Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Hak ileridedir geride sanma
Münezzeh şehrinde mihman bizimdir
Mümin kullar mabuduna tapmıştır
Ali keremmullah derman bizimdir
Mihman haktır rahman Ali demişler
Didar arzulayan Veli demişler
İşte budur Allah kulu demişler
Nur alem nuruyla devran bizimdir
Bir canım varıdı canana verdim
Mabudumu sevdim göz ile gördüm
Halife mürşitten olunca yardım
Bütün dinde ikrar iman bizimdir
Kul Hüseyn’im eydür din iman bizde
Şeyh Safi buyruğu bu yolda izde
Kutuplar kitabı sohbette sözde
On yedi zat ilen erkân bizimdir

In English

1. God is ahead, do not think Him behind; the guest in the transcendent city is ours. The believing servants have worshipped their Lord; Ali, whom God honoured, the cure is ours.

2. They said the guest is God, the Merciful is Ali; they called the one who longs for the Face a saint; they said, this is the servant of God. By the light of the world of light, the turning age is ours.

3. I had one soul, I gave it to my beloved; I loved my Lord, I saw Him with my eye. When help comes from the deputy and the guide, in all the faith the pledge and the belief are ours.

4. I, Kul Hüseyin, say faith and belief are in us; the precepts of Şeyh Safi are on this road, in the trace. The book of the poles is in conversation and in the word; the rite held with seventeen persons is ours.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The last line of each quatrain lays claim to something with the redif "bizimdir" (is ours): "mihman bizimdir, derman bizimdir, devran bizimdir, iman bizimdir, erkân bizimdir". In the first quatrain the first and third lines half-rhyme on "sanma, tapmıştır"; the first three lines of the later quatrains rhyme as "demişler, demişler, demişler", "verdim, gördüm, yardım", "bizde, izde, sözde". The four quatrains are in the eleven-syllable syllabic metre; Işık counts the text as a nefes. In the last stanza the pen name (mahlas) appears as "Kul Hüseyn'im". The informant is Halil Sezgin.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

It reads like a declaration that claims the community's faith with the word "is ours". The first quatrain says that God is a guest in the "transcendent city", a world free of all imperfection, and that the cure lies in Ali. The second quatrain sets the names God, the Merciful and Ali side by side; the one who longs for the Face of God is called a "saint". In the third quatrain the poet says that he gave his soul to his beloved, loved his Lord and saw Him with his eye; this is a plain expression of the view in Alevi-Bektashi understanding that God is seen in the perfected human being.

The last quatrain names the sources of the path: the precepts of Şeyh Safi and the book of the poles. Some Alevi lineages trace their path to Şeyh Safiyyüddin, founder of the Ardabil lodge, and the books of the path known as "Buyruk" are widespread in this milieu; the poet openly claims this bond. The source does not explain what "the rite with seventeen persons" corresponds to; it may describe those who perform the services in the cem rite or the great figures of the path, but we cannot establish this.

Bibliography

Online sources