Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Uyudum uyandım yollarım peyik
Kaçma anam geyik avcı deyilim
Peşime düşmüyor kınalı geyik
Kaçma anam geyik avcı deyilim
Avcı olsam düşer idim izine
Dönüp bakar idim hemen yüzüne
Gayet meraklıyım sürme gözüne
Kaçma anam geyik avcı deyilim
Geyiğin etleri çirkindir çirkin
Kaçma anam geyik gelmiyor yakın
Omuzu tüfekli avcıdan sakın
Kaçma anam geyik avcı deyilim
Altı geyik gördüm birisi körpe
Bırakmış yavruyu gidiyor sarpa
Yüküm barut değil vallahi arpa
Kaçma anam geyik avcı deyilim
Kul Hüseyn’im Hakk’a doğru varanlar
Bu sevdayı bize dağda verenler
Umarım onmasın sizi vuranlar
Kaçma anam geyik avcı deyilim

In English

1. I slept and woke, my roads are like a courier's; do not flee, mother deer, I am no hunter. The hennaed deer does not come after me; do not flee, mother deer, I am no hunter.

2. If I were a hunter I would follow your trail; I would turn and look at once into your face. I am very fond of your kohl-dark eye; do not flee, mother deer, I am no hunter.

3. The flesh of the deer is foul, foul indeed; do not flee, mother deer, she will not come near me. Beware the hunter with the rifle on his shoulder; do not flee, mother deer, I am no hunter.

4. I saw six deer, one of them young; she has left her fawn and is going to the crags. My load is not gunpowder, by God it is barley; do not flee, mother deer, I am no hunter.

5. I am Kul Hüseyin; those who go straight to God, those who gave us this love on the mountain; I hope those who shot you never prosper. Do not flee, mother deer, I am no hunter.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The refrain addresses the deer: "Kaçma anam geyik avcı deyilim" (do not flee, mother deer, I am no hunter) is heard in lines two and four of the first quatrain and in the fourth line of the later ones. The first three lines of those quatrains rhyme thus: "izine, yüzüne, gözüne", "çirkin, yakın, sakın", "körpe, sarpa, arpa", "varanlar, verenler, vuranlar". The lines have eleven syllables, and there are five quatrains; Işık classes the text as a güzelleme. The last quatrain holds the pen name (mahlas) "Kul Hüseyn'im". The accounts of Ali İhsan Aktaş, Halil Sezgin and another informant were used in collecting it.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

This poem is a kind of counterpart to Kul Hüseyin's poem spoken by a wounded deer ("Hay ettiler al kınalı dağlardan"). There the deer pleads with the hunter; here the speaker tells the deer that he is no hunter and that she need not fear him. The lover is fond of the deer's kohl-dark eyes, does not follow her trail, and has loaded not gunpowder but barley. The contrast of gunpowder and barley expresses in a plain image the difference between killing and feeding.

In folk poetry the deer is the symbol both of a fair beloved and of a shy and innocent soul. In this deyiş the deer may be read as the beloved whom the lover wishes to approach but frightens away; in the closing quatrain the words "those who gave us this love on the mountain" tie the source of love to a life spent on the mountain, perhaps as a shepherd. According to the accounts Işık collected, Kul Hüseyin worked as a shepherd in his youth and his spiritual awakening also began on the mountain while he was with his flock; this connection is our interpretation. The curse in the last line is turned against those who shot the deer and voices the wish to protect an innocent life.

Bibliography

Online sources