Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Biz de şu dünyaya geldik han gibi
Nice sultan geldi geçti can gibi
Ömrümüz tepeye değdi gün gibi
Felek bizi gafil buldu avuttu
Ömür değirmeni unun öğüttü
Bir melüllük çöktü şimdi firkatte
Hayır amel ister kazanç ahrette
Felek bizi gafil buldu avuttu
Yüküm tutup düzemedim kervanı
Cehti olan evvellinden devranı
Fırsat elde iken sürün devranı
Felek bizi gafil buldu avuttu
Sefil KUL HASAN’ ım gelir sözüme
Ecel oku geldi değdi gözüme
Evvel şikar olmaz idi bazıma
Felek bizi gafil buldu avuttu

In English

1. We too came into this world as one comes to an inn; many a sultan came and passed like a breath of life. Our life has touched the hilltop like the setting sun; Fate found us heedless and beguiled us.

2. The mill of life has ground its flour and come to its end; now in this separation a sorrow has settled upon us. He who wants gain in the hereafter needs good deeds; Fate found us heedless and beguiled us.

3. I could not take up my load and set the caravan in order; fortune belongs to the one who strives from the very start. While the chance is in your hand, enjoy your days; Fate found us heedless and beguiled us.

4. I am wretched Kul Hasan, heed my words; the arrow of death has come and struck my eye. Once I was no one's prey (the line can be read in two ways: or no prey ever escaped my falcon); Fate found us heedless and beguiled us.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a koşma of four quatrains in the eleven-syllable metre (the syllable count is ours). Every quatrain ends with the line "Felek bizi gafil buldu avuttu". In the first quatrain the first three lines rhyme on "han gibi, can gibi, gün gibi"; the third quatrain rhymes on "kervanı, devranı, devranı", the fourth on "sözüme, gözüme, bazıma". In the second quatrain the rhyme is weak ("öğüttü, firkatte, ahrette") and the refrain line appears twice in it; a line may have been displaced in transmission. The pen name appears in the last quatrain as "Sefil Kul Hasan".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The deyiş is a counsel on the transience of life and on death. The image of the world as an inn and man as a traveller is very common in folk poetry; here the poet recalls that many sultans also came and went through the same inn. Life "touching the hilltop" likens it to the evening hour when the sun leans on the hill before setting; the mill that has ground all its flour is a second image of the same end.

In the third quatrain the minstrel turns to his own state: he says he could not gather his load and set his caravan in order, that is, he did not prepare for the hereafter, and he urges the listener to act while the chance is at hand. The "arrow of death" in the last quatrain is a well-known metaphor for death in Turkish folk poetry. The line "Evvel şikar olmaz idi bazıma" is not entirely clear: if "baz" is taken as falcon, it says that one whose prey never escaped him in youth has now become the prey of Fate. The "felek" of the refrain is fortune and time, which catches man off guard.

Bibliography

Online sources