Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Yeryüzünde bakmaz mısın bostana
Özün turap etmiş vermiş destana
Burda gerçek olan orda işte ne
Gel gönül ellerden engin olalım
Kavak uzamaynan göğe değmemiş
Gönül benlik ile menzil almamış
Hak topraktan başka nazar kılmamış
Gel gönül ellerden engin olalım
Kul Hüseyn’im hak toprağa nazarım
Aşk kitabın ele aldım yazarım
Neme gerek dağı taşı gezerim
Gel gönül ellerden engin olalım

In English

1. Will you not look at the garden on the face of the earth; it has made itself into earth and given itself to the tale. What is true here, what is it there indeed; come, heart, let us be lower than others.

2. The poplar, for all its growing tall, never touched the sky; the heart with its self-regard never reached the stopping place. God has looked upon nothing but the earth; come, heart, let us be lower than others.

3. I am Kul Hüseyin, my gaze is upon God's earth; I have taken the book of love in my hand and I write. What need have I to wander mountain and stone; come, heart, let us be lower than others.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Each of the three quatrains closes on the same counsel: "Gel gönül ellerden engin olalım" (come, heart, let us be lower than others). The first three lines rhyme as "bostana, destana, işte ne", "değmemiş, almamış, kılmamış", "nazarım, yazarım, gezerim". Işık counts this short text both as a güzelleme and as a nasihatname; its metre is the eleven-syllable syllabic measure. In the last quatrain the pen name (mahlas) "Kul Hüseyn'im" can be read. The sole informant is Hüseyin Zeytünlü, known as Âşık Kara Hüseyin.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

"Engin olmak" in popular speech means to be humble, to stay low like a plain; the deyiş expresses this virtue through three images. The first is the garden on the face of the earth: it has mingled with the soil and given itself, and so has borne fruit. The second is the poplar: however tall it grows it does not touch the sky; the heart that grows with self-regard does not reach the stopping place either. The third is God's gaze: God looks upon nothing but the earth, that is, He turns to the humble.

In Alevi-Bektashi poetry "becoming dust", making one's self into earth, is the most widespread symbol of freedom from the ego of the self; in other deyiş of Kul Hüseyin too lines such as "make your self into earth and come in the dust" appear. In the closing quatrain the poet says he has fixed his gaze on God's earth, taken the book of love in his hand and writes, and adds that wandering mountain and stone is needless; what is sought is not far away but in a humble heart.

Bibliography

Online sources