Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Molla Hasan bize selam eyledi
Ara yerde hayli elma göndermiş
Gönül bahçesine gurup kondurmuş
Ara yerde hayli elma göndermiş
Zahit suyla yıkar dışı pak olur
İçi mundar her yanı da çöp olur
Mümini erkân yıkarsa pak olur
Müminleri pak eyleyen ab odur
Hak emredip Cebrail’e buyurdu
Adem’i balçıktan yaptı yoğurdu
Çar anasırdan mayasını koydu
Su getiren cana ol nurdan kaptır
Müminin selamın daim almalı
Tarikatta tasdik olup durmalı
Üç sünneti yedi farzı kılmalı
Kırk makamda dört duvarın bab olur
Marifet eridir baha biçilmez
Yetmiş iki deryası var geçilmez
Hakikat kilidi sırdır açılmaz
Hak katında makbul olan bab odur
Azrail gelince çekilir zahmet
Kabre varıncağız kopar kıyamet
Rabbim Allah deyip nebim Muhammed
Ol makamda söz budur cevap budur
Kul Hüseyin’im der bilmem ki aslını
Üç halife heceledik ismini
Öfkelenmeden arıt cismini
Baht olmasına mana ayet budur

In English

1. Molla Hasan sent us his greeting; he has sent a great many apples, that is, questions, between us. He has set a company down in the garden of the heart; he has sent a great many apples between us.

2. The zealot washes with water and his outside is clean; his inside stays foul, every part of him is rubbish. If the rite washes the believer he becomes clean; that is the water that purifies the believers.

3. God commanded and gave His order to Gabriel; He made Adam of clay and kneaded him, and set his substance from the four elements. The vessel that brings water to the soul is of that light.

4. One must always accept the believer's greeting, stand confirmed in the order, perform the three customs and the seven duties; in the forty stations the four walls become the door.

5. No price can be set on the man of gnosis; it has seventy-two seas that cannot be crossed. The lock of truth is a secret, it is not opened; that is the door accepted before God.

6. When Azrael comes, hardship is endured; when we reach the grave, the Last Day breaks. To say "my Lord is God, my prophet is Muhammad"; at that station that is the word and that is the answer.

7. I, Kul Hüseyin, say I do not know its root; we spelled its name as three caliphs. Purify your body without anger; for your fortune to open, this is the meaning and the verse.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

According to Işık this deyiş was composed when Molla Hasan sent Kul Hüseyin a deyiş containing questions; the question poem is given in a footnote of the article. The shape of an answer shows at the ends of the quatrains: the fourth lines close on "ab odur, kaptır, bab olur, bab odur, cevap budur, ayet budur" (that is the water, is a vessel, becomes the door, that is the door, this is the answer, this is the verse). In the first quatrain the second and fourth lines are "Ara yerde hayli elma göndermiş" (he has sent a great many apples between us); in the others the first three lines rhyme with one another ("pak olur, çöp olur, pak olur", "buyurdu, yoğurdu, koydu", "almalı, durmalı, kılmalı", "biçilmez, geçilmez, açılmaz", "zahmet, kıyamet, Muhammed", "aslını, ismini, cismini"). The seven quatrains are in the eleven-syllable syllabic metre; Işık classes the text as a nefes and a nasihatname. In the last quatrain the pen name (mahlas) "Kul Hüseyin'im" can be read. The informants were Ali İhsan Aktaş and Halil Sezgin.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem is a fine example of the question-and-answer tradition of folk poetry. In the question poem Işık quotes in his footnote, Molla Hasan asks: what is the company in Adam's heart, what is the water that purifies the believers, what is the vessel that brought water from the Sidra when Adam was made of clay, what is the door completed in gnosis, what is the first answer to be given in the grave, and what is the meaning of the letters "Hay, Sin, Nun". Kul Hüseyin's deyiş answers these questions in order and ends the last line of each quatrain with the question's own word, "ab, kap, bab, cevap" (water, vessel, door, answer).

The core of the answers is the difference between outward cleanliness and inner purification. The zealot washes with water and his outside is clean, but his inside stays foul; the believer is purified by the "rite", the rules of the path and the cem worship. The fourth and fifth quatrains list the four gates of the Alevi-Bektashi path: being confirmed in the order, the uncrossable seas of gnosis and the lock of truth that is a secret. In the sixth quatrain the answer to the questioning of the grave is given in the familiar words of Islam. The answer to the question about the letters in the closing quatrain is veiled; the source gives no explanation and our rendering is approximate.

Bibliography

Online sources