Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefʿūlü mefāʿīlü mefāʿīlü feʿūlün
Hengām-ı ṣabāvet ki ṣafā-yı dil ü cāndır
Her neşʾesi enmūẕec-i eşvāḳ-ı cināndır
Şiʿriyyeti ẓāhir aña ancaḳ bu cihānıñ
Dehşetli ḥaḳīḳatler o maʿṣūma nihāndır
Her gördigi her ṭuydıgı eglence, oyuncaḳ
Bilmez ne dimekdir bu menāfiʿ, o ziyāndır
Her ṣavt, gelir küşene bir naʿme-i bülbül
Ger naʿre-i mestāne vü ger bāng-i eẕāndır
Hep geçdik o gülzār-ı ṣabādan ki ṣabā-veş
ʿÖmrüñ güẕeri anda serīʿü'l-cereyāndır
Eṭfāle ṣoruñ ẕevḳini şehr-i ramażānıñ
Eṭfāle o, ay başḳa tecelliyle ʿayāndır
Yevm-i şeki taḥḳīḳa çocuḳlar ider īṣāl
Ḳayyim başı ḳandilleri ṭaḳmış ramażāndır
İŝbāt-ı helāl itmek içün çeşmiñi yorma
Çaḳmaḳcıda bādāmlı simid per-i ṭaʿāndır
Git cāmiʿa bir kere ḥażırlıḳları seyr it
Bir sergi mi yoḳsa ḥarem-i şād-ı revāndır
Zenbīl, ya mendīl-i be-dest ekŝer-i eşḫās
Kimi yuḳarı, kimi aşaġuya revāndır
Ḳoşmaḳda maḥallāta ayaḳda ṣatan eṣnāf
Her ṭabla vü her deskere seyyār-ı dükāndır
Her ḫaṭvede bir ʿaks idiyor enker-i aṣvāt
Gezgincileriñ dūş u seri ṭabla, ḳolandır
Nazlı pideler bedr-i münevver gibi parla
Her naẓrada bir niʿmet-i ḥaḳ lemʿa-feşāndır
Baṣdırma, reçel, peynir ʿasel, zeytūn ufaḳ şey
Ḳaymaḳlı ḳaṭāʾifle börek sofraya şāndır
Hep ṣırma ḳuşaḳlı geline döndi minārāt
Māhiyye ise başḳaca bir zeyn-i miyāndır
Herhangi cevāmiʿdeki var çifte mināre
Yek-digerine nūr-ı ʿalī nūr-ı beyāndır
Fırlar yuḳarı ṭoġrı şuʿāʿāt-ı ḳanādīl
Envār-ı terāvīḥ semāvāta revāndır
Bülbülleri çoḳ bāġçeye döndi cevāmiʿ
Ḥāfıẓlarıñ elḥānı dile şevḳ-resāndır
Her vāʿiẓ ü ḥāfıẓ ki birer şemʿa-i maḥfil
Pervāne gibi ḫalḳa muṭāf-ı cevelāndır
Ben mūm dikerek işte fenārı hażır itdim
Anne babama ṣor ki terāvīḥ ne zamāndır
Varmış bu gice ḳahvede baba, gideriz ya
Cānım ḳaragözle ḥacivād; ṣanma yalāndır
Ġılman bey ile Ḥūriye Ḫānım ḳonuşurdı
Adam başına bir ikilikmiş; ne ziyāndır
Bilmez pederiñ avda ḳara gözlüsi aġlar:
Çoḳ eksigimiz var ki fülān şeyle fülāndır
At cānbazı, ip cānbāzı hem çalġı tiyatro
Pandomimanıñ pasḳalı ġāyetle yamāndır
Bir başḳa gice onlara da gitsek olur ya!
Vallāh gidelim baba, mübārek ramażāndır
Anne, bu gice ḳalḳacaġım ben de saḥūra
Bekçi ṭavulı çıḳdı mı, derḥāl, uyandır
El-ġıbṭa, size sevgili maʿṣūm melekler
Bayrām, ramażān sizler ile ḫande-künāndır
Ey sīne-i eṭfālı iden şevḳ ile reyyān
Cūdī ḳuluñı kevŝer-i ġufrānıña ḳandır
In English
1. The age of childhood, which is the delight of heart and soul; its every joy is a sample of the longings of paradise.
2. Only the poetry of this world is visible to it; terrible truths are hidden from that innocent.
3. Everything it sees and hears is amusement and toy; it does not know what this gain or that loss means.
4. Every sound comes to its ear as a nightingale's song, be it a drunkard's shout or the call to prayer.
5. We all passed through that rose garden of childhood where, like the dawn breeze, the passage of life runs very swift.
6. Ask the children the delight of the month of Ramadan; to children that month appears with another manifestation.
7. It is the children who bring the news that the day of doubt is settled: "The head caretaker has hung up the lamps, it's Ramadan!"
8. Do not tire your eyes proving the new moon: at Çakmakçı the almond simit (the line is not entirely clear)...
9. Go to the mosque once and watch the preparations: is it an exhibition, or a joyful and lively sanctuary?
10. Most people have a basket or a kerchief in hand; some are going up, some going down.
11. Tradesmen who sell on foot run about the quarters; every tray and every handcart is a walking shop.
12. At every step the echo of voices rings; the peddlers' shoulders and heads are tray and strap.
13. Delicate pide loaves shine like the full moon; in every glance a blessing of God scatters its gleam.
14. Pastırma, jam, cheese, honey and olives are small things; börek with creamy kadayıf is the glory of the table.
15. The minarets have all turned into brides with gold-embroidered sashes; the mahya is yet another ornament of the waist.
16. Whatever mosque has twin minarets, to each other they are light upon light, a light of eloquence.
17. The rays of the lamps shoot upward; the lights of the teravih prayer flow to the heavens.
18. The mosques have turned into gardens full of nightingales; the melodies of the reciters bring longing to the heart.
19. Every preacher and reciter is a candle of the gathering; for the people, like moths, a place to circle round.
20. (The child:) "Look, I've set a candle and got my lantern ready; ask my mother and father when teravih is."
21. "Father, there's something at the coffeehouse tonight, we'll go, won't we? Dear me, Karagöz and Hacivat, don't think I'm lying!"
22. "Gılman Bey and Huriye Hanım were talking; it's one ikilik a head, so what's the harm?"
23. (The child) does not know that at home his father's dark-eyed one weeps: "We lack so much, this thing and that..."
24. "The horse acrobat, the rope acrobat, and a theatre with music too; the pantomime's clown is a real rascal!"
25. "We could go to them too another night! By God, let's go, father, it's blessed Ramadan!"
26. "Mother, tonight I'm getting up for sahur too; as soon as the watchman's drum comes out, wake me!"
27. I envy you, beloved innocent angels; feast and Ramadan both laugh with you.
28. O (God) who slakes the children's breasts with delight, slake Your servant Cûdî too with the Kevser of Your forgiveness.
Literary and Historical Commentary
The children's Ramadan, "Ramazân-ı etfâl", is one of the liveliest and most endearing city pictures in the divan, and it is valuable too as a document of how Ramadan was lived in a late Ottoman city. The first five couplets describe childhood: only the poetry of the world is visible to the child, terrible truths are hidden from him; a drunkard's shout and the call to prayer alike come to his ear as a nightingale's song. From the sixth couplet the poet sets out to tell Ramadan through this eye: the news that the month has begun is brought by the children, from the caretaker hanging lamps on the minarets.
A Ramadan market
Between the ninth and nineteenth couplets a Ramadan town comes alive: preparations at the mosque, crowds carrying baskets and kerchiefs, peddlers going round the quarters, Ramadan pide loaves shining like the full moon, pastırma, jam, cheese, honey, olives, and börek with creamy kadayıf. The minarets resemble brides with gold-embroidered sashes; the lit writing stretched between two minarets, the mahya, is this bride's waist ornament. The mosques turn into gardens full of nightingales with the melodies of the reciters.
The child's voice
From the twentieth couplet on, the word passes to the child and the poem almost turns into a stage scene. The child has set a candle in his lantern and asks the hour of teravih; he says that Karagöz and Hacivat will be played at the coffeehouse, at one ikilik a head; he describes the horse acrobat, the rope acrobat, the theatre with music and the clown of the pantomime; he wants to be woken by the watchman's drum to get up for sahur. A single couplet slipped in between, the twenty-third, shows the other face of the picture: the child does not know that his mother is weeping at home, "we lack so much". The last two couplets close with envy of the children and a prayer to God: may He who slakes the children's hearts with delight slake Cûdî too with the Kevser of forgiveness. With the men's Ramadan ghazal that follows, the poet shows Ramadan in two separate mirrors, through the eyes of children and of grown men.
Bibliography
- Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 98-100 (poem no. 247; manuscript fol. 73b-74a-74b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf
Online sources
