Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿūl
Müteşerriʿleri almış ʿucub u ḫōd-bīn
Rind ü fāsıḳ ise dīniñ sebeb-i tevhīn
İkisi öznesi olmaḳda teẕebẕüb gibidir
İhdini’l-ḥaḳḳa eyā mālikü yevmi’d-dīn
In English
1. Those who appear bound to the sacred law have been seized by vanity and self-regard; and the rinds and the sinful are a cause of the faith being despised.
2. The core of both is like a wavering (tezebzüb); (Arabic) O Master of the Day of Judgement, guide me to the truth. (A word in the third line is not entirely clear.)
Literary and Historical Commentary
This quatrain, which says by its title that it is written outside the rubai metre, carries on the thought of the preceding Persian quatrain in Turkish and in a more social language. On one side stand the "müteşerri'ler", those who display their attachment to the sacred law, and vanity and self-regard have seized them. On the other stand the rinds and the sinful, and they cause the faith to be despised. Both extremes harm the faith.
The third line joins the two sides in a shared fault: "tezebzüb", the wavering that goes back and forth between two things. This word, used in the Qur'an for the hypocrites (al-Nisâ' 4:143), describes the state of those who belong neither here nor there. The last line is an Arabic prayer built with the words of the sura al-Fâtiha: "O Master of the Day of Judgement, guide me to the truth." Between showy piety and careless sinfulness the poet commits himself to God with a prayer for the right path.
Bibliography
- Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 108 (poem no. 114; manuscript fol. ). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf
Online sources
