Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Seyrimde gezerken üç dilber gördüm
Biri aydır, biri ol güne benzer
Aşkın dolusunu sundu elime
Biri allar giymiş ahtere benzer
Üçler olup beşten haber alınca
Üç sünneti, yedi farzı kılınca
Sağıma soluma haber verince
Sağdaki sevdiğim Sultana benzer
Mümin olan arı gibi iniler
Bin çiçekten alır balı bir eyler
Güzeli görenler aynayı n’eyler
İçi ahret dışı dünyaya benzer
Aklımı başımdan aldı bakışı
Yaktı şu sinemi aşkın ataşı
Ölmeden evveli ölse bi kişi
Kur’an da okunan imlaya benzer
KUL FAKIR’im ezel ağladım, gülmem
Okumuşum aktan, karayı bilmem
Bin derman verseler bu derdi vermem
Her dem kalp evinde durana benzer

In English

1. Wandering on my way I saw three beauties; one was the moon, one was like that sun. They placed the full cup of love in my hand; one was like a star dressed in red.

2. When one becomes of the Three and receives tidings from the Five, when one performs the three sunnas and the seven obligations, when word is given to my right and left, the beloved on my right is like a sultan.

3. The believer hums like a bee; from a thousand flowers it takes honey and makes it one. What need of a mirror have those who have seen the beautiful one; within, that beauty is like the hereafter, without, like this world.

4. Its glance took my mind from my head, the fire of love burned my breast. If a person dies before dying, he is like the script that is read in the Qur'an.

5. I am Kul Fakır; from all eternity I have wept, I do not laugh. I have read from the white, I do not know the black. If they gave me a thousand cures I would not give up this pain; it is like one who dwells for ever in the house of the heart.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The deyiş is a koşma of five quatrains in the eleven-syllable syllabic metre. The last line of each quatrain ends with the redif (refrain word) "benzer" (is like); in the first quatrain this redif is repeated in the second line as well. In the following quatrains the first three lines rhyme among themselves: "alınca, kılınca, verince", "iniler, eyler, n'eyler", "bakışı, ataşı, kişi", "gülmem, bilmem, vermem". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last quatrain as "Kul Fakır'ım". The metre is not stated in the source; the syllable count is ours. When and on what occasion the deyiş was sung is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The deyiş opens with the account of a seyir, a spiritual wandering. On the way the âşık sees three beauties and compares them to the moon, the sun and a star dressed in red. The poem does not say who these three are. They may be thought to evoke the triad of Hak (God), Muhammad and Ali so often invoked in Alevi-Bektashi poetry; this is our interpretation. The second quatrain mentions the "Three" and the "Five", that is, ranks in the company of saints, and the "three sunnas and seven obligations" that are rules of the path. The contemplation of beauty is thus tied to the ascent of a disciple who keeps the rules of the path.

The simile of the bee in the third quatrain expresses the Sufi idea of unity: the bee turns what it takes from a thousand flowers into a single honey, and the believer finds unity within multiplicity. The line "Güzeli görenler aynayı n'eyler" says that one who has seen the beauty of God directly no longer needs a reflection. The fourth quatrain mentions "dying before death". This is a saying, transmitted in the Sufi tradition as a hadith, about being freed from the desires of the self; the one who dies before dying becomes a book to be read like the script of the Qur'an.

The line "Okumuşum aktan, karayı bilmem" in the last quatrain also touches on the poet's own life. The sources record that Kul Fakir did not go to school and could not read or write. The white is the white of the paper, the black the ink, that is, writing. Through this contrast the âşık says that he took his knowledge not from writing but from the heart and from God. His refusal to exchange his pain for a thousand cures is the familiar stance in folk poetry of the lover who will not give up the suffering of divine love.

Bibliography

Online sources