Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefāʿīlün feʿūlün mefāʿīlün feʿūlün
Mülāḳāt itmek üzre nigār-ı nev-bahāra
Çıḳup tenhāca ṣaḥrāya eyledüm neẓāre
Yatar sisler içinde ufuḳda mest-i maḫmūr
Selām yollardı çeşmim per-i kūh-sāre
Ekinli tarlalardı olan ṣaḥrāda manẓūr
Murabbaʿ kıṭʿa kıṭʿa müdevver pāre pāre
Yeşil seccādelerdi ki sermişdi melāʾik
ʿİbādet itmek üzre cenāb-ı Girdigāre
Çemenzār-ı laṭīfiñ suṭūḥ-ı mevce-dārı
Nesīmiñ būseŝinden olurdı ḫāre ḫāre
Teheyyücde aġaçlar temevvücde çemenler
Melekler vecde gelmiş görürdüm āşikāre
Bütün ecsām mirʾāt-ı şevḳ-i zindegānī
Ṣafā-yı revḥ-i ḳādir degildi istitāre
Çiçek açmış aġaçlar kimi penbe ḳıyāfet
Ki beñzerdi duvaḳlı gelin olmuş nigāre
Kimi envār içinde tebessüm-rīz olurdı
Meger yaġmışdı gökden nihāl üzre sitāre
Zemīnde nūr-u nevriñ ṣafā-yı imtizācı
Çiçek taḳdīm iderdi semā-yı mest-i nāre
Ne semte ʿaṭf-ı enẓār idersem ceẕb iderdi
Bıraḳmazdı nigāhı diger semt-i güẕāre
Gözüm baḳmakla ṭoymazdı ṣāḥraya uzaḳdan
Naẓardan perr-i zerrīn açardı der-kenāre
Bahārıñ nūr-ı ḥüsnin içerdi cürʿa cürʿa
Gözüm ṭoymaz dil itmezdi teskīn-i ḥarāre
Güneşden ḫak-dāne aḳardı seyl-i zerrīn
Zümürrüd mevcelerdi o cünbişli ḫużāre
Żiyādan oldı ṣaḥrā ne ḫoş yaldızlı deryā
Didim ḫurde-i cezāʾir dıraḫt-ı sāye-dāre
Meḥāsin-pūş dil-ber ser-ā-pā ġarḳ-ı zīver
Güler dest-i münevver dumanlı kūh-sāre
Çıḳardı ṭayf-ı sevdā cibāl-i ser-bülende
İnerdi ʿaşḳ-ı fettān zemīn-i ḥüsn-i zāre
Dönerdi kūh-ı ṣaḥrāya ṭatlı ṭatlı dil-ber
İderdi kūha ṣaḥrā tebessümler iṭāre
Baḳıñ dāmānı düşmüş elinden kūh-sārıñ
Ṣu serperken etekle riyāż-ı gül-niŝāre
Olur şellāle def-zen döker şeffāf sesler
Müẕāb-ı sīm olurlar aḳarlar cūy-bāre
Bürünmüş ṣamt-ı ḥüzne uyur yüksek cibāller
Olur vādīye pūyān bütün şevḳ u şeṭāre
Dikenlikler içinde öter biñlerce serçe
Bu çılġınlar birazcıḳ ḳulaḳ virmez hezāre
Öter ḳumrī-i kūhī virir bir sekte-i ḥüzn
Müselsel mevc ururken şu āheng-i mesāre
Bahārı vaṣf iderken ḫazāndan baḥŝ olunmaz
Bu şevḳi uġradır mı göñül hiç inkisāre
Faḳaṭ ey ḥüsn-i ekmel niçün sen müstetirsiñ
Güzellikler ḳoşarken zemīn-i iştihāre
In English
1. To meet the beloved of the new spring I went out alone into the open country and gave myself up to gazing.
2. On the horizon (the mountain) lies in the mists like a drowsy drunkard; my eye sent greetings to the mountain's wing.
3. What could be seen in the country were fields of crops: square by square, piece by piece, round by round.
4. They were green prayer rugs that angels had spread out to worship the Creator.
5. The rippling surface of the graceful meadow became watered like moiré at the kiss of the breeze.
6. The trees in excitement, the meadows in waves; I saw the angels plainly carried away in rapture.
7. All bodies were mirrors of the longing to live; the delight of the refreshing breeze could not hide itself.
8. The trees had blossomed, some dressed in pink; they looked like a beloved who has become a veiled bride.
9. Some scattered smiles amid lights; it seemed stars had rained from the sky onto the saplings.
10. On the ground the delight of the mingling of new blossoms offered flowers to the sky drunk with fire. (The couplet is not entirely clear.)
11. Whichever way I turned my gaze, it drew me to itself and would not let my glance pass to another side.
12. My eye never tired of looking at the country from afar; at the edge the gaze spread golden wings. (The second line is not entirely clear.)
13. It drank the light of spring's beauty sip by sip; my eye was never sated, the heart's thirst never quenched.
14. From the sun a golden flood flowed onto the earth; that stirring greenery rippled like emerald.
15. With the light, what a lovely gilded sea the country became; I called the shady trees little islands.
16. A beauty dressed in loveliness, drowned from head to foot in ornament, smiles with her shining hand at the misty mountain.
17. The phantom of passion climbed to the lofty mountains, love the beguiler came down to the place where beauty laments. (The couplet is not entirely clear.)
18. The beauty would turn sweetly from mountain to country; and the country would scatter smiles at the mountain.
19. Look, the skirt of the mountain has slipped from its hand, as it sprinkles water with its skirt on the rose-strewing gardens.
20. The waterfall becomes a tambourine player, pouring out transparent sounds; they turn to molten silver and flow into the stream.
21. The high mountains sleep wrapped in the silence of sorrow; all longing and gaiety run down to the valley.
22. In the thickets thousands of sparrows sing; these madcaps pay not the least heed to the nightingale.
23. The mountain turtle-dove calls and leaves a pause of sorrow, while this harmony of joy ripples on in chains.
24. When spring is being described, autumn is not spoken of; does the heart ever let this longing be broken?
25. But O most perfect beauty, why are you hidden, while all beauties hasten to the field of display?
Literary and Historical Commentary
A Spring Tableau
"Levhâ-i Bahâr", a tableau of spring, is twenty-five couplets built like a picture. The poet goes out alone into the country and sets down what he sees like a painter: the mountain asleep in the mists on the horizon, fields of crops divided square by square and round by round, the meadow rippling like moiré in the breeze, pink-blossomed trees, a golden flood pouring from the sun, and a gilded sea of light in which the shady trees become little islands. The fourth couplet, likening the fields to green prayer rugs spread by angels to worship God, turns the landscape into a scene of worship.
What gives the poem its life is the realism of its detail. The waterfall sounds like a tambourine and flows into the stream as molten silver; thousands of sparrows sing in the thickets and these "madcaps" pay no heed to the nightingale; the mountain turtle-dove leaves a pause of sorrow within the harmony of joy. In divan poetry the bird of the garden is mostly the nightingale alone; birds of real countryside such as the sparrow and the mountain turtle-dove make one feel that the poet is describing a landscape he actually saw. In the twenty-fourth couplet the poet makes a deliberate choice: describing spring, he does not speak of autumn and does not let longing be broken.
The last couplet closes the tableau with a question. While all beauties hasten to the field of display, why is "hüsn-i ekmel", the most perfect beauty, hidden? The spring landscape thus becomes a window opening onto the unseen beauty of the Creator. Some words in the tenth, twelfth and seventeenth couplets, as printed in the thesis, will not enter the context, and the English for those three involves an element of guesswork.
Bibliography
- Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 77-79 (poem no. 55; manuscript fol. 25b-26a). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf
Online sources
