Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefʿūlü mefāʿīlü mefāʿīlün faʿ (fāʿ) and Mefʿūlü mefāʿīlü mefāʿīlü feʿūl
Īmān ki livāʾ-i ḥamd-i peyġamberdir
Taḥtındakine ẓıll-ı ṣafā-güsterdir
Dünyāda bu sancāġa göñüllü yazılan
Hep nāmzed-i salṭanat-ı muḥaşşerdir
In English
1. Faith is the Prophet's banner of praise (livâü'l-hamd); it spreads a shade of delight over those beneath it.
2. Whoever enlists as a volunteer under this banner in this world is ever a candidate for the sovereignty of the Resurrection.
Literary and Historical Commentary
"Livâü'l-hamd", the banner of praise, is an image resting on a hadith, and it stands at the centre of the quatrain. According to the hadith, on the Day of Judgement the banner of praise will be in the Prophet's hand, and all the prophets, beginning with Adam, will gather beneath it. Cûdî matches this banner with faith itself: faith is the banner that spreads a shade of delight over those who stand beneath it.
Two words from the language of the army and of elections stand out in the second couplet. Whoever "enlists as a volunteer" under this banner is "nâmzed-i saltanat-ı mahşer", a candidate for the sovereignty of the Resurrection. Enlisting as a volunteer was a phrase often heard in the war years at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century; the word "nâmzed", candidate, had also been used in another supplication of the divan for candidacy for annihilation. An old image from the hadith is thus spoken anew in the language of the poet's own age.
Bibliography
- Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 119 (poem no. 153; manuscript fol. 40b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf
Online sources
