Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: seven-syllable syllabic metre

Gafil olup dolanma
Az bir şeyden bulanma
Kötü sözden ilenme
İnciten kendin incir
Turab olur durursan
Hakka meyil verirsen
Hak emrini bilirsen
İnciten kendin incir
Hak yoluna aşığım
Görenlere ışığım
Üç yüz sene yaşasam
Yine gelir keşiğim
Dünyaya kandım diyen
Pişmiş tavuğu yiyene
Âhirinde kusturur
Malımla mülküm diyen
Derviş Edna’m zâr eder
Fikir başa yar eder
Noksanlık kendimizde
Sabrettikçe kâr eder

In English

1. Do not wander about heedless, do not be troubled and offended by a little thing, do not curse with evil words; whoever hurts another hurts himself.

2. If you stand humble as dust, if you turn towards God, if you know God's command, you will understand: whoever hurts another hurts himself.

3. I am a lover of God's path, a light to those who see. Though I lived three hundred years, my turn would come again.

4. The one who says "I have had my fill of the world", who eats the roasted chicken, who says "my goods, my property", in the end the world makes him vomit what he ate.

5. Derviş Edna weeps and pleads; thought becomes a companion to one's head. The lack is in ourselves; the more we are patient, the more we gain.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is composed in short lines of seven syllables; the article classes it as a nasihatname, a poem of counsel. In the first two quatrains the first three lines rhyme ("dolanma, bulanma, ilenme", "durursan, verirsen, bilirsen") and the fourth line carries the refrain "İnciten kendin incir" (whoever hurts, hurts himself). After the third quatrain the pattern changes: the rhyme "aşığım, ışığım, keşiğim" falls on the first, second and fourth lines; in the fourth quatrain the first and last lines end on the same word "diyen", and the fifth builds the rhyme "zâr eder, yar eder, kâr eder". The last of the five quatrains holds the pen name (mahlas) "Derviş Edna'm". The line order of the fourth quatrain has been left as it stands in the source.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

This short-lined poem is built from counsel that ordinary people could easily memorise. "İnciten kendin incir" works like a proverb: the pain given to another comes back to oneself in the end. In the second quatrain the counsel is tied to basic concepts of Alevi-Bektashi ethics: "becoming dust", that is, being humble as the earth, turning towards God, knowing His command. In the fourth quatrain attachment to worldly goods is described with an almost coarse concreteness through the images of roasted chicken and vomiting; this directness is a familiar feature of folk poems of counsel.

The third quatrain is also quoted separately in the article. "Keşik" means turn, and according to Onar and Işık the line points to the Alevi belief in changing bodies, changing garments: though three hundred years pass, death cannot be avoided, but the soul's turn to return to the world will also come. The article further connects this line with the Akkubbe tomb where Derviş Edna was buried; the village elders say the tomb is three hundred years old, and people believe the dervish to be the same soul as the ancient figure who lies there.

Bibliography

Online sources