Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Sallanarak dost iline girerken
Ne acayip yolu vardır yaylanın
Selvi boylum gonca gülün verirken
Açılır sümbülü gülü yaylanın
Yayla senin gibi neresi olur
Seni arayanlar yurdunda bulur
Pare pare olmuş karların erir
Akar boz bulanık seli yaylanın
Nergisin menekşen karışık biter
Doluna dol vermiş reyhanım tüter
Senin kokuların âleme yeter
Sarıp sarmalar kokusu yaylanın
Her sabah her sabah hava nemlenir
Yaz gelince âşıkların canlanır
Sen yaylasın iller sende dinlenir
Eser ılgın ılgın yeli yaylanın
Hüseyin’im pervaz vurup uçunca
Hasretli gözüm kanlı yaş dökünce
Koyunlar meleşir evler göçünce
Issız kalır hal ne olur yaylanın

In English

1. As one enters the Friend's land swaying, what a wondrous road the summer pasture has. As my cypress-tall one gives her rosebud, the hyacinth and the rose of the pasture open.

2. Pasture, what place could be like you; those who seek you find you in your homeland. Your snows have broken piece by piece and are melting; the grey, muddy torrent of the pasture is flowing.

3. Your narcissus and your violets grow mingled; my basil breathes its fragrance in fullness. Your scents are enough for the whole world; the scent of the pasture wraps all round.

4. Every morning, every morning the air grows moist; when summer comes your lovers come to life. You are a summer pasture, the lands take their rest in you; the wind of the pasture blows mild and gentle.

5. When my Hüseyin beats his wings and flies, when my longing eye sheds tears of blood, when the sheep bleat together and the households move away, the pasture is left desolate; what becomes of it then.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The yayla, the summer pasture, is the last word of every quatrain of this güzelleme: "yolu vardır yaylanın, gülü yaylanın, seli yaylanın, kokusu yaylanın, yeli yaylanın, hal ne olur yaylanın". Lines one and three rhyme with each other; from the second quatrain onwards the first three lines share a rhyme ("olur, bulur, erir", "biter, tüter, yeter", "nemlenir, canlanır, dinlenir", "uçunca, dökünce, göçünce"). The metre of the five quatrains is the eleven-syllable syllabic measure; Işık gives the genre as güzelleme. In the last quatrain the poet says "Hüseyin'im" (his pen name, or mahlas). The text was collected from Halil Sezgin and Hüseyin Zeytünlü, known as Âşık Kara Hüseyin.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem in praise of the summer pasture (yayla) is among the most loved forms of folk poetry expressing love of nature and the custom of going up to the high pastures. Kul Hüseyin's deyiş lists all the seasonal beauties of the pasture: opening hyacinths and roses, the muddy torrents of snow melting piece by piece, narcissus and violets growing mingled, fragrant basil, the air growing moist each morning and the wind blowing mild and gentle. The pasture is named as a place where people and lands take their rest and where lovers come to life with the summer.

The last quatrain passes from joy to sorrow: when the time of migration comes the sheep bleat, the households move away, tears of blood fall from the lover's eye and the pasture is left desolate. The scene conveys the familiar sadness of coming down from the pasture at the end of summer in the life of transhumance. According to the accounts Işık collected, Kul Hüseyin spent his life as a shepherd and farmer, and he may be supposed to have known this world closely; in the deyiş the pasture can also be read as an image of the Friend's land, a double reading that is ours.

Bibliography

Online sources