Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Ey Fedâî keşf-i keramet açsan
Dehanından dür ü gevherler saçsan
Pervaz kılıp arş-ı semada uçsan
Gene inanmazlar sihirbaz derler

In English

1. O Fedâî, were you to work miracles and lay bare what is hidden, were you to scatter pearls and jewels from your mouth (to speak the most precious words), were you to spread your wings and fly to the highest heaven, still they would not believe; they would call you a sorcerer.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The quatrain is taken from a poem on page 293 of the divan and is known today from the quotation in Cafer Özdemir's article. The lines are in the eleven-syllable metre. The rhyme "açsan, saçsan, uçsan" links the first three lines, and the fourth line ends with the word "derler" (they say). This word may be a refrain repeated in the other quatrains of the poem, but since only this quatrain is known, nothing certain can be said. The pen name in the first line suggests that the fragment is the last quatrain of the poem; this is our inference. Özdemir states that he corrected the spelling in his quotations.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Addressing himself, the poet builds a conditional sentence and lists extraordinary feats one after another: working miracles, scattering pearls and jewels from his mouth, flying to heaven. Each is greater than the last; the words "gene inanmazlar" (still they would not believe) at the end of the quatrain set the people's unchanging denial against this rising sequence. "Keşf-i keramet" in Sufism is the saints' perception of hidden things and their working of wonders. "Dür ü gevher saçmak", to scatter pearls and jewels, is a well-known image (mazmun) for speaking precious words; the mouth (dehan) is imagined as the place from which pearls are scattered. "Pervaz kılmak" means to spread one's wings and fly, and "arş-ı sema" is the highest level of heaven.

Cafer Özdemir quotes this quatrain as an example of the weariness the poet felt at being unable to convince society through his art and his ideas. In his view, since society was not mature enough to grasp great ideas, neither speaking the truth nor even displaying extraordinary powers made the poet believable; for this reason Fedâî Baba did not hesitate at times to turn the arrows of his criticism on society. Özdemir adds that this recalls the hard struggles the prophets faced. The words "sihirbaz derler" (they would call you a sorcerer) describe the extraordinary being dismissed as trickery instead of being accepted.

Historical Context

Most of the legends told about Fedâî Baba are found in the introduction to the divan and in the accounts of his relatives; Özdemir, too, notes that many miracles are attributed to the poet. This quatrain is noteworthy because a poet regarded as a worker of miracles relates in his own words the doubt he met with from those around him.

Bibliography

  • Cafer Özdemir, "Hak Âşığı Amasyalı Fedâî Baba ve Tasavvuf Kültürü", Türk Kültürü ve Hacı Bektaş Velî Araştırma Dergisi, 83, 2017, pp. 125-148 (quatrain: p. 131). https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/tkhcbva/issue/71937/1157386
  • Abdullah Çelebi, Amasya'lı Fedayi Baba Divanı, Istanbul: Can Yayınları, 1991, p. 293 (cited from Özdemir 2017).

Online sources