Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Arş yüzünde bir pınardan sulandım
Aldurdum kuzum ciğerden meledim
Yedi iklim çar köşeyi dolandım
Buldum kapısını ince yolu var
Kapının önünde müşteri tartar
Ağır mı yiğnimi elinde kantar
Mizânın başından kendisi tutar
Mizânın başında yeğin işi var
Mizânın başında bir saat durdum
Ayıktım aklımı başıma derdim
On iki kapıdan içeri girdim
Kapının birinde işlek yolu var
On iki kapıdır târik tamamı
Dördüncü kapıya verdi selamı
Üçüncü kapıya etmem gümânı
Gümânda kalanın yeğin işi var
Derviş Edna’m doğru gider yolumuz
Aktan okur kara bilmez dilimiz
Yaramaza tutturmasın salımız
Cenazem tutmaya dört de kulu var

In English

1. I was watered at a spring on the face of the sky; I lost my lamb and bleated from my very liver. I wandered the seven climes and the four corners; I found his door, and it has a narrow path.

2. Before the door he weighs the customers; heavy or light, the steelyard is in his hand. He holds the head of the scale himself; at the head of the scale he has much to do.

3. I stood an hour at the head of the scale; I came to my senses and gathered my wits. I went in through twelve doors; at one of the doors there is a well-trodden road.

4. Twelve doors make up the whole path; he gave greeting to the fourth door. I have no doubt about the third door; whoever stays in doubt has much to do.

5. I am Derviş Edna, our road runs straight; our tongue reads from the white and does not know the black. May he not let the wicked carry our coffin; my bier has four servants to bear it.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The last lines of the quatrains end with the redif "var" (there is), and the same words return in alternation: "yolu var, işi var, yolu var, işi var, kulu var". In the first quatrain the first and third lines ("sulandım, dolandım") rhyme; the second quatrain runs on "tartar, kantar, tutar", the third on "durdum, derdim, girdim", the fourth on "tamamı, selamı, gümânı", the fifth on "yolumuz, dilimiz, salımız". The five quatrains are in the eleven-syllable syllabic metre. The pen name (mahlas) "Derviş Edna'm" is in the final quatrain. The article took the text from Çevik 2008, corrected it and glossed words in its footnotes: "arş" sky, "yiğni" light, "mizan" the scale of the Last Judgement, "yeğin" much, "derdim" I gathered, "gümân" doubt, "sal" coffin.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

It tells a story of seeking. The image of the sheep that has lost its lamb and bleats from its liver gives the longing of the dervish who seeks God through a picture taken from everyday rural life. The dervish wanders the seven climes and at last finds a door "with a narrow path". The one who weighs the customers before the door and holds the head of the scale himself brings to mind both the scale of the Day of Judgement and the guide who tests his disciple. The twelve doors recall the order of the path in Alevi-Bektashi belief, built on the Twelve Imams and the twelve services; the poem does not explain what the fourth and third doors stand for.

The last quatrain is the one the article also quotes when describing Derviş Edna's life. The line "our tongue reads from the white and does not know the black" says that the poet could not read or write and that he took his knowledge not from ink but from God. Onar and Işık point out its likeness to his guide Kul Fakir's line "Aktan okur kara bilmez pirimiz" and see in it clear evidence of Kul Fakir's influence on Derviş Edna. The lines in which he asks that the wicked not carry his coffin and speaks of the "four servants" who will bear his bier give the poem the air of a last will.

Bibliography

Online sources