Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün

Sübḥāne men te‘aẓẓeme fī-ġāyeti’l-kemāl
Sübḥāne men tenezzehe ‘an vaṣmeti’z-zevāl
Ān vācibü’l-vücūd ki ez-feyż-i luṭf-ı ū
Ẕāt-ı şerīf-i ādem-i ḫākīst ber-kemāl
V’ān ṣāni‘ī ki ez-es̱er-i ṣun‘-ı ḳudreteş
Gerded zi-kāf u nūn heme gītī be-ḳīl ü ḳāl
Ey pādşāh-ı lem-yezel ü Ḥayy ü lā-yemūt
V’ey şāh-ı bī-zevāl ü Ḫudāvend-i lā-yezāl
Ḥaḳḳ-ı kemāl-i vaṣfuñı kimdür edā iden
‘Aḳl-ı kül oldı gāyet-i vaṣfuñda güng ü lāl
Hergiz hevā-yı künh-i celālüñde olmadı
Şeh-bāz-ı şāḫ-ı sidreye pervāz-geh me’āl
Ṭāvūs-ı dil ‘aceb nicesi cilve göstere
Pervāz-ı fikretüñde çün oldı şikeste-bāl
Āyīne-i ṣıfātuña ḳarşu ṣafā-y-ile
Ṭūṭī-i nāṭıḳa bula nuṭḳa meger mecāl
Gül-bāng-ı ḥamdüñ içre çeker murġ-ı dil ṣafīr
Luṭfuñ hevāsı ceẕbesine idüp ittiṣāl
Esrār-ı ḳudretüñi nice derk ide ‘aceb
‘Aḳl-ı ‘aḳīle k’adı sefīh ola vü ‘uḳāl
Tāc-ı muraṣṣa‘ ile felek taḫtına geçüp
Emrüñle günde şāh-ı felek ‘arż ider cemāl
‘Ālī ḳapuñda bende-i fermān-ber olmaġın
Gūş-ı felekde ḫoş yaraşur ḥalḳa-i hilāl
Çarḫī ṭabaḳla kevnde cihān mihr-i ḳurṣını
Feyżüñ ni‘amlarına irüp götürür nevāl
Çekdi dem-i ḳabūline çün dest-i ḳudretüñ
Ḫoş nükhet-ile oldı adı nāfe-i ġazāl
Şekker gibi ‘asel nice vechle ider meges
Ta‘līm-i ḳudretüñ durur itdüren aña bal
‘Arş-ı mecīde ṣuffa-i ṣadr oldı cā meger
Dīvān-ı ṣaṭvetüñde anuñdur ṣaf-ı ni‘āl
Ẕevḳ ile ẕikr-i mecdüñ iderken bu maṭla‘a
Gördüm ki şevḳ ile yine dil ḳılmış intiḳāl
Ey āftāb-ı luṭf-ı to şod maẓhar-ı cemāl
V’ey nār-ı ḳahr-ı ḫışm-ı to şod menşe’-i celāl
Ez-ṭal‘at-ı ṣıfāt-ı to ẕāt-ı to rūşenest
Ne ānk pertevī dehed ez-lema‘-i ḫayāl
‘Işḳuñ beriyyesinde yanan teşne-dillere
Āb-ı ḥayāt-ı vaṣluñ olur çeşme-i zülāl
Ḥālāt-ı ‘ışḳuñ içre segirden levendüñe
Müstaḳbel ile māżī ‘aceb mi olursa ḥāl
Biñ derd ü ḥasret ile olur bülbülüñ hezār
Gül-zār-ı vaṣluña biri bulunca bir mecāl
Ṭurmazdı murġ-ı cān ḳafes-i tende irmese
Gül-zār-ı vuṣlatuñdan aña nükhet-i viṣāl
Her laḥza mehd-i gül-şen-i bāġ içre ġoncaya
Ḫūn-ı dil ile perverişüñ virür i‘tidāl
Yoluñda olmayan kişi seng ile sīne-kūb
Döksün yaşını ṭaşlara kim oldı pāy-māl
Devletlü ol ki nāme-i a‘māline anuñ
Ola sevād-ı vechi reh-i ‘ışḳuñ içre ḫāl
Sāḳī-i feyżüñüñ yire ṭamdısa cür‘ası
Her ḳaṭresinden oldı revān çeşme-i zülāl
Emrüñle şıḥne oldı revān milket-i dile
Ḥıṣn-ı vücūda olsa ḫıred n’ola kūtvāl
Z’ān rū meşām-ı cān-ı cihān-rā revān dehed
Ez-şemme-i ḳabūl-i to şod nükhet-i şimāl
Her dil ki zevraḳını ṣala baḥr-i vaḥdete
Çekmez iñende mevc-i ḥavādis̱den infi‘āl
Fehmi olaydı ẕerrece ‘aḳl-ı ‘aḳīlenüñ
Emmāre gibi it ile olmazdı hem-sifāl
Deryā-yı ye’se ye’s elifi gibi ġarḳına
Ḳavlinde ṣādıḳ olmayanuñ oldı fi‘li dāl
Her müşkilāt u ‘uḳde ki var reh-revānuña
Vehm ü ḳıyās eli-yle ḳaçan ḥall ider ḫayāl
Yüzin tażarru‘ ile ṭutar göge baş açup
Bir ḳaṭre feyż-i raḥmetüñe teşnedür cibāl
Bālā çeküp geçerse n’ola şāḫ-ı sidreden
Gül-zār-ı ḥikmetüñde ki var şöyle bir nihāl
Bār-ı emānete nicesi ṭutmasun boyun
Yümn-i ḫilāfet ile çün ol oldı bī-mis̱āl
Esrār-ı ḳudretüñi sebük ṣallayup biri
Merdūd-ı der-geh oldı la‘īn oldı şöyle ḍāl
Yā Rab be-ḥaḳḳ-ı Aḥmed-i Muḫtār u āl-i ū
Yā Rab be-ḥaḳḳ-ı Ḥażret-i sulṭān-ı bī-zevāl
Yā Rab be-ḥaḳḳ-ı ṣoḥbet-i aṣḥāb-ı çār yār
K’īşān zi-şevḳ-ı ‘ışḳ-ı to geştend bī-melāl
Yā Rab be-ḥaḳḳ-ı ḥürmet-i ānhā ki ‘āḳıbet
Ber-vuṣlat-ı ḥabīb-i to yābend ittiṣāl
Yā Rab be-‘izzet-i şeb-i mi‘rāc u ḳadr-i ū
K’ū-rā resīd devlet-i ān rütbet ü celāl
Yā Rab be-ḥaḳḳ-ı Ādem ü mecmū‘-ı enbiyā
K’īşān güzīde-i dü cihānend ber-kemāl
Biñ dürlü yüz ḳarası-y-ıla ‘āḳıbet Münīr
Köhne ribāṭ-ı dehrden idicek intiḳāl
Nūr-ı hidāyetüñi aña yār u rehber it
Ḳılma yüzi ḳarasıyıla güm-reh ü ḍalāl

In English

1. Glory be to Him who is exalted at the utmost point of perfection; glory be to Him who is free from the stain of passing away. (The couplet is in Arabic; both lines begin with "Sübhāne men" (glory be to Him who).)

2. He is the One whose existence is necessary, by the bounty of whose grace the noble being of Adam, made from earth, has reached perfection. (Persian.)

3. He is the Maker by the work of whose power the whole world comes into being from kâf and nûn, that is, from the command "kün" (be), and fills with talk and speech. (Persian. Kâf and nûn are the letters of the Arabic word "kün" (be). Ersoy understands the couplet as "He brought the world into being from the letters kâf and nun"; the phrase "be-ḳīl ü ḳāl" also suggests the world being full of chatter and the noise of words.)

4. O King who has been from eternity, ever-living, never dying; O Shah without decline and Lord who will endure for ever. (Persian; the attributes are Arabic.)

5. Who can pay what is due to the description of Your perfection; even the Universal Intellect fell dumb and silent at the end of describing You. (The Universal Intellect is named in the older philosophy as the first intellect that encompasses all being.)

6. In the longing to reach the essence of Your majesty, the falcon of the bough of the Sidra never had a place to fly to or an end to reach. (The falcon of the bough of the Sidra describes Gabriel, who can rise as far as the Sidrat al-Muntaha, the lote tree of the furthest boundary. "Hevā", in its dictionary sense, means both "desire" and "air", which suits the image of flight.)

7. When its wing is broken in the flight of thinking of You, how can the peacock of the heart strut and show its beauty?

8. The parrot called the power of speech may perhaps find words to say only before the mirror of Your attributes, in purity. (Divan poetry tells that the parrot learns to speak in front of a mirror; "ṭūṭī-i nāṭıḳa" likens the human faculty of speech to a parrot.)

9. The bird of the heart, bound to the pull of the air of Your grace, sings within the gülbang of Your praise. ("Gül-bāng", in its dictionary sense, means both the song of the nightingale and a prayer recited aloud in chorus.)

10. How should even the choicest intellect grasp the secrets of Your power, when its name becomes witless and it stays hobbled? (The couplet is obscure. The words "‘aḳl", "‘aḳīle" and "‘uḳāl" come from the same root; "‘uḳāl", in its dictionary sense, is the hobble tied to a camel's leg. The sense must be that the intellect is bound fast before the secrets of divine power.)

11. The sun, king of the heavens, takes its seat on the throne of the sky with its jewelled crown and shows its beauty every day at Your command.

12. Because it is a servant obeying Your command at Your high door, the ring of the crescent moon suits the ear of the sky very well. (In former times a ring was put in the ear of slaves; the crescent is likened to the earring of servitude in the ear of heaven.)

13. The sky carries the sun-loaf of the world on a tray, reaching the gifts of Your bounty, as an offering. (The structure of the line is obscure. "Ḳurṣ", in its dictionary sense, means both a round loaf and the disc of the sun or moon; the sun is likened to a loaf on the table of heaven.)

14. When the hand of Your power drew it into the breath of acceptance, because of its fragrance its name became "the musk-pod of the gazelle". (The couplet is obscure. Musk comes from the pod in the navel of the musk deer; "dem", in its dictionary sense, means both "breath" and "blood". The couplet can be read as blood turning into musk by God's acceptance.)

15. How does the fly make honey like sugar? It is the teaching of Your power that makes it produce honey. ("Meges", in its dictionary sense, means "fly"; the honeybee is meant here. Arabic "‘asel" and Turkish "bal" both mean honey.)

16. Elsewhere, perhaps, the place of the glorious Throne became the seat of honour; but in the divan of Your awe its place is the row where shoes are left. (God's greatness is described by placing the Throne at the lowest spot of the assembly.)

17. While I was recounting Your glory with delight, I saw that the heart had passed with longing once again to this opening couplet.

18. O You, the sun of whose grace is the place where Your beauty appears; O You, the fire of whose wrath and anger is the source of Your majesty. (Persian. Cemal names God's attributes of grace and beauty; celal, His attributes of majesty and wrath.)

19. Your essence is manifest through the brightness of Your attributes; it is not something that takes its light from the glimmer of imagination. (Persian.)

20. For the thirsty hearts burning in the desert of Your love, the water of life of union with You becomes a clear spring.

21. Is it any wonder if, for Your young gallant running through the states of love, both future and past become "hâl"? ("Hâl" means both the present tense in grammar and the spiritual state in Sufism; for one who has entered the state of love, past and future turn into the present moment.)

22. For someone to find an opening to the rose garden of union with You, thousands of nightingales suffer a thousand pains and longings. (The couplet can be read in two ways: in this way, or as "when someone finds a way to the garden of union, Your nightingale breaks into a thousand songs with a thousand pains and longings". "Hezār", in its dictionary sense, means both "a thousand" and "nightingale".)

23. Had the scent of meeting not reached it from the rose garden of union with You, the bird of the soul would not stay in the cage of the body.

24. Your nurture gives the bud in the rose cradle of the garden, at every moment, a measured nourishment of heart's blood. (The redness of the bud is explained as its being fed on the blood of the heart.)

25. Let the one who does not beat his breast with a stone on Your path shed his tears on the stones that have been trodden underfoot on Your path. (The couplet is obscure. The sense must be that since even the stones are trampled on Your path, one who has not given himself to that path should weep in shame.)

26. Happy the one for whom the blackness of face in the record of his deeds becomes a beauty spot on the path of love. ("Sevād", in its dictionary sense, means both "blackness" and "writing"; the black writing in the record of deeds turns into the dark mole on the beloved's face on the path of love.)

27. If a sip from the cup of the cupbearer of Your bounty dripped onto the ground, from each of its drops a clear spring flowed. (The VT and VY manuscripts read "bize" (onto us) instead of "yire" (onto the ground).)

28. At Your command a watchman was sent to the realm of the heart; what wonder if the intellect became the warden of the fortress of being? ("Şıḥne", in its dictionary sense, means a town watchman, and "kūtvāl" the keeper of a fortress. The Ü manuscript reads "n'ola ger kūtvāl" instead of "n'ola kūtvāl".)

29. From the fragrance of Your acceptance the sweet scent of the north wind came into being; that is why it gives soul to the sense of smell of the world's spirit. (Persian. "Revān", in its dictionary sense, means both "soul, spirit" and "flowing".)

30. Every heart that launches its boat on the sea of oneness is neither hurt nor wearied by the waves of events.

31. Had there been a mote of understanding in the mind of the sensible, he would not eat from the same bowl as the dog, as the commanding self does. (The nefs-i emmâre is the self that drives man to evil; divan poetry likens it to a dog. "Hem-sifāl", in its dictionary sense, means "sharing the same earthen bowl".)

32. The deeds of one who is not true to his word became crooked like the letter "dâl"; he sank into the sea of despair like the alif of the word "ye's". (The couplet is built on the shapes of letters. "Ḍāl", in its dictionary sense, means "gone astray", and it also recalls the name of the crooked letter "dâl". What exactly is meant by the alif of "ye's", the word for despair, is not entirely clear.)

33. When can imagination, with the hand of fancy and reasoning, untie each difficulty and knot that lies before Your travellers? (It cannot; the inadequacy of reasoning on this path is described.)

34. The mountains bare their heads and turn their faces to the sky in supplication; they thirst for a single drop of the bounty of Your mercy.

35. What wonder if such a sapling in the rose garden of Your wisdom grows tall and passes beyond the bough of the Sidra? (As the next couplet shows, the sapling is man, that is, Adam.)

36. Since it became peerless through the blessing of the caliphate, how should it not bow its neck to take up the burden of the trust? (It alludes to man being made God's vicegerent on earth and taking up the trust that the heavens and the earth shrank from bearing.)

37. One, making light of the secrets of Your power, was driven from Your court and cursed, and so went astray. (This unnamed one is Satan, as the epithets "driven away" and "cursed" show. "Sebük ṣallamak" means to make light of.)

38. O Lord, for the sake of Ahmad the Chosen and his family; O Lord, for the sake of the sultan whose glory knows no decline. (Persian. The VY manuscript reads "Ḥażret-i" instead of "Aḥmed-i".)

39. O Lord, for the sake of the companionship of the four friends, the Prophet's four caliphs, who never wearied of the longing of love for You. (Persian.)

40. O Lord, for the honour of those who in the end attained union with Your beloved. (Persian.)

41. O Lord, for the glory of the night of the Ascension and of his worth, by which that rank and majesty reached him. (Persian. "Ḳadr" means "worth" and also recalls the Night of Power; Ersoy understands the couplet as referring to the nights of the Ascension and of Power.)

42. O Lord, for the sake of Adam and all the prophets, who are the chosen of both worlds in perfection, (Persian.)

43. When Münîr at last, with a thousand kinds of blackness of face, departs from this old caravanserai of the world,

44. Make the light of Your guidance his friend and guide; do not let him, with his black face, be lost and astray. (The Ü manuscript reads "güm-reh" instead of "güm-reh ü".)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The kaside (qasida) is the poem of divan literature written in praise of God, the Prophet or a great personage; it is longer than the ghazal (gazel) and keeps a single rhyme throughout. As the heading in the edition, "Der-tevḥīd-i Bārī Te‘ālā", shows, this poem is a tevhid kaside on the oneness and greatness of God. By Ersoy's count, only one of the twenty-nine kasides in the divan is a tevhid. It consists of forty-four couplets; its metre is "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün" and its rhyme is the sound "-āl": kemāl, zevāl, ḳāl, lāl, bāl, mecāl, cemāl, hilāl, ġazāl. There is no redif (refrain word). In his account of rhyme types Ersoy counts this kaside among the examples of the kafiye-i müreddefe.

The poem mixes Turkish and Persian. Ersoy gives the meaning of twelve couplets in his apparatus: the Arabic opening couplet, the three Persian couplets that follow it, the second opening couplet and the one after it, the twenty-ninth couplet and the five couplets of the closing "Yā Rab" series. The remaining thirty-two couplets are Turkish. The kaside is found in all three manuscripts, VT, VY and Ü. According to the manuscript note, VT has no heading, while the heading in Ü is a na‘t heading. There is no record of to whom or when it was written.

The kaside has two opening couplets (matla). In the seventeenth couplet the poet says that while recounting God's greatness with delight his heart has passed once again "to this opening couplet"; the eighteenth couplet is a new opening with both lines rhyming. The first part is tevhid and praise, the second reflections on love, union and the creation of man. From the thirty-eighth to the forty-second couplet come the Persian prayer couplets, each beginning "Yā Rab be-ḥaḳḳ-ı" (O Lord, for the sake of); in the forty-third couplet the pen name (mahlas) "Münīr" is mentioned, and the last couplet closes with a plea for forgiveness.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The leading idea of the first part is that neither reason nor the angels can grasp the greatness of God. This thought is worked out through images of birds. In the fifth couplet even the Universal Intellect falls dumb; in the sixth the falcon of the bough of the Sidra, that is Gabriel, finds no place to fly towards the essence of majesty; in the seventh the wing of the peacock of the heart is broken; in the eighth the faculty of speech is likened to a parrot, and in the ninth the heart to a bird singing the song of praise. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between falcon, peacock, parrot and bird; each shows one face of man's effort to describe God.

The order of the universe is described next. In the eleventh couplet the sun is a king ascending the throne with a jewelled crown; in the twelfth the crescent is the ring of servitude in the ear of the sky. This is a simile (teşbih) resting on the old custom of slavery, and it says that heaven too is God's servant. In the fourteenth couplet musk, and in the fifteenth honey, are named as examples of divine power in nature. In the sixteenth couplet it is said that the Throne can find a place in the divan of divine awe only in the row where shoes are left; the contrast between "ṣadr" (seat of honour) and "ṣaf-ı ni‘āl" (the row of shoes) is antithesis (tezat).

The first couplet of the second opening sets beauty and majesty, God's attributes of grace and wrath, against each other through the images of sun and fire. In the couplets that follow, the language of love and union predominates: the water of life, the rose garden, the nightingale, the bird of the soul and the cage of the body. Because the word "hâl" in the twenty-first couplet describes both the present tense in grammar and the spiritual state in Sufism, it is an example of double entendre (tevriye); its being named together with past and future time also strengthens the congruence of images. The word "hezār" in the twenty-second couplet creates a pun (cinas) between the meanings "a thousand" and "nightingale". In the twenty-sixth couplet the black writing in the record of deeds turning into the mole on the beloved's face carries the idea of sin being turned into beauty on the path of love.

Between the thirty-fifth and thirty-seventh couplets the creation of man and the expulsion of Satan are briefly told: the sapling in the garden of wisdom rises beyond the Sidra and, through the caliphate, takes up the burden of the trust, while the one who made light of the secrets of power is driven out. In the forty-third and forty-fourth couplets the pen name "Münīr" sets up a contrast of light and darkness with the words "nūr-ı hidāyet" (light of guidance) and "yüzi ḳarası" (blackness of face). The bearer of a pen name meaning "illuminating" says that he will leave the world black of face and asks for the light of guidance as his companion.

Historical Context

Ersoy sees the influence of Ahmed Paşa in Münîrî's Turkish kasides and, among the kasides written as nazire (response poem) to Ahmed Paşa, counts "the poem rhyming in -āl" in the same metre as the na‘t rhyming in -ā. The divan contains two kasides in this metre and rhyme: this tevhid kaside and Kaside 28. Ersoy does not say which one he means; it is therefore not certain whether this kaside is a nazire to Ahmed Paşa.

Bibliography

Online sources