Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Abdal Musa Sultan gazaba geldi
Fethedip Urum’u yaratan medet
Cihan harap oldu insan az kaldı
Yine ferman senden elaman medet
Biz de sever idik Ali’nin soyun
Bizler de anarız Hasan Hüseyin
Zindan da verdik İmam Zeynel payın
Bakırı zindanda var eden medet
Yetiş İmam Cafer al elden bizi
Her dem arzum vardır isteriz sizi
Zülfikar’ı attı tuttu denizi
Necef deryasını kurutan medet
Mürşidim Kazım Rıza’ya varalım
Derdimize derman ondan görelim
Taki Naki Askeri’ye erelim
Mehdi’yi mağrada sır eden medet
Hüseyin Gazi Sultan belli cansın
Ricam kabul eyle müşkülüm kansın
Hüseyin ovanın gözcüsü sensin
Ayırma koyunu sürüden medet

In English

1. Abdal Musa Sultan has been roused to wrath; help, you who conquered Rum and made it anew. The world has fallen into ruin, few people are left; again the decree is yours, mercy, help.

2. We too loved the line of Ali; we too remember Hasan and Hüseyin. In the dungeon we gave Imam Zeynel his share; help, you who kept Bakır alive in the dungeon.

3. Come to our aid, Imam Cafer, take us by the hand; at every moment I long for you, we want you. He cast Zülfikar and held back the sea; help, you who dried the sea of Najaf.

4. Let us go to my guides Kâzım and Rıza, let us find from him the cure for our pain; let us reach Taki, Naki and Askerî. Help, you who made the Mahdi a secret in the cave.

5. Hüseyin Gazi Sultan, you are a soul well known; accept my plea, let my difficulty be resolved. Hüseyin, you are the watchman of this plain; do not part the sheep from the flock, help.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Every quatrain ends with "medet" (help), and this cry for aid is preceded in turn by "yaratan, elaman, var eden, kurutan, sır eden, sürüden" (who made, mercy, who kept alive, who dried, who made a secret, from the flock). Işık classes the text as a düvaz-ı imam and a medetname. In the first quatrain lines two and four close "yaratan medet, elaman medet"; in the later quatrains the rhyme lies in the first three lines ("soyun, Hüseyin, payın", "bizi, sizi, denizi", "varalım, görelim, erelim", "cansın, kansın, sensin"). The text runs to five quatrains in the eleven-syllable syllabic metre. In the last stanza the name "Hüseyin" recalls both Hüseyin Gazi and the poet, and the pen name stands in these lines. The article glosses "Urum" as the land of Rum, Anatolia, and notes that a syllable has dropped from the word "mağrada" for the metre. Four informants were consulted for the collection, among them Âşık Cafer Aydoğdu, Erdoğan Koç and Halil Sezgin.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

A medetname is a poem asking help of saints and imams. The deyiş opens with Abdal Musa, one of the saints revered in the Bektashi tradition: Abdal Musa has been roused to wrath, the world has fallen into ruin, people have grown few. The phrase "who conquered Rum and made it anew" in the first quatrain refers to the legends of the saints who conquered the land of Rum and set up the path there; whom it means is not entirely clear. Then the Twelve Imams are named in order: the line of Ali, Hasan and Hüseyin, Zeynelabidin and Bakır in the dungeon, Cafer, Kâzım and Rıza, Taki, Naki, Askerî and the Mahdi who became a secret in the cave.

The lines of the third quatrain, "he cast Zülfikar and held back the sea, who dried the sea of Najaf", rest on popular legends about Ali's sword Zülfikar; the source does not explain the legend. In the last quatrain help is asked of Hüseyin Gazi; "watchman of the plain" suggests the tomb of a saint lying on a height and watching over the plain, but this is our interpretation. The quatrain closes in a shepherd's language: do not part the sheep from the flock. This line can also be read as Kul Hüseyin, who spent his life as a shepherd, seeing himself as a sheep in God's flock.

Bibliography

Online sources