Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿilün

Midād-ı ḫāme-i ḥaḳdır ʿanāsır-ı ʿilim
Yazar ḳavālib-i maʿnā-yı cāvidānımızı
Yazarım taḥtaya mektebde tebāşīr ile ben
Lafẓ u maʿnāca muḫālif, mütenevviʿ kelimāt
Ṭalebe anları der-defter ider ya ezber
Silerim, sildigim anda ider ol naḳş, vefāt
Silgi elfāẓ ü maʿānīye temās eyleyemez
Anlar aṣlı üzere ḥāfıẓada rehn-i ŝebāt
Yıġılır taḥtanıñ altında tebāşīr tozı
Var mı ol tozlar arasında maʿānī heyhāt
Süpürür tozları ḫidmetçi elinde ferrāş
İḥtifālāt ile itsün anı vażʿ-ı ḥażarāt
O ġubār işte cesed, ẕihndeki maʿnā-i rūḥ
Gelemez fevt-i nuḳūş ile maʿānīye fevāt
Ben tebāşīr ü mürekkeb iderim istiʿmāl
Dest-i ḳudret yazar eczā-yı ʿanāṣırla luġāt
Gördigin ẕerre vü ḫūrşīd ü şuḫūṣ u eşyā
Herbiri maʿnī-i maḫṣūṣa ḳonulmuş kelimāt
Levḥ-i maḥfūẓ ezelde o maʿānī maḥfūẓ
Ki gelir naḳş-ı ẓuhūra özin eyler iŝbāt
İmdi ecsāda baḳup ṣanma maʿānī fānī
Rūḥa, maʿnāya temās eyleyemez maḥv u memāt

In English

1. (The couplet explained:) The elements of knowledge are the ink of God's pen; it writes the moulds of our everlasting meaning.

2. At school I write on the blackboard with chalk words various and differing in wording and meaning.

3. The students either copy them into their notebooks or learn them by heart; I wipe them away, and the moment I wipe it, that writing dies.

4. The eraser cannot touch words and meanings; they stay in memory, according to their origin, as pledges of permanence.

5. Chalk dust piles up beneath the blackboard; alas, is there meaning among that dust?

6. The servant, the janitor, sweeps up the dust with (the broom) in his hand; let him lay it to rest with ceremonies (the end of the line is not entirely clear).

7. That dust, then, is the body; the meaning in the mind is the spirit; with the death of the writing no death comes to the meanings.

8. I use chalk and ink; the hand of Power writes words with the particles of the elements.

9. The mote and the sun, persons and things that you see, each is a word set down for a particular meaning.

10. Those meanings are kept in the Preserved Tablet since pre-eternity; they come to the writing of appearance and prove themselves.

11. Now, looking at bodies, do not think meanings mortal; effacement and death cannot touch the spirit, the meaning.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The poem "Rûh u Cesed", spirit and body, is presented in the divan as the "nazmen tefsîr", the explanation in verse, of a couplet: "The elements of knowledge are the ink of God's pen; it writes the moulds of our everlasting meaning." Cûdî explains this abstract couplet with a memorable scene taken from his own profession: the teacher writes words on the blackboard with chalk at school, the students copy them into their notebooks or learn them by heart, then the writing is wiped away.

The comparison is built step by step. The eraser wipes away the letters on the board but cannot touch the meaning of the words; the meaning stays in the student's memory. In the chalk dust piled beneath the board there is no meaning; the janitor sweeps it up and, in the poet's joke, "lays it to rest with ceremonies". That dust, then, is the body; the meaning in the mind is the spirit. From the eighth couplet the comparison widens to the universe: the teacher uses chalk and ink, while the hand of Power writes with the particles of the elements; the mote, the sun, people and things are each words set down for a particular meaning. These meanings are kept since pre-eternity in the Preserved Tablet and are written into the world of appearance.

The last couplet gives the conclusion of the comparison: one must not look at bodies and think meanings mortal; death sweeps up the chalk dust but cannot touch the meaning. In many poems of the divan the universe is read as a book; since this poem makes that great comparison concrete with the everyday objects of a classroom, blackboard, chalk, eraser, notebook and janitor, it is one of the most personal poems of Cûdî the teacher.

Bibliography

  • Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 121-122 (poems no. 276-277; manuscript fol. 81b-82a). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf

Online sources