Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fāʿilün faʿal fāʿilün faʿal

Zevcin özlemiş tāze bir gelin
Yollara baḳar hep melin melin
Ṣanki müjeler ṣallayup elin
Bir ḫayāle dir: Tiz geliñ geliñ
Ḥasret āteşi ol perī-veşi
Yaḳmasun diyu böyle dem-be-dem
Dilde münteşī gözde münteşir
Bir ṣıcaḳca ṣu bir na-çār ġam
Her ġad u ʿaşī kim çeker ṭaşır
Göz midir ḳapu dil midir ḥarem
Berk-i gül gibi nāzenīn ʿiẕār
Ṣāf mül gibi eşk bī-ġubār
Şāleler düşer rūy-ı āline
Ṣanki nūr üşer gül cemāline
Seyl-i eşkiden ferce-yāb olup
Her naẓar ḳaçar bir çocuḳ gibi
Şems-i reşkiden bir ḳitāb olup
Hep uça uçar boş ufuḳ gibi
Öyle muḫteşī pür-şitāb olup
Hep uçar uçar mürġ-i muḥterem
Müstetir işi bir ḫayāl açar
Per uçar uçar şām u ṣubḥ-dem
Zevcin özlemiş tāze bir gelin
Ḫayli gözlemiş çifte ecmelin
Telgraf idüp zülfünüñ telin
Ẓarfa leff idüp fikr-i mücmelin
Damla gözyaşı ḳondırup aña
Çeşmi pullamış yāre yollamış
Damla gözyaşı en güzīde göz
Damla gözyaşı söyler añı göz
Ey sirişk ü tār tīz gidiñ gidiñ
Ey peyām-ı yār tīz geliñ geliñ

In English

1. A young bride who longs for her husband looks out at the roads, ever forlorn.

2. As if her lashes waved a hand, she says to a fancy, "Come quickly, come, come!"

3. Lest the fire of longing burn that fairy-faced one moment by moment,

4. A warm water (tears) spreading in the heart and scattering in the eye, a helpless grief.

5. Who bears and carries (this) every morning and evening? Is the eye the door, is the heart the harem? (The couplet is not entirely clear.)

6. Her cheek delicate as a rose petal, her tears without sediment like pure wine.

7. Shafts of light fall on her rosy face; as if light flocked to her rose-like beauty.

8. Every glance that finds a gap in the flood of tears runs off like a child.

9. Becoming a book from the sun of jealousy, it flies and flies like an empty horizon. (The couplet is not entirely clear.)

10. So timid, so hurried, that honoured bird flies and flies.

11. A fancy opens her secret work; the wing flies and flies, evening and dawn.

12. A young bride who longs for her husband has watched long with her two lovely eyes.

13. Making a telegraph of a strand of her hair, wrapping her brief thought in an envelope,

14. Setting a teardrop on it, she made her eye the stamp and sent it to her beloved.

15. A drop of tears, the choicest eye; a drop of tears, the eye tells it.

16. O tears and strand of hair, go quickly, go; O tidings of the beloved, come quickly, come.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Telegraph, Envelope and Stamp

This poem, called in its title "neşîde-i neşnîde", an unheard song, and "tertîb-i garîbe", a strange arrangement, is indeed one of the most experimental poems in the divan. In the thesis its metre is given as "fâilün fa'al fâilün fa'al"; this short, broken pattern is not one of the usual divan metres, and it gives the poem the rhythm of a song. The subject is simple: a young bride longing for her husband watches the roads, weeps, and in the end sends her beloved a letter.

A play on words in the second couplet becomes the key to the poem. Waving her lashes, the bride says to a fancy "Tiz gelin gelin"; the same word "gelin" is both the call "come quickly" and the bride herself. In the last couplet the same pattern recurs, and the poem closes "Tiz gidin gidin... tiz gelin gelin", go quickly, go... come quickly, come. In the middle couplets the tears are without sediment like pure wine, the cheek delicate as a rose petal; the glance that escapes the flood of tears is likened to a child, the fancy that keeps flying to a timid bird.

The poem's newest conceit lies in the thirteenth and fourteenth couplets. The bride makes a "telegraph" of a strand of her hair, wraps her brief thought in an "envelope", sets a teardrop on it, makes her eye the "stamp" and sends it to her beloved. The likeness between a strand of hair and a telegraph wire, and the entry of modern postal things like envelope and stamp into the language of divan poetry, show how the technology of the late nineteenth century could turn into a poetic image. The fifth and ninth couplets, however, are not fully resolved in the form the thesis gives, and the English promises no certain sense there.

Bibliography

  • Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 85-86 (poem no. 60; manuscript fol. 28b-29a). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf

Online sources