Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefʿūlü fāʿilātü mefāʿīlü fāʿilün
Naẓm: Ben şiʿrler ḫayāl ideyim siz roman yazıñ
Ben āsumān-şikāf olayım siz zemīn ḳazıñ
Çoḳ farḳımız yoḳ, olsa da arż u semā ḳadar
Sizle iner benimle faḳaṭ yükselir beşer
Siz lafẓa-i mufaṣṣala ben maʿnī-i vecīz
Biñbir kitāba ġālib olur baʿż bir recīz
Siz ʿaşḳ u ḥüsni menfaʿate ḫādim eyleyiñ
Ben aġlayup gülünce siz esbāb söyleyiñ
Ben göz yumup açınca nice biñ şeʾūn geçer
Siz bir kitāb yazmaḳ içün ḫayli gün geçer
Neŝr: Ancaḳ benim ʿaḳıllı deli herkesiñ dili
Muḥtācdır beyānıma nāḳıṣla kāmili
Ben tercemān-ı meclisiyim her cemāʿatiñ
Ḥükmümdedir evāmir-i herbir ḥükūmetin
Söyler benimle şerʿ ü niẓām ü lübb-i fünūn
Oynar seniñle zemzeme-i ceẕbetü'l-cünūn
Yoḳdur işim benim o lisān-ı ṭuyūr ile
Ben ırlanır mıyım ney ü tanbūr-ı sūr ile
Ben olmuşum cihānda aġır başlı bir ḥakīm
Dīvāneler aġasına sen olmuşuñ nedīm
Şiʿriñ şarāba beñzer imiş menfaʿatleri
Ġālib imiş menāfiʿine mefsedetleri
Cāmī şarāb-nābı ṣunarmış nedīmine
Rāġıb gibi görünme gerekmiş naẓīmine
Nefʿī Fużūlī olsa da bir iddiʿā imiş
"Bāḳī ḳalan bu ḳubbede bir ḫōş ṣadā imiş"
Naẓm: Şāʿirlerim ṭuyarsa bu nā-ḫōş laṭīfeñi
Şīrāzeden çıḳar ḳoparırlar ṣaḥīfeñi
Sen şiʿr ü şāʿire dil uzatma ziyān olur
Zīrā o farḳa ekŝeri āteş-zebān olur
Binbir lisān-ı ḥām anı añla ehl-i ḥāl
Çoḳ söz götürmem eyleyemem öyle ḳīl u ḳāl
Bin nāzenīn-i nāṭıḳa, nāzıñ ṭabīʿatım
Senden eşeddir istedigim vaḳt-i şiddetim
Ser-tīzdir silāḥım edaḳḳ-ı ḫayāldir
Bir sāḥirim ki siḥrime dirler ḥelāldir
Neŝr: ʿAḳl u ḫayāli ḫalḳ iden Allāh ṣad ḳısım
Teslīm ider şuʿūrı olan ḥaḳḳı söylesem
Bin ḫāzin-i cevāhir-i sulṭāna nāṭıḳa
Var iḥtiyāc sen gibi üstād-ı ḥāẕıḳa
Bir zerger-i mükemmeliñ öpmezse destini
Cevher ider mi cā ser-izīʿnet-perestini
Elfāẓa intiẓām u maʿānīye iḥtişām
Ḥüsn-i ṭabīʿatıñ virir ey şāhid-i kelām
Lākin lüzūmuñ ekŝeri lā-yelzeme ḳarīn
Elzem bize cemīʿ zamānda muḥarrirīn
In English
1. (Verse:) Let me imagine poems and you write novels; let me cleave the sky and you dig the ground.
2. There is not much difference between us, though it be as great as between earth and sky: mankind goes down with you, but rises with me.
3. You are the detailed word, I the concise meaning; sometimes a single little rajaz prevails over a thousand and one books.
4. You make love and beauty servants of utility; when I weep and laugh, you tell the causes.
5. While I shut my eyes and open them, many thousands of matters pass; for you to write a single book, many days pass.
6. (Prose:) But I am the tongue of everyone, the sane and the mad; the deficient and the perfect alike need my expression.
7. I am the interpreter of the assembly of every community; the commands of every government are under my rule.
8. Law, order and the kernel of the sciences speak through me; the murmur of the madness of rapture plays with you.
9. I have no business with that language of the birds; do I sing to the reed flute and the wedding tambour?
10. In the world I have become a grave sage; you have become the boon companion of the chief of madmen.
11. It seems the benefits of poetry are like those of wine; its harms outweigh its benefits.
12. Jâmî, it seems, offered pure wine to his boon companion; his versifier had to look like Râghib (the couplet is not entirely clear).
13. Be it Nef'î or Fuzûlî, it seems (poetry) was a mere claim; "what remains (bâkî) under this dome is a pleasant echo."
14. (Verse:) If my poets hear this unpleasant joke of yours, they will pull your page from its binding and tear it out.
15. Do not wag your tongue against poetry and poets; you will come to harm, for that company is mostly fire-tongued.
16. A thousand and one raw tongues; understand it, you people of inner state; I cannot bear much talk, I cannot do such tittle-tattle (the couplet is not entirely clear).
17. A thousand coy speakers; my nature is coy; when I wish, my severity is more severe than yours.
18. My weapon is sharp-pointed, it is the subtlest fancy; I am a sorcerer whose magic they call lawful.
19. (Prose:) God, who created reason and imagination in a hundred kinds; whoever has awareness will grant it if I speak the truth:
20. The thousand treasurers of the sultan's speaking jewels have need of a skilled master like you.
21. If it does not kiss the hand of a perfect goldsmith, does the jewel give a place to one who worships ornament? (the couplet is not entirely clear)
22. O beloved of speech, the beauty of your nature gives order to the words and splendour to the meanings.
23. But your necessity mostly goes along with the unnecessary; what is most necessary to us at all times is writers.
Literary and Historical Commentary
"Münâzara-i nazm u nesr", the debate of verse and prose, is a late example of the known debate genre of divan literature: two concepts are personified and in turn praise themselves and disparage the other. The sections given in the thesis under four separate numbers according to the change of speaker are joined here as a single poem. The most striking side of the debate is that the word "roman", novel, occurs in the first couplet of Verse: poetry imagines, prose writes novels. This is the echo in poetry of the novel, which entered Ottoman literature in the second half of the nineteenth century, appearing as a new rival to poetry in the old idea of literature.
The claims of verse and prose
Verse presents itself as a power that cleaves the heavens, concise, grasping a thousand things in an instant; it counts prose a labour that digs the ground, drowns in detail and makes love and beauty servants of utility. Prose gives a grave answer: it is the tongue of everyone, the interpreter of every assembly, the language of the commands of governments, of the Sharia and of the sciences. It likens poetry to wine, recalling the judgement said of wine in the sura al-Baqara, "their sin is greater than their benefit" (2:219). The thirteenth couplet carries one of the divan's most graceful witticisms: it sets side by side the names Nef'î (useful) and Fuzûlî (superfluous) and, quoting Bâkî's famous line, "what remains under this dome is a pleasant echo", counts poetry a mere echo. The pen names of three great poets become, by their word meanings, the material of the debate.
Verse answers with a threat: if the poets hear this joke they will tear prose's page from its binding; poetry is "sihr-i helâl", lawful magic. The last word is prose's and ends in a reconciliation: the treasurers of the jewels of speech need a skilled master like verse; verse gives order to words and splendour to meanings; but its "necessity" mostly goes with "lâ yelzem", the unnecessary. This expression alludes to "lüzûm-ı mâ lâ yelzem", the art in prosody and rhyme of making necessary what is not necessary. The last line is an open judgement: what is most necessary at all times is writers. The stance of Cûdî the teacher, who both loved poetry and saw the importance of the new world of prose of his age, is seen clearly in this debate. In a few couplets whose sense is unsettled, the translation does not hide its hesitation.
Bibliography
- Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 113-115 (poems no. 266-269; manuscript fol. 78b-79b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf
Online sources
