Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Her sabah her sabah bülbülün sesi
Bülbül avazını güle getirir
Yiğit olan sırrın kimseye demez
Kötü kalbindekin dile getirir
Yiğit olan eşiğinden bellidir
Yiğit kamil olur yüzü yerdedir
Kurttan doğan yine kurt eniğidir
Akıbet başına bela getirir
Yalınız gidip yoldaş olma yolsuza
Komşu olma rehbersize pirsize
Selam verme namussuza arsıza
Birgün namusuna hile getirir
Erenler de der ki Selman-ı paktır
Kırklar da derler ki cümlesi haktır
Cehennem evinin ateşi yoktur
Herkes ateşini bile getirir
Kul Fakır’ım gezdim gurbet ellerde
Bülbül ötmez gülistansız güllerde
Çok keramet vardır tatlı dillerde
Dağdaki deliyi yola getirir

In English

1. Every morning, every morning, the voice of the nightingale; the nightingale carries its song to the rose. The brave man tells his secret to no one; the base man brings what is in his heart to his tongue.

2. The brave man is known by his threshold; the brave man is mature, his face is to the ground. What is born of a wolf is still a wolf's cub; in the end it brings calamity on his head.

3. Do not go alone and become the companion of one without a path; do not be a neighbour to one without a guide, without a pir. Do not greet the dishonourable and the shameless; one day he will bring deceit upon your honour.

4. The erens say that Salman is pure; the Forty say that all of them are God. The house of hell has no fire; each one brings his fire along with him.

5. I am Kul Fakır, I have wandered in foreign lands; the nightingale does not sing among roses without a rose garden. There is much wonder in sweet words; they bring the madman on the mountain back to the path.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The deyiş is a koşma of five quatrains in the eleven-syllable syllabic metre; only one line has twelve syllables. The last line of each quatrain ends with the redif "getirir" (brings); the words before the redif, "güle, dile, bela, hile, bile, yola", form the rhyme. In each quatrain the first three lines rhyme among themselves: "bellidir, yerdedir, eniğidir", "yolsuza, pirsize, arsıza", "paktır, haktır, yoktur", "ellerde, güllerde, dillerde". The syllable count is ours. The pen name appears in the last quatrain. The source from which we take the text notes that Pir Sultan Abdal also has a similar deyiş; the relationship between the two texts could not be examined.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The deyiş is a poem of counsel. It opens with the idea that everything reveals its own nature, as the nightingale carries its song to the rose: the brave man keeps his secret, the base man speaks out what is in his heart. In the second quatrain the measure of bravery is humility; to have one's "face to the ground" expresses both modesty and humbleness. The line "Kurttan doğan yine kurt eniğidir" draws on a proverbial expression saying that bad character comes from one's stock.

İsa Çolaker, quoting the third quatrain, sees in this deyiş a poet who counsels the importance of friends, guides and companions in thought who will enrich one's life, and says that an honourable life is possible only with honourable people. "Rehbersiz" and "pirsiz" describe, in the order of the Alevi path, a person not attached to a guide and a pir, that is, one who has not entered the path; the âşık finds even being neighbours with such people objectionable.

The fourth quatrain is the most striking part of the deyiş. Selmân-ı Pâk (Salman the Pure) is the Companion remembered in the Alevi-Bektashi tradition for serving at the Assembly of the Forty and for his purity. The lines "Cehennem evinin ateşi yoktur / Herkes ateşini bile getirir" express in plain language a Sufi idea that the torment of hell arises from one's own deeds. In the last quatrain the power of sweet words is expressed through the hyperbole "it brings the madman on the mountain back to the path"; this recalls the common proverb "a sweet tongue draws the snake out of its hole".

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