Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Mürşit isen müşkülümü haleyle
Neden hâsıl oldu güruhu naci
Gel şimdi gamda koma beni böyle
Evvel tatlı neydi sonrası acı
Hak verir kısmetim benim gıdamı
Kesmezdim dilimden bari hüdamı
Yoğurmazdan evvel Cibril Ademi
Hem Adem yok iken kim idi hacı
Arif arif ile gönül katmadan
Hak Teâlâ bu dünyayı yapmadan
Selman dahi ol Kırklar’a yetmeden
Ya kim idi Kırklar’daki duacı
İnsan fehmeyleyip kendin bilmeden
Havva Ana da hamile olmadan
Tövbe edip kalp evini silmeden
Kimdi ki göklerde dar eden bacı
Ezelden beri sırrullah sır idi
Müminlerin kalbi dolu nur idi
Ne körüğü ne çekici var idi
Neden hâsıl oldu Ali kılıcı
Özün tasdik edip tevekküle gel
Yüzü yirmi dört bin nebiden evvel
Sen seni de sanma divane deli
Kim giydi başına o nurdan tacı
Kul Hüseyn’im eydir evveli yandım
Hakk’a ikrar verip kandım inandım
Kul Himmet’im kendin arif mi sandın
De bana nerdedir dünyanın ucu

In English

1. If you are a guide, solve my difficulty: why did the community of the saved come into being. Come now, do not leave me in grief like this; what was it that was first sweet and then bitter.

2. God gives my portion, my food; I would never cease naming God on my tongue. Before Gabriel kneaded Adam, while Adam was not yet, who was the pilgrim.

3. Before sage joined heart with sage, before God Most High made this world, before even Selman reached the Forty, who was the one praying among the Forty.

4. Before man understood and knew himself, before Mother Eve conceived, before one repented and wiped clean the house of the heart, who was the sister standing at the dar in the heavens.

5. From eternity the secret of God was a secret; the hearts of the believers were full of light. There was neither bellows nor hammer; how did Ali's sword come into being.

6. Confirm your essence and come to trust in God; before the hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets, do not think yourself a madman, a fool, who wore that crown of light upon his head.

7. I, Kul Hüseyin, say I burned first; I gave my pledge to God, was sated, and believed. My Kul Himmet, did you think yourself a sage; tell me, where is the end of the world.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

In the closing quatrain Kul Himmet is addressed, and the pen name (mahlas) appears in the same quatrain as "Kul Hüseyn'im". The rhyme rests on the sound "-cı, -ci": the second and fourth lines end in "naci, acı, hacı, duacı, bacı, kılıcı, tacı, ucu". The rhymes of the first and third lines are: "haleyle, böyle", "gıdamı, hüdamı, Ademi", "katmadan, yapmadan, yetmeden", "bilmeden, olmadan, silmeden", "sır idi, nur idi, var idi", "gel, evvel, deli", "yandım, inandım, sandın". The seven quatrains are in the eleven-syllable syllabic metre; Işık classes the text as a nefes. There were three informants, Erdoğan Koç and Halil Sezgin among them. The article notes that "yüzü yirmi" is the local, lengthened pronunciation of "yüz yirmi" (a hundred and twenty).

Meaning and Figures of Speech

According to Işık this deyiş is known as Kul Hüseyin's question to Kul Himmet; its answer is the deyiş "Anda hasıl oldu güruhu naci", which also appears separately in this category. The questions turn to the creation and mystery narratives of Alevi belief: who was the pilgrim before Adam was created, who was the one praying among the Forty before Selman reached them, who was the sister standing at the dar in the heavens before Eve conceived, how did Ali's sword come to be when there was neither bellows nor hammer, who wore the crown of light before the hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets. The answering deyiş replies to these questions through the souls, Ali, Mother Fatma and Muhammad.

Işık discusses two possibilities regarding the deyiş's attribution. According to the first, the deyiş was written by Kul Hüseyin as a response poem to Kul Himmet, and in this way Kul Hüseyin corrected errors of knowledge in one of Kul Himmet's deyiş. According to the second, the deyiş actually belongs to Kul Himmet and was altered in oral tradition by being attributed to Kul Hüseyin; Işık finds this second possibility weak. Since Kul Himmet lived in the sixteenth century and Kul Hüseyin in the nineteenth, a face-to-face exchange between the two poets is impossible; the deyiş should be read as an example of the response-poem tradition that answers an older poet with a new voice.

Bibliography

Online sources