Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefʿūlü mefāʿīlü mefāʿīlün faʿ (fāʿ)
Bu bezmiñ o āhengine yāḫūd dem ṭut
Ḥayvān-ṣıfat olma reviş-i ādem ṭut
Yer ṭutmaġı isterseñ eger ʿuḳbāda
ʿUḳbāya sefer eylemeden aḳdem ṭut
In English
1. Keep time with the harmony of this gathering, or else hold your breath; do not be beast-like, keep to the way of man.
2. If you wish to hold a place in the hereafter, take hold of it before you set out for the hereafter.
Literary and Historical Commentary
The whole game of the quatrain lies in the refrain "tut", hold: a single verb used in its different senses. "Dem tutmak" means to accompany with one's voice in a musical gathering, or to fall silent and hold one's breath; "reviş tutmak", to adopt a way, a manner; "yer tutmak", to hold a place, to settle; and "akdem tutmak", to act beforehand. The verb repeated at the end of the four lines turns each time to another sense.
The quatrain's counsel is placed within this play on words. The world is a gathering; man either keeps time with its harmony or falls silent, but behaves like a man, not a beast. Whoever wishes to hold a place in the hereafter must act before setting out on that journey: the preparation is made in this world. A simple religious counsel is made memorable through a play of sound that uses the richness of Turkish idiom.
Bibliography
- Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 118 (poem no. 149; manuscript fol. ). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf
Online sources
