Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿilātün feʿilün
Tekye de defn olunur manṭıḳ ile ʿaḳl ı selīm
Babanıñ nuṭḳı ider sāde dilānı tesmīm
Cehl-i terkīb ile dem urmada āyetden de
‘Uztu billāhi mineʾş-şeyhi ve şeytāni racīm
In English
1. Logic and sound reason are buried in the dervish lodge; the "baba's" words poison the simple-hearted.
2. With compound ignorance he speaks even of the Qur'anic verse; (Arabic) "I took refuge in God from the sheikh and from the accursed devil."
Literary and Historical Commentary
The divan's criticism of the hypocritical sheikh is at its sharpest in this quatrain. In the dervish lodge logic and sound reason have been buried; the words of the "baba", that is, the sheikh of the lodge, poison the simple-hearted disciples. The "cehl-i mürekkeb", compound ignorance, of the third line is in kalâm and logic the state of one who does not know that he does not know and thinks he knows; in this state the sheikh speaks even of the verses of the Qur'an.
An Arabic play on words carries the last line. To "Eûzü billâhi mine'ş-şeytâni'r-racîm", I take refuge in God from the accursed devil, which Muslims say before beginning to recite the Qur'an, a word is added: "mine'ş-şeyhi ve'ş-şeytâni'r-racîm", from the sheikh and from the accursed devil. Sheikh and devil are set side by side through the likeness of their sounds. Read together with the divan's criticisms of Sufism titled Rubâ'î bî-vezn, it is seen that Cûdî was close to the thought of Sufism but a harsh critic of the corrupted state of the institution of the lodge.
Bibliography
- Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, p. 127 (poem no. 179; manuscript fol. 42b). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf
Online sources
