Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

İlmi câvidandan haber almayan
Alim olsa ilmin kündün bilemez
Arayıp bir mûrşid ustad bulmayan
İdrak edip kimse kendin bilemez
İlim deryasına dalıp boylasa
Bin kitap okusa manasın verse
Arabi-Fârisi lügat söylese
Bu ledün ilminin fendin bilemez
FEDAYİ cihanda cânan bulmayan
Vücudunun mahiyyetin bilmeyen
Hattı üstüva sırrına ağâh olmayan
İkrar-ı peymanın andın bilemez

In English

1. One who has no tidings of the knowledge of eternal life, the "ilm-i câvidan", cannot know the essence of knowledge even if he is a scholar. No one who has not searched for and found a spiritual guide, a master, can grasp and know himself.

2. Though he dive into the sea of learning and sound its depths, though he read a thousand books and expound their meanings, though he speak Arabic and Persian words, he cannot know the subtlety of this hidden knowledge from God.

3. Fedâî says: one who has not found the beloved in this world, who does not know the nature of his own being, who is unaware of the secret of the "hatt-ı istivâ", cannot know the oath of the vow and of the pledge given.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

It is a short koşma of three quatrains in the eleven-syllable metre. The redif is "bilemez" (cannot know), and the rhymes are built on the sound "-ndin" in the words "kündün, kendin, fendin, andın". In the first quatrain the first and third lines ("almayan, bulmayan") rhyme with each other; the pen name appears at the beginning of the third quatrain. Cafer Özdemir quotes the first quatrain from page 58 of the divan; in his text the third line reads "Arayıp bir mürşit üstat bulmayan". İsa Çolaker also quotes all three quatrains in his newspaper column. The word "kündün" is written this way in every transmission; from the context it is understood as "künhün", the essence or inner nature of a thing.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem treats the old distinction between book learning and the knowledge of the heart. The second quatrain lists the whole equipment of a madrasa scholar: diving into the sea of learning, reading a thousand books, knowing Arabic and Persian vocabulary. None of this leads to "ledün" knowledge, the hidden knowledge that comes from God's presence. The fact that Fedâî himself studied for a time at a madrasa in Amasya gives this comparison a personal weight; the poet does not despise book learning, but he finds it insufficient.

The expression "ilm-i câvidan" is the key to the poem. Özdemir explains it as the knowledge that brings a person to eternal life and regards it as the Alevi-Bektashi counterpart of the Sufi "ilm-i ledün"; he also looks for the origin of the name "câvidan" in Hurufi influence. In his view the subject the poet dwells on most is the spiritual guide, and the first quatrain is one of the clearest examples: one who has not searched for and found a guide cannot know himself. The "hatt-ı istivâ" of the last quatrain again belongs to the Hurufi-derived language that treats the human face as the book of the universe. "İkrar" and "peyman" denote the vow given on entering the Alevi-Bektashi path; the poet says that the meaning of this vow cannot be grasped without finding the beloved and the secret of one's own being.

Historical Context

According to Özdemir, drawing on the introduction to the divan, Fedâî Baba served for seven years as imam in the village of Keçeci in the Erbaa district of Tokat beside his spiritual guide Derûnî Baba and learned the "câvidan" knowledge from him. The poem sets out concisely the understanding the poet acquired in those years.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Abdullah Çelebi, Amasya'lı Fedayi Baba Divanı, Istanbul: Can Yayınları, 1991, p. 58 (first quatrain); text: "Fedayi (Amasyalı)", Alevi Deyişleri Nefesler Hakk Âşıkları, 21 August 2019, poem no. 4. https://www.deyisler-nefesler.com/fedayi-amasyali/

Academic studies

Other sources

Online sources