Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Zamane insanda fitne türedi
Söylemez gerçeği yalan düzen var
Edep kalktı hayâ nerede kaldı
Evladından uşağından bezen var
Cümle mahlûk durmaz hırsa tapmışlar
Yabancı tarlaya tohum serpmişler
Cehennemi kimin için yapmışlar
Tarikin bilmeyip yoldan azan var
Bir gün olur ırasgelün ecele
Komşu iyi demezse halin nice
Oku bir kez defterini hecele
İnkâr etme defterini yazan var
Hakk’a da kul olabilen fakirler
Komşu kam bazına lanet okurlar
Sürerler tamuya orda yakarlar
Eğer insan isen amel kazan var
Hüseyin’im der ki kâmil olasın
Terk edip kötüyü kemal bulasın
Kabir azabından emin olasın
Sorgu var hesap var haşin mizan var

In English

1. Strife has sprung up among the people of the age; there are those who do not speak the truth, who string lies together. Manners have gone, where has modesty stayed; there are those weary of their children and their servants.

2. All the people worship greed without pause; they have scattered seed in a stranger's field. For whom did they make hell; there are those who do not know the path and stray from the road.

3. One day you will meet the appointed hour; if your neighbour does not say "he was good", how will your state be. Read your ledger once and spell it out; do not deny, there is one who writes your ledger.

4. The poor who can be servants to God curse their cruel neighbours. They drive them to hell and burn them there; if you are human, there are good deeds to earn.

5. My Hüseyin says: may you become perfected; may you leave the evil and reach perfection; may you be safe from the torment of the grave. There is questioning, there is reckoning, there is a stern scale.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The redif is a brief statement of what exists: the second and fourth lines end "var" (there is) ("düzen var, bezen var, azan var, yazan var, kazan var, mizan var"). In the first and third lines the rhymes are "türedi, kaldı", "tapmışlar, serpmişler, yapmışlar", "ecele, nice, hecele", "fakirler, okurlar, yakarlar", "olasın, bulasın, olasın". All five quatrains are built of eleven-syllable lines; Işık counts the text as a nefes. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last stanza simply as "Hüseyin'im". The text was collected from Halil Sezgin; the article glosses "ırasgelmek" as to meet, to come upon.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Here is the picture of a corrupt age seen in other poems of Kul Hüseyin too: strife has sprung up, lies have spread, manners and modesty have gone, people have grown weary of their children and servants, and everyone has come to worship greed. "Scattering seed in a stranger's field" describes effort and love spent in the wrong place, perhaps the breaking of the pledge; the source gives no explanation.

In the third quatrain the measure is a social witness: when a person dies, if his neighbour does not say "he was good", his state is bad. This thought also agrees with the Alevi funeral custom in which the community gives its blessing to the dead. In the same quatrain the ledger of deeds is set before a person: he must spell it out and not deny it, for there is one who writes the ledger. The last quatrain states the aim of the path: to leave the evil and reach perfection and to be safe from the torment of the grave. In the grave await questioning, reckoning and a stern scale.

Bibliography

Online sources