Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Bugün gamlı gördüm nazlı yârimi
Acep niçin dalmış efkâra dilber
Irakipler bağladılar yolumu
Niçin fırsat verdin ağyara dilber
Sevda verdin yarim oldun âlemin
Canda çakıldır şirin kelamın
Ne kendin geliyon ne de selamın
Arz eylesen bizim diyara dilber
Seni arz eyliyor fil-cümle insan
Bazı âşıklarda bulunur noksan
Bu edna kuluna sen eyle ihsan
Fakırdır kapında biçare dilber
DERVİŞOĞLU gezer senin peşinde
Bulunur mu menendinde eşinde
Bir şirin dil ile kaldım başında
Yollamadın gidem bir kere dilber

In English

1. Today I saw my graceful beloved sorrowful; O beauty, why have you sunk into such thought? Rivals have blocked my way; O beauty, why did you give strangers their chance?

2. You gave me love, you became the beloved of the whole world; your sweet word has fastened itself in my soul. Neither do you come yourself nor does your greeting; O beauty, if only you would send word to our land.

3. All mankind longs for you; some lovers are found wanting. O beauty, grant a favour to this humble servant; a poor, helpless one waits at your door.

4. Dervişoğlu wanders in your pursuit; is there anyone like you, any equal to you? I was left bewildered by your sweet tongue; O beauty, not once did you send for me to come.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a koşma of four quatrains in the eleven-syllable metre (the syllable count is ours). The last word of every quatrain is "dilber" (beauty), repeated as a redif; the words before it, "efkâra, ağyara, diyara, biçare, bir kere", carry the rhyme. The first quatrain has cross rhyme ("yârimi, yolumu"); in the following quatrains the first three lines rhyme among themselves ("âlemin, kelamın, selamın"; "insan, noksan, ihsan"; "peşinde, eşinde, başında"). The pen name appears in the last quatrain.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

On the surface this is a reproachful love deyiş addressed to a beloved: the beloved is sorrowful, rivals have blocked the way, and neither the beloved nor a greeting arrives. The words "ağyar" (strangers, rivals) and "ırakip" (rival), which passed from divan poetry into folk poetry, describe those who come between lover and beloved. In the third quatrain the tone changes and the lover becomes a humble servant waiting at the beloved's door; this is the point at which, in Alevi-Bektashi poetry, an address to the beloved easily turns into an address to the spiritual guide or to God.

The words "edna kul", "fakır" and "biçare" in the third quatrain are worth noting. All three are ordinary epithets of humility, but they are also the pen names of minstrels in Dervişoğlu's circle: Derviş Edna, Kul Fakır and Biçare. Necdet Kurt lists all of them among the minstrels whose training Kul Fakır helped. Whether the lines bring these three names together on purpose is not known; reading it as a double entendre (tevriye) is our own interpretation.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Books

  • Ali Cem Akbulut, Gazilerovacığı Âşıkları, Istanbul: KaraMavi Yayınları, 2010; text: "Dervişoğlu", Alevi Deyişleri Nefesler Hakk Âşıkları, 21 August 2019, poem no. 4. https://www.deyisler-nefesler.com/dervisoglu/

Online sources