Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefāʿilün mefāʿilün mefāʿilün mefāʿilün

Ḫudānıñ añlamaz yehūd, ẕātını ṣıfātını
Hemān mırıldanır ḫurāfe-i tevāriyātını
Kitābıñız degil münevvirü'l-ʿuḳūl bir kitāb
İçinde çünki münderic ḥelāldir diyü şarāb
Ḫudāya nān u ḫamr ile taḳarrüb itmeñiz ġarīb
Dumānla Rabb-i ʿālemīni beslemek de pek ʿacīb
Kelīm sāyesinde buldıñız ḫalāṣ-ı ġarḳdan
Faḳaṭ ḫalāṣa çare yoḳ suyūf-ı ḳahr-ı berḳden
Şu ḥādiŝāt-ı dehre ʿaṭf iden ṣaḥīḥ bir naẓar
Kemān ider ki müşkilāta çāre-sāz olur ḥaẕer
Olur mı hiç oḳuma - kim ider taʿabbüd-i ṣalīb -
Ẓalām-ı vehmden ḫalāṣ ile hüdā-yı ḥaḳ naṣīb
Mecūsıñ eskidir ḍelāleti ḍelāl-i rāsiḫa
Ṭapar nücūm u āteşe ṣapar reh-i tenāsüḫe
Bidāyetinde düşdi tā Yahūd yine ḥayrete
Belā-yı mefsedetle ṣoñra da çeh-i meẕellete
Ḥanīfe yaʿni müslimīn olup dūçār-ı tefriḳa
Hezār-ı fikre mesken oldı Asiyā vü Afriḳā
Dü ḳısmdır benī beşer görünse de ṣunūfı çoḳ
Ya ʿaḳlı var da dīni yoḳ ya dīni var da ʿaḳlı yoḳ
Ḫayır! Unutma bir de var o çancı rehrev-i bevār
Ne dīni var ne ʿaḳlı var miŝāl-i ʿicl-i ẕī-ḫvār

In English

1. The Jew does not understand God's essence and attributes; at once he murmurs the superstitions of his histories.

2. (To the Jews:) Your book is not a book that enlightens minds, for in it wine is written to be lawful.

3. Your drawing near to God with bread and wine is strange; feeding the Lord of the worlds with smoke is very odd too.

4. Through the Interlocutor (Moses) you were saved from drowning; but there is no escape from the swords of the lightning of wrath.

5. A sound gaze turned upon these events of time supposes that caution is a remedy for difficulties.

6. (To the Christians:) Will the Christians, who worship the cross, ever be granted release from the darkness of fancy and the true way?

7. (To the Magians:) The Magian's error is old, a deep-rooted error; he worships the stars and fire and strays onto the road of transmigration.

8. (To the Jews again:) The Jew fell into bewilderment at the very beginning, and later, through the calamity of corruption, into the well of abasement.

9. (To the Muslims:) The hanîfs, that is, the Muslims, fell into division, and Asia and Africa became home to a thousand opinions.

10. The sons of Adam are of two kinds, though their classes seem many: either they have reason but no religion, or religion but no reason.

11. No! Do not forget this one too: that bell-ringing traveller on the road of ruin; he has neither religion nor reason, like the lowing calf.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The last link of a three-part chain in the divan bears the title "Terceme", translation. First comes an Arabic poem by Abu'l-'Alâ' al-Ma'arrî that throws stones at the Jews and at the soldiers of his time; its last couplet is a well-known judgement: "The people of the earth are two: one has reason but no religion, the other has religion but no reason." Then Cûdî adds an Arabic couplet to al-Ma'arrî's twofold division: "No, we add a third to them: in them there is no religion, and their minds are ailing." Finally he translates the whole into Turkish "meâlen", taking its sense.

The translation keeps the sceptical and quarrelsome tone of al-Ma'arrî's poem and directs each couplet at a community: the Jews, the Christians, the Magians and at last the Muslims. These addresses are written in the manuscript as labels at the head of the lines. The judgements about Jews, Christians and Magians carry the harsh patterns of the polemical language of the period; they convey prejudice, not knowledge about these communities. The Muslims do not escape criticism either, for they too have fallen into division and made Asia and Africa the home of a thousand opinions.

The tenth couplet is the Turkish counterpart of al-Ma'arrî's famous judgement and one of the divan's lines most fit for quotation: "Either they have reason but no religion, or religion but no reason." The eleventh couplet is the translation of the third class Cûdî added: one with neither religion nor reason, a traveller on the road of ruin like "the lowing calf". This comparison recalls the story of the golden calf told in the suras al-A'râf and Tâ Hâ. Taking into account the al-Ma'arrî nazire in the earlier pages, it is clear that Cûdî read this sceptical Arab poet closely and did not hold back from arguing with him.

Bibliography

  • Zeynep Adıyahşi, Merzifonlu İbrâhîm Cûdî Dîvânı (İnceleme-Metin-Sözlük) [43b-87b], Master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun 2017, pp. 76-77 (poem no. 228; manuscript fol. 65b-66a). http://libra.omu.edu.tr/tezler/116831.pdf

Online sources