Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefʿūlü fāʿilātü mefāʿīlü fāʿilün
Açdıḳça çeşm-i revzene-i bāmdādımı
Birdenbire nigāhım olur ġarba münceẕib
Çekmiş, olimp ufḳda ṣaf iḥtişāmını
Bir iltifāta muntaẓir, ikbāle mürteḳıb
Māvī, raḳīḳ bir tüle ṣarmış vücūdını
Çekmiş beyāż tente baḫārāt-ı münseḥib
Öpdükçe ḳarlı zirvesini mihr-i nev ṭulūʿ
Parlar yüzinde sürḫī-i ruḫsār-ı muḥtecib
Bir ḳalb-i münşeriḥ gibi vechinde müncelī
Bir āşinā tebessümi, bir ḫande-i muḥib
İlk ḥıfvetiyle rūy u ser u sīnesin öper
Ṭıflāna cünbişiyle lümeyʿāt-ı mülteʿab
Ḫandān lebinde kūh-ı bülendiñ zülāl-i ṣāf
Giryān öñünde lücce-i leccāc-ı mużṭarib
Ḫortac ilinde meşʿale bir şey arar gibi
Atmış olimpiñ üstine enẓār-ı mültehib
Küsterde pāyine ber-i baḥir-i sīm-fām
Sākin temevvücātı çü hemāt-ı müctenib
Ak ṣaçlı iḫtiyār nigūn ser ṭalar ṣuya
Körfez içinde banyo ider ʿaks-i münḳalib
Emvāc-ı ḫurde ṣanki esāṭīr ḳızları
Pābūs içün yavaş yavaş olmaḳda muḳterib
Ḫortac ider başında ḫorı her ṣabāḥ tāc
Alḳışlar anı kūh-ı Olimpusda her yamaç
Ey ḳarlı ṭāġ, ü ḳarlı cebel, kūh-ı muḥteşem
Ey ẕirve-i bülendi esāṭīre cilve-gāh
Yunan ḫayāline ʿaẓametle mehābetiñ
ʿArż eylemiş seḥābe-nişīn bir alay ala
Bir dāʾimī münāsebetiñ var ḫayāl ider
Gökler içinde ẕirve ki ġāʾib gören nigāh
Ey ceyb ü dāmeninde yatan bī-ʿaded ḳarūn
Ey baḫş iden ṭavāʾif-i aʿṣāra intibāh
Sen ṭoġdıġıñ zamān ne idi māder-i zemīn
Tārīḫ-i ṣufr-pervere bir noḳṭa-i siyāh
Bir mehd idiñ mühezzez uyurdı ḥayāt-ı ḫāk
Yoḳdı zemīnde ʿilm-i yaḳīn, fikr-i iştibāh
Teb-lerze-dār ideñ ki uçuḳlardı lebleriñ
Dil-kerm idiñ ki terlediñ üstüñ başıñ miyāh
Yoḳdı seriñde böyle müşaʿşaʿ beyāż tāc
Ḳonmuşdı farḳ-ı ḥaşmetiñe āteşin külāh
Geldiñ vücūda münʿadim oldı nice vücūd
Sen intiẓām bulduñ olup ġayrlar tebāh
Bilmem ki belki ṭoġdıġıñ eŝnāda var idi
Biñlerce bī-ḫaber ḥayevān ṭıfl-ı bī-günāh
Ey semt-i reʾsimizdeki ecrām-ı ʿāliye
Sizlerdiñiz bu ṣaḥneyi seyr eyleyen güveh
Sükkānı birgün oldu mı endişeden emīn
Hep böyle mużṭarib mi geçirdi zamān zemīn
In English
1. As I open the window eye of my morning, my gaze is suddenly drawn to the west.
2. Olympus has drawn up the rank of its majesty on the horizon, awaiting a favour, watching for fortune.
3. It has wrapped its body in a fine blue tulle; the drifting vapours have spread a white awning.
4. As the newly risen sun kisses its snowy summit, the blush of a bashful cheek shines on its face.
5. On its face, like a heart opened, appear a familiar smile and a loving laugh.
6. Gleams playing with childish stirrings kiss its face, head and breast with their first lightness (the line is not entirely clear).
7. On its laughing lip, the pure sweet water of the lofty mountain; before it weeping, the troubled deep of the surging sea.
8. In the land of Hortaç a torch, as if searching for something, has cast burning glances upon Olympus.
9. The calm waves of the silver-coloured sea spread at its feet (the end of the line is not entirely clear).
10. The white-haired old man bows his head and dives into the water; his inverted reflection bathes in the gulf.
11. The little waves, like the daughters of legends, draw slowly nearer to kiss its feet.
12. Every morning Hortaç makes the sun a crown on its head; every slope of Mount Olympus applauds it.
13. O snowy mountain, snowy height, majestic mount! O you whose lofty summit is the stage of legends!
14. Your grandeur and awe offered the Greek imagination a procession seated in the clouds.
15. The gaze that sees the unseen imagines that your summit has a lasting kinship within the heavens.
16. O you in whose pocket and skirt lie countless centuries! O you who grant wakefulness to the peoples of the ages!
17. When you were born, what was mother earth? A black dot in a history that nursed a zero.
18. You were a rocking cradle; the life of the earth slept; on earth there was neither certain knowledge nor the thought of doubt.
19. You had a fever, so that your lips broke into blisters; your heart burned, so that you sweated waters from head to foot (the couplet is not entirely clear).
20. There was no such radiant white crown on your head; a fiery cap had settled on the crown of your majesty.
21. You came into being and many beings were extinguished; you found order while others were ruined.
22. I do not know; perhaps when you were born there were thousands of unknowing animals, sinless children.
23. O lofty bodies of the heavens above our heads, you were the witnesses who watched this scene.
24. Were its dwellers ever, for a single day, safe from anxiety? Has the earth always passed its time in such turmoil?
Literary and Historical Commentary
A series of poems in the divan that appear to have been written in Salonica opens with this one, titled "Olimp - dem-i tulû'", Olympus, the moment of sunrise. According to the copyist's note, Hortaç lies to the east of the Gulf of Salonica and Olympus to its west; when the poet opens his morning window, his gaze is drawn to Olympus on the far shore of the gulf. According to Ali Canip Yöntem's recollection quoted by Tok Yıldız, Cûdî taught Turkish and literature at the Salonica İdadi; the series must be a product of these years. This is a view that can really be seen from Salonica, and the poem builds it as a morning picture: mist like blue tulle, vapour like a white awning, a bashful blush on the snowy summit kissed by the newly risen sun.
Up to the twelfth couplet the mountain is personified: it becomes a white-haired old man who bows his head and dives into the water, its reflection in the gulf bathes upside down, and the little waves are like the daughters of legend come to kiss its feet. From the thirteenth couplet on the poem addresses the mountain and widens in two directions. On the one hand it recalls Olympus's place in Greek mythology, the gods it names "a procession seated in the clouds". On the other it turns to the knowledge of geology: the time of the mountain's birth is described as a fit of fever that blistered its lips and a fiery cap on its head, that is, a hot and shaking age of the earth's crust. This carries the same interest as the section in the divan's Persian satire on transmigration in which the earth tells its own history.
The last couplets ask the cost of this birth: as the mountain came to be, many beings perished, perhaps thousands of unknowing animals and sinless children died. The poem closes with the question whether the dwellers of the earth were ever, for a single day, safe from anxiety. So a morning view turns into a reflection on the history of nature and on human suffering. A few words whose reading in the thesis is not settled are marked in the translation.
Bibliography
- Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 87-89 (poem no. 239; manuscript fol. 69b-70a-70b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf
- Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 6 (Cûdî's teaching at the Salonica İdadi). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf
Online sources
