Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Yine dosttan yana açıldı yolum
Arz eder gönüller eyiyor canım
Elestü gününde bağladım belim
Tenim teneşirde canım ayrılmaz
Dost yoluna kurban tatlı canım
Rakip hançer vurdu akıyor kanım
Yolları bağladı rakib ü zalim
Aşkınan bellerden yolum ayrılmaz
Rakip tan eder bu benim halim
Kellemi keserler ayrılmaz kanım
Kavruldu balçığım sır oldu canım
Aşkınan cemalden nurum ayrılmaz
Nur cemâlin bir noktaya bağlandım
Ruh bir idi bin bir donda eylendim
Sular gibi engününe çağlandım
Çağlar dosttan yana gönlüm ayrılmaz
Derviş Edna’mdost gönlünde gezerim
Dilim kalem okuduğum yazarım
Gece gündüz bu âlemde gezerim
Yurt etti gönlüme serim ayrılmaz

In English

1. Once more my road has opened towards the Friend; hearts make their wish, my soul hastens. On the Day of Elest I girded my waist; though my body lie on the washing board, my soul will not part from him.

2. My sweet soul is a sacrifice on the Friend's road; the rival struck with his dagger, my blood is flowing. The rival and the tyrant have blocked the roads; my way will not part from the passes I cross with love.

3. The rival reviles this state of mine; though they cut off my head, my blood will not part from him. My clay was roasted, my soul became a secret; through love my light will not part from the light of his face.

4. I bound myself to one point of the radiant face; the spirit was one, I lingered in a thousand and one garments. Like the waters I rushed towards the open expanse; my heart that rushes towards the Friend will not part from him.

5. I, Derviş Edna, wander in the heart of the Friend; my tongue is a pen, I write what I read. Night and day I wander this world; the Friend has made my heart his home, my head will not part from him.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The redif is a word of loyalty: the last lines of the quatrains end "ayrılmaz" (will not part). The first quatrain pairs "yolum, belim", and the later quatrains rhyme "canım, kanım, zalim", "halim, kanım, canım", "bağlandım, eylendim, çağlandım", "gezerim, yazarım, gezerim". The metre of the five quatrains is the eleven-syllable syllabic measure; the pen name (mahlas) in the last stanza is "Derviş Edna'm". According to the article's footnotes "arz" means wish, "eyimek" to strive or hurry, "tan etmek" to revile, "kelle" head; a long note on Elest explains the assembly of souls.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The backbone of the nefes is a promise given in eternity and never broken under any condition. In Alevi-Bektashi belief the assembly of Elest is the gathering at which the souls, after their creation, answered "Yes" to God's question "Am I not your Lord?"; Derviş Edna says he girded his waist on that day, that is, he traces his entry into the path back to eternity. This devotion outlasts even death: the body on the washing board, the severed head, the flowing blood, none of them can part the soul from the Friend. The rival and the tyrant are the familiar obstacles of folk poetry; here they appear as those who block the road and revile the dervish.

The line "the spirit was one, I lingered in a thousand and one garments" in the fourth quatrain is the most striking point of the poem. Onar and Işık stress that Derviş Edna treated in his deyiş the belief in "changing garments" (don değiştirme), the soul's return to the world in different moulds; this line is a plain statement of that belief. The roasted clay that becomes a secret describes the raw body being fired and matured. In the last quatrain the words "my tongue is a pen, I write what I read" agree with the view that the unlettered âşık reads his words from God and gives them voice.

Bibliography

Online sources