Told like a dream or a moment of retreat, this deyiş has its speaker enter the cem of the Forty at night, where he sees a "friend of God", is handed a cup and has a book opened before him. The words carry the pen name Sefil Ali; the melody was set by Âşık Aydın Öztürk. Never taken into TRT's collections, the work was recorded during fieldwork in Merzifon and entered the archive as no. 2086. The catalogue names "Erkan Demirel" and Berkay Gençer as collectors and transcribers; since the first name appears as Erkan Demirtaş on the other scores of the same series, the surname here is most likely a slip in writing.

Catalogue Data

  • Archive no.: Repertükül Archive 2086 (not a TRT number)
  • Region: Amasya, Merzifon
  • Words: Sefil Ali
  • Music: Âşık Aydın Öztürk
  • Source performer: not written; recorded "from the composer"
  • Collected and transcribed by: "Erkan Demirel" on the score, Berkay Gençer (Erkan Demirtaş on the other scores of the series)
  • Date of collection: not given; under the CultureCIVIC Culture and Arts Support Programme (begun in 2021)
  • Mode: Uşşak scale; final and closing note La
  • Metre: 4/4
  • Subject: praise, eulogy
  • Source link: Repertükül Archive 2086; no TRT record

Lyrics

The score does not say who the poet with the pen name Sefil Ali was or when he lived; as his date of death could not be established, the words have been treated cautiously as copyrighted, and only the first of five quatrains is given below.

Dün gece Kırkların cemine girdim
Gördüm oturuyor bir veliyullah
Niyaz bend olup da darına durdum
Sürdüm yüzlerimi elhamdülillah

In Alevi-Bektashi belief the cem of the Forty is the gathering the Prophet is said to have joined on his return from the Ascension. To "stand at the dâr" is to stand before the dede or spiritual guide in the cem, hands folded and head bowed; "niyaz bend olmak", binding oneself in reverence, is part of the same posture. In the stanzas that follow the speaker takes his lesson from the Book of Ledün, chooses seven letters out of "ninety thousand words", and recalls the phrase "Künt-ü kenz": an allusion to the sacred hadith in which God says He was a hidden treasure who wished to be known. In the fourth stanza Balım Sultan raises the takbir in the meeting place; in the last the poet names himself "Sefil Ali" and sees Ali as the moon splits in two and comes down to his knee.

Story

The words relate a spiritual experience, but no account ties it to a particular name or event in history. When and for what reason Aydın Öztürk set the poem is not on record either.

Musical Features

It is a narrow melody moving between La and Re in the first tetrachord of the Uşşak scale. Staying within four notes makes it easy to repeat long stanzas on the same pattern; the five quatrains can thus be sung to a single melodic phrase. The metre is 4/4, and the tune both settles and ends on La. Nothing more is written on the score.

Performers and Recordings

The notation was written down as the composer himself sang it. Two settings by Aydın Öztürk of poems by Virânî, "Elif-i Mim'den Aldık Sırr-ı Kur'an'ı" and "La Mekân İlinden Geldim Cihana", appear in the same collection. No published recording beyond the notation is known. These recent Merzifon collections take their place, together with the province's songs long since listed by TRT, in the collective account of Amasya's melodies.

Bibliography

Online sources