Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Yüz yirmi dört bin nebinin sesi
Sesini duyanlar çeker yası
İsmi Azam ol Ali’nin duası
Okuyanlar mahrum kalmaz inşallah
Nice nebi veli göçtü bu handan
Sevenleri biz de serveriz candan
Alış veriş etmek biz her dükkandan
Erenler verdiğin almaz inşallah
Erenlerin kavli birdir iki olmaz
İkilikte kalan menzile eremez
Nara atsalar şu canım yanmaz
Ali’yi sevenler ölmez inşallah
“Muti kable ente mute” ermişiz
Ölmeden evvelin bir kez ölmüşüz
Biz bu hana üç beş defa gelmişiz
Baki ıkrar fani olmaz inşallah
Elüstü bezminde bir ıkrar verdik
Gahi akıllandık gâhi deli olduk
Sultan Veyis ile Yemen’den geldik
Sırrımıza kimse ermez inşallah
Aşığın çektiği aşk belasıdır
Hitabından gelen Hak nidasıdır
Kendini bilmeyen Hakk’a asıdır
Böyle güruhlara salmaz inşallah
KUL FAKIR’ım başa gelen ne haldır
Hakkında ferman var işin de zordur
Balım Sultan düşmüşleri sen kaldır
Bize bühtan eden onmaz inşallah

In English

1. The voice of the hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets; those who hear that voice go into mourning. Those who recite the prayer of Ali, the Greatest Name, will not be left wanting, God willing.

2. Many a prophet and many a saint has departed from this inn of the world; we too love those who love them with all our soul. The third line seems incomplete or corrupt; it can be read as meaning that we do not trade at every shop, we take only from the door of the erens. The erens will not take back what they have given, God willing.

3. The word of the erens is one, it does not become two; one who remains in duality cannot reach the destination. If they threw it into the fire, this soul of mine would not burn; those who love Ali will not die, God willing.

4. We have attained the secret of "Die before you die"; we have died once before dying. We have come to this inn three or five times; the lasting vow will not perish, God willing.

5. In the assembly of Elest we gave a vow; at times we grew wise, at times we went mad. We came from Yemen with Sultan Veysel Karanî; none will attain our secret, God willing.

6. What the lover suffers is the affliction of love; the call that comes to him is the voice of God. One who does not know himself has rebelled against God; God will not cast us among such throngs, God willing.

7. I am Kul Fakır, what a state has befallen me; there is a decree against you, and your task is hard. Balım Sultan, raise up those who have fallen; those who slander us will not prosper, God willing.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The deyiş is a koşma of seven quatrains. Each quatrain ends with the redif "inşallah" (God willing); the words before the redif, "kalmaz, almaz, ölmez, olmaz, ermez, salmaz, onmaz", create a unity of sound through the negative aorist suffix. The metre is the eleven-syllable syllabic metre, but seven lines have ten or twelve syllables; such differences, smoothed over in singing by lengthening and shortening syllables, are common in folk poetry. The syllable count is ours. The pen name appears in the last quatrain.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The deyiş lists one after another, like a profession of faith, the core concepts of Alevi-Bektashi belief. The hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets are, in popular belief, the number of all the prophets from Adam to Muhammad. The "İsm-i Azam" is the Greatest Name of God; the deyiş joins it with the prayer of Ali. The lines "Erenlerin kavli birdir iki olmaz" and "İkilikte kalan menzile eremez" express the importance of leaving duality behind on the path and attaining unity.

The fourth quatrain is the most often quoted part of the deyiş. "Mûtû kable en temûtû", that is, "Die before you die", is transmitted in the Sufi tradition as a hadith and speaks of being freed from the desires of the self. İsa Çolaker, quoting this quatrain, remarks on how beautifully the truth of dying before death is expressed and reads the line "Biz bu hana üç beş defa gelmişiz" as a saying that makes the world ordinary, that tells us it is not a place to be loved too much. The line also recalls the devriye idea in Alevi-Bektashi poetry, the belief that the soul circulates through the levels of being and comes again; this connection is our interpretation.

In the fifth quatrain the "Elestü bezmi" is the assembly of pre-eternity in which God asked the souls "Am I not your Lord?" and the souls said "Yes"; the Alevi vow is regarded as a renewal of this first word. The line "Sultan Veyis ile Yemen'den geldik" expresses devotion to Veysel Karanî (Uways al-Qarani), who loved the Prophet without ever seeing him. To whom and to what event the words "Hakkında ferman var" (there is a decree against you) in the last quatrain refer is not known; here the âşık asks Balım Sultan to raise up the fallen and to help against the slanderers.

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