Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Şunda bir padişah adil olunca
Hizmetin etmeye kul incinir mi?
Dalga gelip taştan taşa çalınca
Çağlayıp akmaya sel incinir mi?
Kerem kanı uzak etme yakını
Üstümüzde koyma ahret hakkını
Hakk’ın emri ile çeker yükünü
Meyvesin götüren dal incinir mi?
Karşımızdan güle güle gelince
İki canda birbirini bulunca
Muhabbette iki baştan olunca
Sarılıp yatmaya kol incinir mi?
Su balığa candır susuz dirilmez
Kör sofunun kalp aynası silinmez
Ah neyleyim deli gönül durulmaz
Dosta gitmeyinen yol incinir mi?
Kul Hüseyin’im eydir gönül uğruma
Aşkın ateşini saldın bağrıma
Ben çekerim sevdiğimin cevrine
Benim çektiğimden el incinir mi?

In English

1. When a king is just, does the servant grow weary of serving him; when the wave comes and strikes from stone to stone, does the torrent grow weary of surging and flowing.

2. O mine of generosity, do not make the near one far; do not leave the claim of the hereafter upon us. The branch that bears its load by God's command, carrying its fruit, does it grow weary.

3. When one comes smiling towards us, when two souls find each other, when fellowship comes from both sides, does the arm grow weary of embracing and lying down.

4. Water is life to the fish, without water it does not live; the mirror of the blind zealot's heart is never wiped clean. Alas, what shall I do, the mad heart is never calm; does the road that goes to the Friend grow weary.

5. I, Kul Hüseyin, say: for the sake of my heart you cast the fire of love into my breast. I bear the cruelty of my beloved; does a stranger suffer from what I bear.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The questioning redif carries the weight of the deyiş: the even-numbered lines end "incinir mi?" (does it grow weary, is it hurt), preceded by "kul, sel, dal, kol, yol, el" (servant, torrent, branch, arm, road, stranger). Lines one and three rhyme with each other ("olunca, çalınca", "yakını, hakkını, yükünü", "gelince, bulunca, olunca", "dirilmez, silinmez, durulmaz", "uğruma, bağrıma, cevrine"). All five quatrains are built of eleven-syllable lines, and in Işık's classification the poem is a nefes. In the final quatrain the poet says "Kul Hüseyin'im" (his pen name, or mahlas). The text was collected from Cuma Zeytünlü and Erdoğan Koç; Işık also cites page 191 of Ali Cem Akbulut's book.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Through a series of questions the poem expresses the thought that work done with love is no burden. The servant who serves a just king, the torrent striking from stone to stone, the branch bearing its fruit, the arm embracing the beloved and the road that goes to the Friend do not grow weary. The answer is plain each time; the questions let the listener find that plainness for himself.

Işık quotes the third and fourth quatrains of the deyiş when describing Kul Hüseyin's thought. According to him, Kul Hüseyin, who reached "the truth" through fellowship, always exalted fellowship and the beauty of friendship against blind zealotry; he understood the truth as fellowship, communion and friendship, and regarded judging and classifying people and the spread of bigotry as a straying from the truth. The line in the fourth quatrain, "the mirror of the blind zealot's heart is never wiped clean", is the plainest statement of this stance: what water is to the fish, fellowship is to the heart, and the heart's mirror is wiped clean only by fellowship.

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. 42, p. 100; quotation and comment p. 74). https://isamveri.org/pdfdrg/D04118/2013_6/2013_6_ISIKC.pdf
  • Ali Cem Akbulut, Gazilerovacığı Âşıkları, İstanbul: KaraMavi Yayınları, 2010, p. 191 (as cited in Işık 2013).

Online sources