Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefāʿilün feʿilātün mefāʿilün feʿilün
Nedir şu ḫāk-i muḳaddes nedir şu āb u hevā
Nedir ṣaḥāri vü enhār ü sāḥil ü deryā
Nedir bilād u ḳara vü mezāriʿ ü merʿā
Nedir kurum u riyāż u ḥudāluḳ u meştā
Nedir cibāl u bevādī vü evdiye, pehnā
Nedir nişīb ü firāz ü meʿābir ü mecrā
Nedir ḳılāʿ u beḳaʿ u ḥudūd u istiḥmā
Nedir ḥuṣūn u ribāṭ vü merāṣid ü melcā
Nedir medāris ü mekteb, cevāmiʿ–i ʿulyā
Nedir meḳābir-i emvāt, mesken-i aḥyā
Vaṭan ki işte bu eczā anı ider teşkīl
Vaṭan ki itmeli her cüzʾ ü pākini tebcīl
Nedir bu ḥıfẓ-ı ḥuḳūḳ u şiʿār-ı ḳavmiyyet
Nedir bu ḥüsn-i ḥamiyyet, nedir bu ḥürriyyet
Nedir muḥabbet-i evlād, şefḳat-i ezvāc
Nedir meveddet-i ḳurbī vü ḥubb-i ṣıhriyyet
Nedir bu ḫafẓ-ı cenāḥ u nevāziş-i ebeveyn
Nedir viḳāye-i nāmūs u vaḳʿ-ı ḥayŝiyyet
Nedir tevārüŝ-i emlāk, intiḳāl-i ḥuḳūḳ
Nedir temādi-i nesl ü devām-ı ẕürriyyet
Nedir teʿāvün-i ifrād, şirket-i aʿmāl
Nedir telāḥuḳ-ı fikr ü tezāyüd-i ḳuvvet
Vaṭan ki anda ḥuḳūḳı bu ḥāl ider teʾsīs
Vaṭan ki itmeli her ḥaḳḳ-ı aḳdesin taḳdīs
In English
1. What is this sacred soil, what is this water and air; what are deserts, rivers, shore and sea?
2. What are towns and villages, fields and pastures; what are vineyards, gardens, groves and winter quarters? (The reading of one word is not certain.)
3. What are mountains, open lands and valleys, broad plains; what are slopes and heights, crossings and watercourses?
4. What are fortresses, places, frontiers and defences; what are castles, caravanserais, watchposts and refuges?
5. What are madrasas and schools, lofty mosques; what are the graves of the dead, the dwellings of the living?
6. The homeland: these are the parts that make it up; the homeland, whose every pure part must be honoured.
7. What is this guarding of rights and badge of nationhood; what is this fine zeal, what is this freedom?
8. What is love of children, the tenderness of spouses; what is the friendship of kin, the love of relations by marriage?
9. What is lowering the wing in humility to parents and caressing them; what is guarding honour and valuing dignity?
10. What is the passing of property by inheritance, the transfer of rights; what is the continuance of the line and the endurance of descendants?
11. What is the mutual aid of individuals, partnership in works; what is the joining of minds and the growth of strength?
12. The homeland: there this condition establishes rights; the homeland, whose every most sacred right must be held holy.
Literary and Historical Commentary
The Two Faces of the Homeland
"Vatan" (Homeland) is built as a terkib-bend: two stanzas of five couplets, each closed by a linking couplet (vasıta) with a changed rhyme beginning "Vatan ki...", the homeland, which.... The stanzas always proceed with the same question: "Nedir?", what is? The poet hides the answer within the questions and reveals it only in the linking couplet. This chain of questions resembles a teacher setting out the parts of a concept on the blackboard.
The first stanza defines the homeland as a geography. Soil, water and air, deserts and rivers, towns and villages, fields, mountains and valleys, fortresses, castles and frontiers, schools, mosques and graves are listed in turn; all these are the parts that make up the homeland, and each deserves to be honoured. The second stanza describes the homeland as a community of rights and bonds. Here, beside love of children, the tenderness of spouses, respect for parents, honour, inheritance and the continuance of the line, stand political words of the Tanzimat and Constitutional periods such as "hıfz-ı hukuk" (guarding of rights), "şiâr-ı kavmiyyet" (badge of nationhood), "hamiyyet" (patriotic zeal) and "hürriyyet" (freedom). The mutual aid of individuals, partnership in works and the joining of minds are also counted parts of the homeland.
The concept of the homeland had acquired a political and emotional meaning in Ottoman literature with the generation of Namık Kemal. Cûdî approaches the concept without the exalted language of heroism and proceeds as if giving a definition: the homeland is both the soil itself and the rights and mutual attachment of the people who live on it. The "hafz-ı cenâh" of the ninth couplet is taken from the Qur'anic command to "lower to them the wing of humility" towards one's parents (al-Isrâ' 17:24) and places the family bond within the definition of the homeland.
Bibliography
- Havva Tok Yıldız, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [1b-43a], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 62-63 (poem no. 46; manuscript fol. 19b-20a). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116853.pdf
Online sources
