Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Şundan bir güzele meylim düşürdüm
Elden nihan konuşmanın sırası
Dostu gördüm aklım başa değiştim
Türlü haller danışmanın sırası
Dost dostun Musa’sı söyler kelamı
Böyle midir güzelliğin alemi
Yeni geldi nazlı yârin selamı
Dolukup da ağlamanın sırası
Senin güzelliğin kimler denk eyler
Senin bakışların beni mest eyler
Kaşın ile kirpiklerin cenk eyler
Şimdi küsler barışmanın sırası
Sevdim güzelin nutkuyla nefesi
Severim güzel olmam Hakk’a asi
Ancak çeken bilir dilber çilesi
Yatların bize gülmesi sırası
İncedir kametin zülüftür soyun
Elif’tir benzerin selvidir boyun
Rakipler tan eder sevmişim deyi
Aşkım yetiş kavuşmanın sırası
Kul Hüseyin böyle yâr sevilmemiş
Şemsi kamer dağ yüzünde olmazmış
Âşık olan kimse başka övmezmiş
Yâr kolunda dolaşmanın sırası

In English

1. I have let my heart fall for a beauty; now is the time for talk hidden from strangers. I saw the friend and my mind left my head; now is the time to share every kind of state.

2. The friend is the friend's Moses, he speaks the word; is this how the world of beauty is. The greeting of my coy beloved has just come; now is the time to be full of tears and weep.

3. Who could equal your beauty; your glances make me drunk. Your brow and your lashes are at war; now is the time for those at odds to make peace.

4. I loved the beauty's speech and breath; I love beauty, yet I do not rebel against God. Only one who bears it knows the torment of the beloved; now is the time for strangers to laugh at us.

5. Your stature is slender, your lineage is the lock of hair; your likeness is the letter elif, your height a cypress. The rivals reproach me, saying "he has loved"; come quickly, my love, it is time for union.

6. Kul Hüseyin, no beloved has ever been loved like this; it seems the sun and the moon are not on the face of the mountain. It seems one who is a lover praises no one else; now is the time to walk on the arm of the beloved.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The six quatrains parcel out time with the redif "sırası" (it is time to) at the end of the second and fourth lines; before it come "konuşmanın, danışmanın, ağlamanın, barışmanın, gülmesi, kavuşmanın, dolaşmanın" (talking, sharing, weeping, making peace, laughing, union, walking). The odd-numbered lines rhyme among themselves ("düşürdüm, değiştim", "kelamı, selamı", "eyler, eyler, eyler", "nefesi, asi, çilesi", "soyun, boyun, deyi", "sevilmemiş, olmazmış, övmezmiş"). Işık classes the text, in the eleven-syllable syllabic metre, as a güzelleme. In the last stanza the pen name (mahlas) "Kul Hüseyin" can be read. The sole informant is Hüseyin Zeytünlü, known as Âşık Kara Hüseyin; the article glosses "dolukup" as being on the verge of tears.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The stages of love are listed like a calendar through the redif "it is time to": hidden talk, sharing one's state, weeping, making peace, bearing the laughter of strangers and at last union. All the elements of the language of the love poem are here: intoxicating glances, warring brow and lashes, a stature straight as the letter elif, a cypress height, the lock of hair. The line in the second quatrain, "the friend is the friend's Moses, he speaks the word", recalls Moses speaking with God and likens the friend's word to a sacred conversation.

The fourth quatrain is the key to the deyiş: "I love beauty, yet I do not rebel against God". The lover loves beauty, but this love does not set him against God. Işık writes that Kul Hüseyin gave great value to the human being and to beauty, counselled seeing the divine verses in the beautiful and remembering that beauty beautifully, and counted loving a beloved as part of loving God. This deyiş is a clear example of that view: love of beauty and love of God are thought of not as opposed but as one within the other.

Bibliography

Online sources