Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eight-syllable syllabic metre

Mümin Hakk’ı görür imiş
Hak hatırım yaptı hemen
Allah kula âşık imiş
Meylimize aktı hemen
Pirimin nazı niyazı
Ehli beyte doğru özü
Güzelin ateşi közü
Bu sinemi yaktı hemen
Yanıma gelmiş duymadım
Seyran desen uyumadım
Söyle dedi söylemedim
Kaşlarını yıktı hemen
Kul Hüseyn’im hup sesini
Nur eylemiş kubbesini
Âşıklığın cübbesini
Eğnimize taktı hemen

In English

1. It seems the believer sees God; God at once mended my heart. It seems God is in love with His servant; at once He flowed to our inclination.

2. My pir's grace and entreaty, his essence turned straight to the Family of the Prophet; the fire and ember of the beauty at once burned this breast of mine.

3. He had come to my side, and I did not hear; you might say a vision, I did not sleep. He said "speak", and I did not speak; at once he knitted his brows.

4. I am Kul Hüseyin; he turned the sound "hu" into light and lit its dome. At once he put the cloak of the lover upon our shoulders.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The four eight-syllable quatrains move forward on the redif "hemen" (at once) and the past-tense verbs before it: "yaptı, aktı, yaktı, yıktı, taktı" (mended, flowed, burned, knitted, put on). In the first quatrain the first and third lines pair on the word "imiş" (it seems); in the others the first three lines rhyme with one another ("niyazı, özü, közü", "duymadım, uyumadım, söylemedim", "sesini, kubbesini, cübbesini"). Işık counts the text as a nefes. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the closing quatrain as "Kul Hüseyn'im". The text was collected from Ali Yüksel of Keçiköy and Erdoğan Koç; Işık also cites page 190 of Ali Cem Akbulut's book.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The short deyiş describes the mutual love between God and the servant. The line "it seems God is in love with His servant" expresses in popular language the Sufi idea that God's love for His servant comes before the servant's love for God. God "mending" the lover's heart, restoring it and filling it with joy, is in the first quatrain the answer to this love.

The second and third quatrains turn to the relation between guide and disciple. The pir's grace and entreaty, his essence turned to the Family of the Prophet and the ember of beauty burn the lover's breast. In the third quatrain there is a striking scene: the pir came to his side and the dervish did not hear; he was told "speak", he did not speak, and the pir knitted his brows. The scene recalls the belief that the gift of singing deyiş comes with the pir's leave and call; the interpretation is ours. In the final quatrain the sound "hu" lights the dome and the cloak of the lover is put upon the dervish; this suggests the moment when the guide recognises the disciple as an âşık and gives him a pen name or leave to sing.

Bibliography

  • Caner Işık, "Gaziler Ovacığı'ndan Bir Eren; Kul Hüseyin'in Hayatı ve Deyişleri", Alevilik Araştırmaları Dergisi, no. 6, 2013, pp. 67-124 (deyiş no. 37, p. 98). https://isamveri.org/pdfdrg/D04118/2013_6/2013_6_ISIKC.pdf
  • Ali Cem Akbulut, Gazilerovacığı Âşıkları, İstanbul: KaraMavi Yayınları, 2010, p. 190 (as cited in Işık 2013).

Online sources