Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Gelin ey kardeşler tövbe edelim
Hakkın buyruğuna iman edelim
Koptu kıyametler nere gidelim
Özünü birliğe veren incinmez
Özünü bilenler sözünü bilir
Herkesin ettiği yoluna gelir
Eyliğe çalışan mahrum mu kalır
Her daim eylikte duran incinmez
Pir gönlüdür tarikatın putası
Yetmiş üçtür marifetin ötesi
Hakikattır cümlesinin atası
Hakikat evinde canan incinmez
Derviş Edna’m hakikate girelim
Gelin bu işlerden ibret alalım
Sultanımdır bu sevdayı verenim
Gönlünde sultanı duran incinmez

In English

1. Come, brothers, let us repent; let us believe in God's precepts. The Last Days have broken loose, where shall we go; whoever gives his essence to unity is not hurt.

2. Those who know their essence know their word too; what each one does comes back upon his own road. Does one who works at goodness remain deprived; whoever always stands in goodness is not hurt.

3. The pir's heart is the goal of the order; beyond gnosis lie the seventy-three. Truth is the forefather of them all; the beloved in the house of truth is not hurt.

4. I am Derviş Edna, let us enter into truth; come, let us take a lesson from these things. The one who gave me this love is my sultan; whoever keeps the sultan in his heart is not hurt.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This short nefes of four quatrains closes each of them on the redif "incinmez" (is not hurt). The first three lines rhyme as "edelim, edelim, gidelim", "bilir, gelir, kalır", "putası, ötesi, atası", "girelim, alalım, verenim". The metre is the eleven-syllable syllabic measure. In the final quatrain the pen name (mahlas) takes the form "Derviş Edna'm". The article glosses "eylik" as goodness and gives "puta" in the third quatrain as "the aim pursued".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

A call to repentance opens the poem. "God's precepts" (Hakkın buyruğu) recalls both God's command and the Buyruk, known among Alevis as the book of the path; the line carries both meanings together. "The Last Days have broken loose, where shall we go" voices the fear of the Last Day, but the answer of the quatrain turns to unity: whoever gives his essence to unity is not hurt. The redif repeats the same thought from different sides throughout the poem: whoever stands in goodness, the beloved in the house of truth and whoever carries the sultan in his heart is not hurt.

The third quatrain names the four gates of the Alevi-Bektashi path in a short sequence. The pir's heart is the goal of the order; beyond gnosis lie "the seventy-three", recalling the saying about the seventy-three sects of Islam; truth is the forefather of them all. The source does not explain what the number seventy-three means here; the connection we give is an interpretation based on common usage. In the last stanza the "sultan" who gives love stands for the guide or for God; in Derviş Edna's other poems too the guide is addressed as "my sultan".

Bibliography

Online sources