Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefʿūlü mefāʿīlü mefāʿīlün faʿ (fāʿ)
Ḥayretdeyim ʿulviyyetiñe ey “Ṭāhā”
Ey āyet-i kübrā-yı Cenāb-ı Mevlā
Rūḥum göge pervāz idiyor diñlerken
Yāḫūd iniyor ḫāke semāvāt ʿūlā
In English
1. O "Tâhâ", I am in wonder at your loftiness; O greatest sign of the Exalted Lord!
2. As I listen to you my soul flies up to the sky; or else the high heavens come down to earth.
Literary and Historical Commentary
This link in the chain of sura quatrains describes the feeling that listening to the sura Tâhâ awakens. In Islamic history the sura Tâhâ is remembered as the sura that led to the conversion of 'Umar; according to the account 'Umar heard it at his sister's house and was moved. Cûdî does not mention this account; the subject of the quatrain is the trace the sura leaves in a person as it is recited.
The second couplet of the quatrain is built on a movement in two directions. The listener's soul flies up towards the sky; or, conversely, the high heavens come down to earth. The poet cannot tell which it is and leaves this uncertainty as an expression of wonder. The phrase "âyet-i kübrâ", the greatest sign, is also taken from within the sura Tâhâ: in it Moses is told "that We may show you some of Our greatest signs" (Tâhâ 20:23). Thus the poet uses the sura's own word to praise the sura.
Bibliography
- Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 99 (poem no. 80; manuscript fol. ). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf
Online sources
