Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Söylenir dillerde bir A’licenab
Dâr içinde misli olup bir hentâ
Vasfını yazarsan olur Bin kitap
Okunur Kur’anda Ali’y-yül Ala
Desti kudretinde arz-ı semavat
Kemâli mübeyni A’yet beyyinat
Emrine musahhar bunca mahlukat
Kur’anda şânına endi Hel-Etâ
Cemâli şevkinin güneş zerresi
Vucudu serteser Nûr pervanesi
Kuvveti mâ’nada Turnada sesi
Gelmedi cihana böyle Lâ Feta
Dört kapı kırk makam Ayn-ı erkânı
Şeriat-Tarikat Şer’in beyanı
Marifet-Hakikat sırrı irfanı
Kudreti ilâhı Şah-ı Evliya
FEDAYİ gulâm-ı meddahı Haydar
Dilinde evrad-ı ezkâr-ı herbar
Zillüllâh-ı A’lem Vâhid-ül Cebbar
Bin bir ismin biri Incil’de İlyâ

In English

1. A noble figure is spoken of on every tongue; the second line ("Dâr içinde misli olup bir hentâ") appears corrupt in the transmission, and its sense must be that there is no one like him in the world. Were you to write his qualities, they would fill a thousand books; in the Qur'an he is read as "al-Aliyy al-A'la".

2. The earth and the heavens are in the hand of his power; his perfection is shown by clear verses. All these creatures are subject to his command; in the Qur'an the sura "Hal ata" was revealed in his honour.

3. The sun is a mote of the longing for the beauty of his face; his whole being is a moth circling the light. His strength is in the inner meaning, his voice is in the crane; no such hero, the hero of "la fata", has come to the world again.

4. The four gates and forty stations are the very essence of the rite; the law and the path are the exposition of the faith. Gnosis and truth are the very secret and wisdom; he is the Shah of the Saints, holder of divine power.

5. Fedâî is the slave and eulogist of Haydar; on his tongue are prayers and invocations at all times. He is, in the world, the shadow of God, the One and All-Compelling; one of his thousand and one names is Ilya in the Gospel.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This eulogy of five quatrains is in the eleven-syllable metre. The first quatrain has alternating rhyme ("A'licenab, kitap" with "hentâ, Ala"); in the following quatrains the first three lines rhyme among themselves, and the last lines are tied back to the "-â" sound of the first quatrain through the words "Etâ, Fetâ, Evliya, İlyâ". The pen name appears at the beginning of the last quatrain. Ali's name is not spoken directly in the poem; the poet refers to him through his attributes and through epithets such as "Haydar" and "Shah of the Saints". The second line of the first quatrain appears corrupt in the transmission.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The eulogy gathers the formulas used in Alevi-Bektashi poetry to praise Ali. In the first quatrain the attribute "al-Aliyy al-A'la" (the Most High), although it occurs in the Qur'an as a name of God, is linked to Ali through the similarity of sound with his name; this is a double entendre often found in Alevi poetry. "Hal ata" in the second quatrain are the opening words of the Sura al-Insan; the view that this sura was revealed concerning the Prophet's family is widespread in Shiite and Alevi tradition. "La fata" in the third quatrain is a shortened allusion to the saying "There is no hero but Ali, no sword but Zulfiqar". In the same quatrain the poet hears Ali's voice in the crane; the crane is the bird held sacred in Alevi-Bektashi belief and poetry.

The fourth quatrain mentions the "four gates and forty stations". As Özdemir explains, the four gates, made up of the stages of law, path, gnosis and truth, reach forty stations in the Bektashi tradition, each with ten stations; Fedâî says in other poems too that these concepts were handed down from Ali. In the last quatrain the poet presents himself as Haydar's "gulâm-ı meddah", his slave and eulogist. The statement that one of Ali's thousand and one names is "Ilya" in the Gospel rests on traditions holding that his names also appear in the earlier scriptures. Özdemir notes that the figure Fedâî dwells on most in his poems is Ali, whom he describes as the sultan of sainthood, the treasury of hidden knowledge and the master of the four gates; this eulogy illustrates that observation directly.

Bibliography

Online sources