Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefʿūlü mefāʿīlü mefāʿīlün faʿ (fāʿ)
Ey sūre-i “Ve’n-necm” eyā muʿciz-i Rabb
İʿcāzıña mest oldı ṣanādīd-i ʿArab
Ben kevkebe ṭapmaz iken Allāh bilir
“Ve’n-necm” oḳuyup ḫāke ḳapandım bu şeb
In English
1. O sura "Ve'n-Necm", O miracle of the Lord! The leading men of the Arabs were enraptured by your inimitability.
2. God knows, though I am no worshipper of stars, tonight I recited "Ve'n-Necm" and fell prostrate on the ground.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Quatrains Written to the Suras
With this quatrain a series addressed to the suras of the Qur'an begins in the divan: the suras al-Najm, al-Baqara, Tâhâ, Âl 'Imrân and Yâsîn are each named in a quatrain. The first two are devoted to the sura al-Najm. At the end of this sura, which begins "Ve'n-Necm", by the star, there is a verse of prostration, and the reciter must prostrate himself. The hadith sources tell that when the Prophet recited this sura in Mecca, the polytheists present also fell into prostration; the rapture of the leading men of the Arabs at its inimitability in the first couplet points to this account.
The second couplet is built on a fine play on words. "Necm" means star; and the worship of stars was a belief known in the old Arab world too. The poet says "God knows, I am no worshipper of stars", yet tonight he has recited the sura "The Star" and fallen to the ground. The prostration was made not to a star but to God, in obedience to the command at the end of the sura bearing that name. This play between the sura recited at night under the stars and the association of star-worship turns the quatrain into a four-line story.
Bibliography
- Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 98 (poem no. 77; manuscript fol. ). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf
Online sources
