Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre (according to the source, with irregularities)

Seyrimde uğradım ilmi hikmete
Elestü tahtında gördüm bir nokta
Hidayete erdim dününü meknune
Dilde ismi azam vardım bir nokta
Vardım ağzı açınca Bismillah dedim
Errahmânirrâhim ya Allah dedim
Beli bes deyip de eyvallah dedim
Orda hakikate vardım bir nokta
Lafta dedim de daldım bu baba
Ne hikmettir kalmış idim hayala
Aklınca inanmaz yüz dört kitaba
Bir kâmil mürşide sordum bir nokta
Yadigâr barkından güzar eyledim
İlmi hikmetinden pazar eyledim
Yüz on dört sureye nazar eyledim
Cümle ilmin başı bildim bir nokta
Kul Hüseyin’im hayran oldum gayreti
Ne hikmettir yok ağa hidayeti
Altı bin altı yüz altmış altı ayeti
Bai Bismillah da gördüm bir nokta

In English

1. In my wandering I came upon the knowledge of wisdom; on the throne of Elest I saw a point. I attained guidance (the end of the line reads "dününü meknune" in the source and has not been solved); with the Greatest Name on my tongue I reached a point.

2. I arrived, and when I opened my mouth I said "In the name of God"; I said "the Merciful, the Compassionate, O God". Saying "Yes, I accept" I said "eyvallah"; there, at a point, I reached the truth.

3. I spoke the word and plunged through this door; what wisdom it is, I had remained in imagination. There was one who by his reason did not believe in the hundred and four books; I asked a perfected guide about a point.

4. I passed by the house of the keepsake; I traded in its knowledge of wisdom. I looked into the hundred and fourteen suras; I knew the head of all knowledge to be a point.

5. I, Kul Hüseyin, marvelled at this zeal; what wisdom it is, there is no guidance but in it. The six thousand six hundred and sixty-six verses I saw as a point in the letter be of the Basmala.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This text reached the page from the field incomplete and damaged. According to Işık's note, no one was found during the collection who commanded its meaning; the deyiş had been memorised with its gaps, and irregularities had crept into the syllable count; Işık thought it right to pass it on without altering its state in the field. One line of the first quatrain could not be solved and is very likely to have been corrupted in oral transmission. The metre, too, only approaches the eleven-syllable measure. The last lines of the five quatrains meet on the redif "bir nokta" (a point) ("gördüm bir nokta, vardım bir nokta, sordum bir nokta, bildim bir nokta"); the first three lines rhyme as "hikmete, nokta, meknune", "dedim, dedim, dedim", "baba, hayala, kitaba", "eyledim, eyledim, eyledim", "gayreti, hidayeti, ayeti". Işık classes the deyiş as a nefes. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last quatrain as "Kul Hüseyin'im". The text was collected from Âşık Cafer Aydoğdu and Erdoğan Koç.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem is built on the idea that all knowledge is gathered in a single point. In the Alevi and Sufi tradition there is a well-known saying attributed to Ali that the whole meaning of the Qur'an is gathered in the Fatiha, the Fatiha in the Basmala, the Basmala in the letter be and the be in the dot beneath it. Kul Hüseyin conveys this thought as the account of a journey: in his wandering he comes upon the knowledge of wisdom, sees a point on the throne of Elest, says the Basmala and "yes" and reaches the truth, consults a perfected guide, looks into the hundred and fourteen suras and at last sees all the verses of the Qur'an in the dot of the letter be.

Işık explains the "assembly of Elest" as the gathering at which the souls were created and answered "Yes" to God's question "Am I not your Lord?"; Alevis count this as the first pledge. He also explains "beli bes" in the second quatrain as "I accept what you have said". He notes that the number of verses in the closing quatrain does not fit the metre with its thirteen syllables, that in the collection it was sung as "one thousand six hundred and sixty-six", but that what is meant is six thousand six hundred and sixty-six, known among the people as the number of verses of the Qur'an.

Bibliography

Online sources