Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefʿūlü mefāʿīlü mefāʿīlün faʿ (fāʿ) and Mefʿūlü mefāʿīlü mefāʿīlü feʿūl

Ḳānūn-ı ḳadīm oldı teceddüd ḳanda
Rūşen görinür ḥükmi anıñ şübbānda
Gūyā ki muḥīṭinden idüp aḫẕ-ı żiyā
Tevlīd ider iḥsās-ı cedīd insānda

In English

1. Renewal, wherever it may be, has become an ancient law; its rule is plainly seen in the young.

2. It is as if (the young), taking light from their surroundings, bring new feelings to birth in man.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The second quatrain of the youth series carries a positive view that balances the critical observation of the previous one. "Teceddüd", renewal, is seen here not as a deviation or a fashion but as "kânûn-ı kadîm", an old and unchanging law. Every age is renewed, and the rule of this renewal is seen most plainly in the young.

In the second couplet youth is a medium of light: the young take light from their surroundings and with this light bring to birth new feelings, "ihsâs-ı cedîd", in man. These words, which accept that new feelings and new ways of seeing come from the young, show, when read together with poems in the divan that mock the new poetry such as "Latîfe" and "Sûret-i Sahîha", that Cûdî's attitude to the new was not one-sided. Innovation is a law; the question is which way it flows.

Bibliography

  • Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 121 (poem no. 158; manuscript fol. ). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf

Online sources