Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Hak seni kullara yardımcı kıldı
Yetiş imdadıma Hızır elâman
Sana çağıranlar muradın aldı
Yetiş imdadıma Hızır elâman
Yolumuz uğradı bir dağ başına
Göz hat çekmez toprağına taşına
Tutulduk Şubat’ın boran kışına
Yetiş imdadıma Hızır elâman
Eser tipi semumi yer-gök iniler
Gözüm görmez kulaklarım çınılar
Dizim tutmaz yarelerim yeniler
Yetiş imdadıma Hızır elâman
Seni bu dünyanın bekçisi derler
Senin nazargâhın yedi kat yerler
Mahrum kalmaz sana çağıran kullar
Yetiş imdadıma Hızır elâman
Yarabbi sana mâlum hâlimiz
Kar kapadı menzilimiz yolumuz
Kurda kuşa nasib etme ölümüz
Yetiş imdadıma Hızır elâman
Yaratanın binbir adı hakkı için
Şah-ı Merdan ondört evlâdı hakkı için
Hüseyin-i Kerbela feryad hakkı için
Yetiş imdadıma Hızır elâman
Gel kerem kıl göster sen bize yolu
Aşalım gidelim şu yüce beli
Ulaştır vatanına FEDAYİ kulu
Yetiş imdadıma Hızır eleman

In English

1. God made you a helper to His servants; O Hızır, come to my aid, mercy. Those who called on you attained their wish; O Hızır, come to my aid, mercy.

2. Our road has led us onto a mountain top; the eye cannot make out its earth and stones, there is no end to be seen. We have been caught in the blizzard of a February winter; O Hızır, come to my aid, mercy.

3. A snowstorm and a harsh, piercing wind are blowing, earth and sky are groaning. My eyes cannot see, my ears are ringing; my knees have no strength left, my wounds are opening again; O Hızır, come to my aid, mercy.

4. They call you the guardian of this world; the seven layers of the earth are the place you watch over. The servants who call on you do not go away empty-handed; O Hızır, come to my aid, mercy.

5. O Lord, our state is known to you. The snow has closed both the place we are heading for and our road. Do not make our dead the prey of wolves and birds; O Hızır, come to my aid, mercy.

6. For the sake of the Creator's thousand and one names, for the sake of the fourteen children of Ali, the Lord of the Brave, for the sake of Hüseyin's cry at Karbala, O Hızır, come to my aid, mercy.

7. Come, be generous, show us the way; let us cross this high mountain pass and go on. Bring your servant Fedâî to his homeland; O Hızır, come to my aid, mercy.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a koşma of seven quatrains in the eleven-syllable syllabic metre. The last line of every quatrain is the refrain "Yetiş imdadıma Hızır elâman"; in the first quatrain this line is also repeated in second position. The first quatrain thus forms an alternating pattern with the rhyme "kıldı, aldı", while in the following quatrains the first three lines rhyme among themselves and are tied together by the refrain. The pen name appears in the last quatrain, in the line "Ulaştır vatanına Fedayi kulu". The text is among the examples transmitted from the divan published by Abdullah Çelebi in 1991; the page of the poem in the divan is not given in this transmission.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem is a supplication from beginning to end. In Anatolian folk belief Hızır comes to the aid of those in distress, and here he is the refuge of travellers whose road has been cut off on a mountain in winter. The poet first recalls that God made Hızır a helper to His servants, then describes what has befallen them in concrete detail: the February blizzard, the snowstorm, ringing ears, failing knees, the closed road. The word "semum" in the third quatrain properly denotes the scorching desert wind; its use in the middle of a snowstorm shows the poet extending the word to mean a burning, deadly wind. The line "Kurda kuşa nasib etme ölümüz" states openly the fear of dying under the snow without a burial.

In the sixth quatrain the prayer is linked to the names held sacred in the Alevi-Bektashi tradition. God's thousand and one names, the "fourteen children" of Ali and the cry of Hüseyin at Karbala are listed as intercessors for the plea. This sequence shows that even an everyday hardship of the road is voiced together with every layer of the poet's world of faith. In the last quatrain the "high pass" is the mountain crossing to be made, but the wish "bring him to his homeland" also evokes, in mystical poetry, the return of man to his true home; this second meaning is our interpretation.

Historical Context

Fedâî Baba farmed in the summer months and travelled around the villages and small towns of the Amasya region in winter. For this reason Cafer Özdemir regards him as a kind of itinerant minstrel. Where and on which journey the poem was composed is not known, but the description of travellers stranded on a mountain pass in a February winter suggests that it reflects an experience born of these winter journeys.

Bibliography

Online sources