Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefʿūlü mefāʿīlü mefāʿīlün faʿ (fāʿ)
Yelmūʿ-ı ḳażā cünbiş-i tīġiñdir hep
Yenbūʿ-ı feżā coşmuş mīġiñdir hep
Her ḳatre “ene’l-muhīt” söyler yā Rab
Yoḳ şübhe ki teʾŝīr-i- belīġiñdir hep
In English
1. The flashing of destiny is ever the stirring of Your sword; the spring of space has ever surged from Your cloud.
2. O Lord, every drop says "I am the ocean"; no doubt this is all the eloquent working of Your influence.
Literary and Historical Commentary
The unity of being is put here in dense language. In the first couplet destiny is likened to the flashing of a sword and the emptiness of space to the spring of a cloud; both are movements of God's power. The second couplet carries the quatrain's boldest word: every drop says "ene'l-muhît", I am the ocean.
These words recall the famous "ene'l-Hak", I am the Truth, attributed to al-Hallâj, and rest on the thought of union expressed in Sufism through the image of the drop and the sea. When the drop mingles with the sea it no longer speaks of itself but of the sea. Cûdî presents this claim not as the drop's pride but as a result of God's "beliğ tesir", His eloquent influence: what makes the drop speak "I am the ocean" is the divine being within it. A bold Sufi saying is thus balanced by the reminder that it is God who makes it be spoken.
Bibliography
- Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 111 (poem no. 125; manuscript fol. ). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf
Online sources
