Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Bir selamı aldım sevgülü yârden
Cihanı verseler ayrılmam senden
Ervâhımız birdir mayamız tenden
Balçığım yunuran pire bağlıyım
Ela gözlerini sevdiğim güzel
Senidin cihanın mayasın düzen
Kitaba sığmaz ki vasfını yazam
Gönülden seyreden göze bağlıyım
Aklımı başımdan aldı bakışın
Cihanı seyrettim bulunmaz eşin
Samurdur kirpiğin yay olmuş kaşın
Cemâlin şelvesi nura bağlıyım
Cemâlin ziyası cihanı tutar
Ak deve üstünde tabutun çatar (ağ, çeker)
Bunca dertlilerin carına yeten
Gönüller ferahı yaza bağlıyım
Derviş Edna’m böyle yazdı yazılar
Vakit geldi gafil durman gaziler
Sine girsem kemüklerim sızılar
Sinimi cem eden cana bağlıyım

In English

1. I received a greeting from the beloved friend; if they gave me the world I would not part from you. Our spirit is one, our substance is of the body; I am bound to the pir who kneaded my clay.

2. Beauty whose hazel eyes I love, you were the one who ordered the substance of the world. If I wrote of your qualities they would not fit in a book; I am bound to the eye that watches from the heart.

3. Your glance took my mind from my head; I wandered the world, your like is not found. Your lashes are sable, your brow has become a bow; I am bound to the light that is the reflection of your face.

4. The light of your face fills the world; they bind your coffin upon a white camel. I am bound to the summer that brings relief to hearts, that comes to the aid of so many who suffer.

5. I, Derviş Edna, wrote these writings thus; the time has come, do not stay heedless, warriors of faith. If I go into the grave my bones will ache; I am bound to the soul who gathers up my grave (this reading of the line is approximate).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

According to the article, the first line of this nefes reads "Bir selam aldım gül yüzlü yârden" in Çevik's book. In the first quatrain the first, second and third lines meet in the rhyme "yârden, senden, tenden"; the last lines of all the quatrains end with the redif "bağlıyım" (I am bound), preceded by "pire, göze, nura, yaza, cana". The rhymes of the other quatrains run "güzel, düzen, yazam", "bakışın, eşin, kaşın", "tutar, çatar, yeten", "yazılar, gaziler, sızılar". The text runs to five quatrains in the eleven-syllable syllabic metre, and the pen name (mahlas) "Derviş Edna'm" is found in the last quatrain. The note "(ağ, çeker)" in the fourth quatrain has been left as it stands in the source.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

It opens with a greeting from the beloved and at once makes clear that this beloved is in fact the guide: "the pir who kneaded my clay". The article explains "yunurmak" as to knead; the image of the pir who kneads raw mud and turns it into a human being expresses the belief that the guide creates the disciple anew. The second and third quatrains use the patterns of the folk love poem: hazel eyes, sable lashes, a bow-shaped brow, a beauty without equal. But this beauty "ordered the substance of the world"; human beauty thus becomes a mirror of the divine.

The line in the fourth quatrain, "they bind your coffin upon a white camel", recalls the Alevi folk narrative that Ali's body was loaded on a camel; the source does not say to whom the line refers, so this connection is our interpretation. In the closing quatrain the poet calls on the "warriors of faith" and says that the time has come and they must not remain heedless. The word "sine" here is most probably the word "sin", grave, which the article glosses in another footnote; the line speaks of a devotion that lasts beyond death.

Bibliography

Online sources