Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefʿūlü mefāʿīlü mefāʿīlün faʿ
Ḥaḳ ādemi ol merd-i metīnü'l-himme
Aġrāż u ʿivażdan ide ḳaṭʿ-ı ẕemme
Üssü'l-ʿameli taḳviye-i dīn-i mübīn
Rūḥü'l-emeli feyż-i ṣalāḥ-ı ümme
In English
1. The man of God is that firm-willed hero who cuts off the debt of self-interest and recompense.
2. The foundation of his work is to strengthen the clear religion; the soul of his hope is the grace of the community's well-being.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Against the preceding polemical poems the quatrain sets a positive example, the "Hak âdemi", the man of God. What marks him is purity of intention; the garb of an order or a fame for miracles has no place in the definition. The man of God cuts off the debt of "ağrâz u ivaz", that is, of personal interest and the expectation of recompense; he does not do what he does for a price.
The second couplet uses an architectural image: the "üss", foundation, of the work is strengthening the religion; the soul of the hope is the well-being of the community. The second reading the copyist noted for the last word, "kulûb-ı ümme", the hearts of the community, shifts the sense a little: the soul of the hope becomes a grace that reaches the community's hearts. Both readings express the same ethic, which takes the good of society as its measure. The view of public service of Cûdî, a teacher and later a deputy, finds a concise form in these four lines.
Bibliography
- Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 45 (poem no. 201; manuscript fol. 53b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf
Online sources
