdir ḫatīrıñız
Yoḳ emrine muḫālefete iḥtimāliñiz
ʿAzm-i maḳām-ı diger idince reʾīseñiz
Ḫoşdur peyince ḳāfile-i iḥtifāliñiz
Sizlerde var mı sirḳat ile defʿ-i iştihā
Maḫlūṭ olur mı bāl ile gāhī vebāliñiz
Bizler ki sözde ehl-i ṣalāḥ ü ʿadāletiz
Eñ müttaḳīmiz olmada düzd-i nevāliñiz
Şīrīn, ḥayāta ḥāṣıl-ı saʿyi ḥayāt-veş
Īżāh ider bu ḥikmeti rızḳ-ı ḥelāliñiz
In English
1. The delight of your honey sets your wings in motion; your doings are a music of longing and joy.
2. A pleasant buzzing, a sweet humming flows when the tambour of your wings suddenly caresses the air.
3. Saying "let me kiss", you go to the mute flowers; your effort that ends in sweetness is very poet-like.
4. Bees! Are you angels, do you eat light? Is your honey so sweet a harvest of that light?
5. You give the utmost care to thrift; if you have a king, it is an English queen.
6. A single hive is a model of great civilization; your matchless skill astonishes reason.
7. A well-ordered city whose streets are laid out in rows; those hexagonal chambers of yours are workshops.
8. Your chief teaches household management; your men work in perfect order.
9. You drive out the members who do not work; your assembly of labour never goes into recess.
10. In chemistry, in geometry, in the science of administration, your perfection is superior to ours by comparison.
11. Your angel of majesty, who teaches medicine, enjoined you to build houses in the mountains.
12. Works of the kindness of the nurture of the Lord of the worlds: your carrying a paste of healing is praised.
13. (Or:) The Qur'an is the most just witness to the healing of your honey; your carrying a paste of delight is praised.
14. You do not resemble the common herd of these insects; your state is proper to your own kind.
15. Your land is guarded from the enemy's attack; if a foreigner draws near, your fight is fierce.
16. A union of your own, patriotic; you always conform to the order of the community.
17. In your midst the only one you heed is your mother; there is no chance of your going against her command.
18. When your chief resolves to go to another place, the procession that follows her is very fine.
19. Is there among you stilling of appetite by theft? Is your guilt sometimes mixed with your honey?
20. We, who in word are people of righteousness and justice, even the most God-fearing of us is a thief of your gifts.
21. The fruit of effort is sweet to life, like life itself; your lawful sustenance makes this wisdom plain.
Literary and Historical Commentary
The life of bees is praised as a model of civilization in the poem "Zenbûr", where the divan's observation of nature and its criticism of society meet. The first couplets see the bee as a musician and poet: its wings are a tambour, it goes to the flowers saying "let me kiss". From the fifth couplet on, the hive turns into a state, and the language is deliberately taken from the political vocabulary of the period: economy, civilization, a city with orderly streets, workshops, household management, the expulsion of those who do not work, an assembly that never goes into recess, a patriotic union and the order of the community. The joke that the bees' "king" is in fact an "English queen" brings together in one couplet the queen bee and Queen Victoria, who stayed long on the throne.
The eleventh to thirteenth couplets rest on the sura al-Nahl: the verses saying that the Lord inspired the bee to take houses in the mountains (16:68) and that in honey there is healing for people (16:69) enter the poem here. The thirteenth couplet is the second wording the copyist gave for the twelfth. The last couplets turn to look at people: it is asked whether there is theft among the bees, and man himself gives the answer; even the most God-fearing of people, who in word are people of righteousness and justice, steal the bee's honey. The last couplet praises the sweetness of lawful sustenance as the fruit of effort. Binding knowledge of nature to moral counsel, the poem also carries a light political irony that seeps into the language of the hive-state.
Bibliography
- Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 65-67 (poem no. 220; manuscript fol. 61b-62a). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf
Online sources
