Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Mekke Medine’dir senin durağın
Gel dinim imanım Hasan Hüseyin
Yezit elinde telef oldu canın
Gel dinim imanım Hasan Hüseyin
Mansur “Enel Hak” der Bağdat şehrinde
O şehit düştü Kerbela çölünde
Süngüsü elinde teber belinde
Gel dinim imanım Hasan Hüseyin
Çaldılar süngüsü elinden düştü
Yezitler yürüdü başına üştü
Ya Muhammed dedi gözünü açtı
Gel dinim imanım Hasan Hüseyin
Battal cenk eyledi varıp da aldı
Bir fırka has(ı)m olup kırarım dedi
Dövüşe dövüşe hem şehit oldu
Gel dinim imanım Hasan Hüseyin
Şişede tiryaki kana döndürdü
Dünyadan ahrete susuz gönderdi
Evlatların develerle gönderdi
Gel dinim imanım Hasan Hüseyin
Senin müritlerin yolun bekledi
Yetmiş iki mürsel sözün hakladı
Kırk gün cesedini aslan bekledi
Gel dinim imanım Hasan Hüseyin
Abdalların semah döner hak ile
Müminler yolun sürüyor fark ile
Dervişlerin seyyah eder terk ile
Gel dinim imanım Hasan Hüseyin
Kul Hüseyin andı aldı pirinden
Gün görünmez tüteninden zarından
Sevenin çok Acem ile Urumdan
Gel dinim imanım Hasan Hüseyin

In English

1. Mecca and Medina are your dwelling; come, my religion and my faith, Hasan Hüseyin. Your life perished at the hands of Yezid; come, my religion and my faith, Hasan Hüseyin.

2. Mansur says "I am the Truth" in the city of Baghdad; he fell as a martyr in the desert of Karbala. His bayonet in his hand, his axe at his waist; come, my religion and my faith, Hasan Hüseyin.

3. They struck, and the bayonet fell from his hand; the Yezids marched and swarmed upon his head. He said "O Muhammad" and opened his eyes; come, my religion and my faith, Hasan Hüseyin.

4. Battal fought, went forth and took; a company turned enemy and said "I will break you". Fighting and fighting he too became a martyr; come, my religion and my faith, Hasan Hüseyin.

5. The antidote in the bottle was turned to blood; he was sent from this world to the next thirsting. His children were sent off on camels; come, my religion and my faith, Hasan Hüseyin.

6. Your disciples awaited your road; seventy-two prophets confirmed your word. For forty days a lion guarded your body; come, my religion and my faith, Hasan Hüseyin.

7. Your abdals turn in the semah with the Truth; the believers follow your road with discernment; your dervishes wander in renunciation. Come, my religion and my faith, Hasan Hüseyin.

8. Kul Hüseyin received his pledge from his pir; the sun is not seen for its smoke and its moaning. Many love you from Persia and from Rum; come, my religion and my faith, Hasan Hüseyin.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Through eight quatrains the refrain "Gel dinim imanım Hasan Hüseyin" (come, my religion and my faith, Hasan Hüseyin) keeps returning: in the second and fourth lines of the first quatrain, then in the last line of each. Işık counts the text both as a nefes and as a semah. The first three lines of the later quatrains rhyme thus: "şehrinde, çölünde, belinde", "düştü, üştü, açtı", "aldı, dedi, oldu", "döndürdü, gönderdi, gönderdi", "bekledi, hakladı, bekledi", "hak ile, fark ile, terk ile", "pirinden, zarından, Urumdan". The metre is the eleven-syllable syllabic measure. The pen name (mahlas) "Kul Hüseyin" is found in the last quatrain. The informants were Ali Yüksel of Keçiköy and Halil Sezgin.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

It joins the lament for Karbala with the fervour of the semah. The refrain calls Hasan and Hüseyin "my religion, my faith"; the first quatrain recalls the imam who came from Mecca and Medina and whose life perished at Yezid's hands. The following quatrains show a feature of oral tradition: the memories of different martyrs mingle. Hallac-ı Mansur, who said "I am the Truth" in Baghdad, is named as one who fell a martyr in the desert of Karbala; Battal Gazi too joins those who became martyrs fighting. This mingling is not historical information; it can be read as the joining, in Alevi popular memory, of those who gave their lives on God's path into a single line of martyrdom, a reading that is ours.

The fifth and sixth quatrains give familiar scenes of the Karbala narrative: the martyr left thirsting, the children set on camels, the word confirmed by seventy-two prophets and the lion, told of in popular accounts, that guarded the body for forty days. In the seventh quatrain the poem returns to the present: the abdals turn in the semah with the Truth, the believers carry on the road with discernment. In the closing quatrain the poet says he received his pledge from his pir and adds that those who love Hüseyin are many, from Persia to Rum.

Bibliography

Online sources