Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Mail oldum güneş ile ayına
Kısmet verir yoksuluna bayına
Naled olsun Mavuya’nın soyuna
Hak rahmet suyunu içirmez imiş
Dünya cifesini geri ata gör
Sarraf ol da gevher alıp sata gör
İkrar birdir yetmiş üçe yete gör
Kör körü köprüden geçirmez imiş
Yedi iklim dört köşeyi bekliyen
Girip evliyanın cemin yokluyan
Nemrut imiş hak lokmasın saklıyan
Er erden lokmasın kaçırmaz imiş
Hayırı koyup da şere tapanlar
Hatıra değip de gönül yıkanlar
Lâden bahçesine yuva yapanlar
Yavru yavrulayıp uçurmaz imiş
Derviş Edna’m ilham eyler nefese
Siftah bu kalemle danıştı Musa
Evliya Yezid’le bozulur ise
Hayır amel artık kurtarmaz imiş

In English

1. I have inclined to his sun and his moon; he gives fortune to the poor and the rich alike. A curse on the line of Muaviye; it seems God does not let them drink the water of mercy.

2. Cast back the carrion of the world; be a money-changer, buy and sell the jewel. The pledge is one, see that you reach the seventy-three; it seems the blind cannot lead the blind across the bridge.

3. There is one who watches over the seven climes and the four corners, who goes in and looks into the cem of the saints. It seems he who hoards God's morsel is a Nimrod; a true man does not snatch his morsel from another.

4. Those who leave good and worship evil, who touch the feelings and break hearts, who build their nest in the rockrose garden, it seems cannot hatch their young and make them fly.

5. The nefes comes to Derviş Edna as inspiration; Moses first took counsel with this pen. If the saints are corrupted by Yezid, it seems good deeds no longer save (the meaning of the line is not entirely clear).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

In this nefes the suffix "imiş" conveys something learned after the fact, a truth shown by life (it seems, it turns out): each quatrain ends with the redif "-maz imiş, -mez imiş" ("içirmez imiş, geçirmez imiş, kaçırmaz imiş, uçurmaz imiş, kurtarmaz imiş"). The first three lines rhyme as "ayına, bayına, soyuna", "ata gör, sata gör, yete gör", "bekliyen, yokluyan, saklıyan", "tapanlar, yıkanlar, yapanlar", "nefese, Musa, ise". All five quatrains are built of eleven-syllable lines; in the last stanza the pen name (mahlas) appears as "Derviş Edna'm". The article glosses "bay" as rich, "Mavuya" as Muaviye and "cife" as filth, carrion; the ellipsis at the end of the source text has not been reproduced. According to the article's note, Çevik's book gives the quatrain "Derviş Edna'm hakka teslim özümüz" as the closing pen-name stanza of this deyiş; the article places that quatrain at the end of deyiş no. 25.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem lists truths that people learn by experience. God gives fortune to the poor and the rich; worldly goods are carrion and must be cast back; one must, like a money-changer, choose what has value. The last line of the second quatrain is a well-known proverb: the blind cannot lead the blind across the bridge, that is, one who does not know the way cannot show it to another. This saying can be read together with the counsel to take care in choosing a guide. The curse on Muaviye in the first quatrain is an established attitude in Alevi poetry towards those who opposed the Family of the Prophet.

The third quatrain is tied to the sharing of the lokma in the cem ceremony. Whoever hoards God's morsel, the common food of the community, is likened to Nimrod; a true man does not reach for another's share. In the fourth quatrain the bird that builds its nest in the rockrose garden and cannot make its young fly says that work founded on evil will bear no fruit; the article glosses the rockrose (laden) as a plant with sticky leaves, and the image of a bird unable to nest among sticky branches may rest on this. The last quatrain says that the nefes comes by inspiration; the two final lines naming Moses and Yezid are not explained in the source.

Bibliography

Online sources