Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Himmet eyle gideyim de geleyim
Bizi seven canlar ağlamasınlar
Şah İbrahim nesli Derviş Ali’yem
Bizi seven canlar ağlamasınlar
Şurdan gideyim de adımız kalsın
İrfan sohbetinde tadımız kalsın
Bektaşi Veli’ye emanet olsun
Bizi seven canlar ağlamasınlar
Sürmeli kız ağlamasın avunsun
Şükür etsin Yaradan’a sığınsın
Malatya’dan Kırşehir’e dolansın
Bizi seven canlar ağlamasınlar
Azrail geldi de gönül sınıyor
İsrafil’de ecel canım sunuyor
Bizim ile bir od düşmüş yanıyor
Bizi seven canlar ağlamasınlar
Kırklardan gel oldu açıldı nalı
İşaret gösterdi belli nişanı
On iki İmamlar arzular canı
Bizi seven canlar ağlamasınlar
Biçilsin kefenim ılısın suyum
Okuyup Yasin’i hem beni yuyun
Kılınsın namazım kabrime koyun
Bizi seven canlar ağlamasınlar
Hüseyin’im eydür eyleme bizi
Vade tamam oldu görmedim yazı
Şefaatçim olsun Hüseyin Gazi
Bizi seven canlar ağlamasınlar

In English

1. Grant your blessing so that I may go and then come again; let the souls who love us not weep. I am Derviş Ali of the line of Şah İbrahim; let the souls who love us not weep.

2. Let me go from here and let our name remain; let our savour remain in the conversation of wisdom; let it be entrusted to Hacı Bektaş Velî. Let the souls who love us not weep.

3. Let the girl with kohl-lined eyes not weep, let her be consoled; let her give thanks to the Creator and take refuge in Him; let her wander from Malatya to Kırşehir. Let the souls who love us not weep.

4. Azrael has come and tests my heart; with Israfil, the appointed hour offers up my soul. A fire has fallen in with us and is burning; let the souls who love us not weep.

5. A call has come from the Forty, the horseshoe has come loose; the sign has shown its plain mark. The Twelve Imams long for the soul; let the souls who love us not weep.

6. Let my shroud be cut, let my water be warmed; read the Yasin and wash me; let my prayer be said and lay me in my grave. Let the souls who love us not weep.

7. My Hüseyin says, do not hold us back; the term is complete, I did not see the summer. Let Hüseyin Gazi be my intercessor; let the souls who love us not weep.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

In the first quatrain the speaker presents himself as "Derviş Ali of the line of Şah İbrahim", and this leaves a question mark over the attribution. Şah İbrahim is the name of a known lineage (ocak) among the Alevis; the line may suggest that the deyiş was spoken by, or for, a Derviş Ali belonging to this ocak. Işık gives no explanation and publishes the text among Kul Hüseyin's deyiş, from the account of Halil Sezgin. The refrain "Bizi seven canlar ağlamasınlar" (let the souls who love us not weep) is heard in the second and fourth lines of the first quatrain and then in the fourth lines; the first three lines of the other quatrains rhyme ("kalsın, kalsın, olsun", "avunsun, sığınsın, dolansın", "sınıyor, sunuyor, yanıyor", "nalı, nişanı, canı", "suyum, yuyun, koyun", "bizi, yazı, Gazi"). The seven quatrains are in the eleven-syllable syllabic metre; Işık gives the genre as güzelleme. In the final quatrain the pen name (mahlas) appears as "Hüseyin'im". The article glosses "yuyun" as the local form of "wash".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Here we hear the farewell of a dervish who knows that death is near. The speaker asks the community for its blessing, wishes that his name and the savour he left in the conversation of wisdom may remain, and commits himself to Hacı Bektaş Velî. Azrael testing the heart, the coming of the appointed hour, the call from the Forty and the Twelve Imams longing for the soul show death as a reunion and a summons. This view agrees with the Alevi understanding that calls death "walking to God".

The sixth quatrain describes the funeral preparations in full detail: the cutting of the shroud, the warming of the water, being washed while the Yasin is read, the saying of the prayer and being laid in the grave. The "girl with kohl-lined eyes" of the third quatrain suggests a beloved or a daughter of the family left behind; she is counselled not to weep but to give thanks and be consoled. In the last stanza Hüseyin Gazi is named as intercessor; Hüseyin Gazi is a saint remembered with reverence in the Alevi tradition together with the narratives of Battal Gazi. The wish repeated in every quatrain by the refrain turns not to the pain of the dying but to that of those left behind, and gives the poem a consoling tone.

Bibliography

Online sources