Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Veliler mihnete sabur kıldılar
Ol sebepten ulu makam buldular
İbrahim Halil’i nara saldılar
Ana gülşen oldu ateş cilvesi
Gör ki Yusuf neden düştü zindana
Cennet haram oldu Sadü Handana
Mülcem hançer soktu Şah-ı Merdana
Gör ki ne lezizdir minnet helvası
Hakikatin muhabbeti bir muhit
Velilerden halas olmadı vahit
Hüseyn’i Kerbela’da ettiler şehit
Ona öyle takdir etmiş Hüdası.

In English

1. The saints were patient under affliction; for that reason they found a lofty station. They cast Abraham, the Friend of God, into the fire; the play of the fire became a rose garden for him.

2. See why Joseph fell into prison; paradise was forbidden to Sadü Handan. Ibn Mülcem drove a dagger into Şah-ı Merdan; see how sweet is the halva of gratitude.

3. The love of truth is an ocean; not a single one of the saints was spared this trial. They martyred Hüseyin at Karbala; thus had his God ordained for him.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This nefes has lost a quatrain at its beginning and another at its end. According to Işık's note no one was found in the field who knew them, but the three remaining stanzas are handed down as Kul Hüseyin's; for this reason the deyiş has no pen-name quatrain. The last lines of the surviving quatrains meet on words ending in "-sı, -si" ("cilvesi, helvası, Hüdası"), while the first three lines rhyme as "kıldılar, buldular, saldılar", "zindana, Handana, Merdana", "muhit, vahit, şehit". The metre is the eleven-syllable syllabic measure; Işık classes the text as a nefes. The article glosses "halas" as used in the sense of pure, genuine. The informant is Halil Sezgin.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem lists great figures exalted by the suffering and patience they bore on God's path. The saints' attaining a lofty station is tied to their patience under affliction, that is, hardship and trial. The examples are chosen from the prophets and the Family of the Prophet: Abraham, the Friend of God, cast into the fire, which turned into a rose garden for him; Joseph fallen into prison; Ali, Şah-ı Merdan, martyred by the dagger of Ibn Mülcem; Hüseyin martyred at Karbala.

The source does not explain whom the name "Sadü Handan" in the second quatrain indicates; it seems to be named among the bad examples, as one to whom paradise was forbidden. "The halva of gratitude" may express accepting even hardship as a sweet morsel because it comes from God; this reading is ours. In the final quatrain the love of truth is likened to an ocean, and it is said that none of the saints was spared this trial; Hüseyin's martyrdom is accepted as God's decree. The missing first and last quatrains show how the deyiş lived on in oral tradition in fragments.

Bibliography

Online sources