Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Sâdetlihünkardan bir nutuk aldım
Şad etti gönlümü ummana daldım
Bu aşkın yoluna serimi verdim
İşaret gönlümden bildi sultanım
Baştan ayağacak olmuş münevver
Sultanım önünde olayım kamber
Ben seni sevmişim ta ezel ezel
Herkesin gönlünden bildi sultanım
Feyiller karıştı kalmadı tuzu
Gönüller soğudu ırattı yazı
Cihanı düzeltir Ahmed-i Gazi
Herkesin feylinden bildi sultanım
İnsanın kaygısı cihanı tuttu
Geldi zamanı da vâdesi yetti
Sakın gafil olma geliyor Mehdi
İrizasız kârı alma sultanım
Derviş Edna’m Zülfikar’ı çalacak
Mahluk azdı belasını bulacak
Hilafet hatemi hünkar olacak
Hüseyin devrana geldi sultanım

In English

1. I received a word from the felicitous Hünkâr; it gladdened my heart, I dived into the sea. On the path of this love I gave my head; my sultan knew the sign from my heart.

2. From head to foot he has become radiant; let me be a Kamber before my sultan. I have loved you since eternity; my sultan knew it from everyone's heart.

3. Desires are confused, no savour is left; hearts have grown cold, summer has gone far off. Ahmed-i Gazi will set the world right; my sultan knew it from everyone's desire.

4. Man's anxiety has filled the world; its time has come, its term is fulfilled. Beware of heedlessness, the Mahdi is coming; my sultan, take no gain without consent.

5. I am Derviş Edna; he will strike with Zülfikar, the people run wild will meet their calamity. The seal of the caliphate will be the Hünkâr's; Hüseyin has come into his age, my sultan.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Each quatrain ends by calling out "sultanım" (my sultan), though the verb before it changes: in the first three quatrains "bildi sultanım" (my sultan knew), in the fourth "alma sultanım" (take not, my sultan), in the fifth "geldi sultanım" (has come, my sultan). The first three lines rhyme as "aldım, daldım, verdim", "münevver, kamber, ezel", "tuzu, yazı, Gazi", "tuttu, yetti, Mehdi", "çalacak, bulacak, olacak". All five quatrains are built of eleven-syllable lines. In the last stanza the pen name (mahlas) "Derviş Edna'm" can be read. The article glosses "şad" as joyful, "umman" as sea and "münevver" as radiant, and for one word refers to Ali Cem Akbulut's 2010 book.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

It opens with the exaltation brought by a word from the "felicitous Hünkâr". In the Alevi-Bektashi tradition the name Hünkâr is given to Hacı Bektaş Velî, and the çelebis who sit on his post are also addressed as "efendi". The poet wishes to be a Kamber before this sultan clothed in light, that is, to serve like Kamber, the faithful servant of Ali. The sultan knowing everyone's heart and desire expresses the guide's knowledge that reads the inner self.

After the third quatrain the poem turns to a criticism of the age and to expectation: desires are confused, hearts have grown cold; "Ahmed-i Gazi" will set the world right. The source does not explain to whom this name points. Cemalettin Efendi, çelebi of the Hacı Bektaş lodge, also appears in the sources as Ahmet Cemalettin Çelebi, and in the First World War he went to the Caucasian front at the head of a volunteer Bektashi regiment; the line may refer to him, but this is only a possibility. In the last two quatrains the coming of the Mahdi, the striking of Zülfikar, the calamity of those run wild and the passing of the seal of the caliphate to the Hünkâr are familiar elements of the Alevi expectation of the end of time. "Hüseyin has come into his age" expresses the belief that the time for avenging Karbala has come.

Bibliography

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