Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Korkma gönül korkma nizam başında
Orda Hak Muhammed Ali’m var benim
Hasan Hüseyin’in yasın çekerim
Zindan bekçisi Zeynel’im var benim
Ol İmam Bakır’a kul olduk kaldık
Caferi Sadık’ın ilminden aldık
Küfür deryasında imanı bulduk
Küfrü iman eder Veli’m var benim
Kazım Rıza Taki Naki Askeri
Mehdi’nin yoluna koyduk bu seri
On İki İmam Kul Hüseyn ezberi
Onları var eden dilim var benim

In English

1. Do not fear, heart, do not fear at the head of the order; there I have my God, my Muhammad, my Ali. I keep the mourning of Hasan and Hüseyin; I have my Zeynel, the watchman of the dungeon.

2. We became servants of that Imam Bakır and remained so; we took from the knowledge of Cafer-i Sadık. In the sea of unbelief we found faith; I have my saint who turns unbelief into faith.

3. Kâzım, Rıza, Taki, Naki, Askerî; we laid this head upon the Mahdi's road. The Twelve Imams are what Kul Hüseyin knows by heart; I have a tongue that brings them into being.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Each quatrain of this düvaz-ı imam, only three quatrains long, ends with the redif "var benim" (I have): "Ali'm var benim, Zeynel'im var benim, Veli'm var benim, dilim var benim". In the first quatrain the odd-numbered lines half-rhyme on "başında, çekerim"; in the later quatrains the first three lines rhyme as "kaldık, aldık, bulduk" and "Askeri, seri, ezberi". The metre is the eleven-syllable syllabic measure. The pen name (mahlas) comes not as a separate signature line but inside a line of the last quatrain, as "Kul Hüseyn". The text was collected from Halil Sezgin and Âşık Hasan Özabdal.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The short düvaz-ı imam offers consolation against the fear of the Last Day as it names the Twelve Imams. "The head of the order" suggests the place of reckoning, the Day of Gathering; the heart should not fear there, for God, Muhammad and Ali are there. Mourning is kept for Hasan and Hüseyin, and Zeynelabidin is named "the watchman of the dungeon"; this epithet for the imam taken captive after Karbala is common in Alevi poetry. The second quatrain says that they became servants of Bakır and took from the knowledge of Cafer-i Sadık.

The lines "in the sea of unbelief we found faith, I have my saint who turns unbelief into faith" are striking. Alevi-Bektashi poetry often treats the idea that certain sayings which the people of outward form count as "unbelief" are in fact a deep understanding of faith; in the deyiş Kul Hüseyin addressed to his musahip too the line "could you not count our unbelief as faith" appears. The last quatrain says that the Twelve Imams are what the poet knows by heart and that he has a tongue that "brings them into being"; that is, the imams live on as they are named in the deyiş and in the cem.

Bibliography

Online sources