Original Persian Text
جون مین کثیفت درین جای غرور
روشن نشود شیشهء غرور
کور ارجه نبیند دکران، بیند خویش
کوراست همان دیدهء بینای غرور
Reading in Latin letters (the reading is ours):
Çün mey-i kesîfet derîn câ-yı ġurûr
Rûşen neşeved şîşe-i ġurûr
Kûr egerçi ne-bîned digerân bîned ḫˇîş
Kûr est hemân dîde-i bînâ-yı ġurûr
In English
1. While your turbid wine is in this place of pride, the flask of pride does not grow bright. (The first couplet cannot be fully read as set in the thesis.)
2. Though the blind man does not see others, he sees himself; but the seeing eye of pride is blind.
Literary and Historical Commentary
The real judgement of this Persian quatrain lies in its second couplet and carries a sharp paradox. The blind man cannot see others, but he knows himself and is aware of his own state; the eye of the proud man, though it seems to see everything, is the truly blind one, because it cannot see itself. Pride is described here as a state that blinds the power of self-knowledge even where the eye is sound. The words "kûr est hemân dîde-i bînâ", the seeing eye is blind, turn the quatrain into a memorable maxim.
The first couplet prepares the same thought with the image of wine and flask: while turbid wine stays in the place of pride, that is, in a heart full of pride, the flask does not grow bright. In the Arabic-script setting of the thesis the beginning of the first line and the second line look incomplete or corrupt; the reading in Latin letters is therefore offered as a suggestion. The repetition of the word "ġurûr", pride, as the rhyme in three lines also gathers the quatrain around a single concept.
Bibliography
- Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. None (poem no. 96; manuscript fol. ). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf
Online sources
