Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Devredip gezerken darı fenayı
Varıp etrafında sor sual eyle
Medine şehrinde Fatma Ana’yı
Mekânı ordadır gördün mü turnam?
Biz de belli dedik nice uluya
İman aldık ikrar verdik Veli’ye
Necef deryasında İmam Ali’ye
Bu deryaya yüzler sürdün mü turnam?
Medarın şehrinde Selman’a varıp
Bağdat’ ta Kazım’ın kabrini görüp
Baş eğip hem eşiğine yüz sürüp
İkrara bend olup durdun mu turnam?
Hür şehit ki Kerbela’da çürümez
Haktan izin yoktur kalkıp yürümez
İmam Hüseyin’im kanı kurumaz
Şehitler serdarın gördün mü turnam?
Hazreti Eyüp’ün nikabın kaldır
Ten de iki kurt var neye maildir
Biri ipek dokur biri baldandır
Onların sırrına erdin mi turnam?
Behlül evcecik yâr idi zindanda
Makamını gördü uçmak evinde
Tırısıp da? Erenlerin ceminde
Kırkların darına durdun mu turnam?
Veysel Karani gezerdi Yemen’de
Serin verdi Onki İmam yolunda
İmamın an Mehdi hangi vakit zamanda
Nasıl zuhur eder sordun mu turnam?
Kul Hüseyin’im der ki Hakk’a varalım
Varıp dergâhına yüzler sürelim
Can baş feda edip şahı görelim
Sen de o sultanı gördün mü turnam

In English

1. While you go round and wander this passing world, go about and ask questions; in the city of Medina the station of Mother Fatma is there, did you see it, my crane.

2. We too said "yes" to many a great one; we received faith and gave our pledge to the saint. To Imam Ali in the sea of Najaf, did you lay your face on this sea, my crane.

3. Going to Selman in the city of Ctesiphon, seeing the grave of Kâzım in Baghdad, bowing your head and laying your face on its threshold, did you stand bound to the pledge, my crane.

4. Hür, martyred at Karbala, does not decay; there is no leave from God for him to rise and walk. The blood of my Imam Hüseyin does not dry; did you see the leader of the martyrs, my crane.

5. Lift the veil of the holy Job; there are two worms in his body, to what are they inclined; one weaves silk, the other is of honey. Did you reach their secret, my crane.

6. Behlül was a friend of God in a little house in the dungeon; he saw his station in the house of paradise. Keeping away from evil, in the cem of the saints, did you stand at the dar of the Forty, my crane.

7. Veysel Karani wandered in Yemen; he gave his head on the road of the Twelve Imams. At what time, in what age, how will Imam Mahdi appear, did you ask, my crane.

8. I, Kul Hüseyin, say let us go to God; let us go and lay our faces at His lodge; let us sacrifice soul and head and see the Shah. Did you too see that sultan, my crane.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The last lines of the eight quatrains are questions put to the crane: "gördün mü turnam, sürdün mü turnam, durdun mu turnam, erdin mi turnam, sordun mu turnam" (did you see, did you lay, did you stand, did you reach, did you ask, my crane). In the first quatrain the odd-numbered lines rhyme on "fenayı, Ana'yı"; the first three lines of the later quatrains carry the rhymes "uluya, Veli'ye, Ali'ye", "varıp, görüp, sürüp", "çürümez, yürümez, kurumaz", "kaldır, maildir, baldandır", "zindanda, evinde, ceminde", "Yemen'de, yolunda, zamanda", "varalım, sürelim, görelim". The metre is the eleven-syllable syllabic measure; Işık counts the text as a nefes. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last quatrain as "Kul Hüseyin'im". The informant is Halil Sezgin; the article glosses "tırısmak" as to draw away, to shrink from, and "Onki İmam" as the Twelve Imams. Another form of the deyiş has been published under Kul Hüseyin's name on a website collecting deyiş, citing Cahit Öztelli's book "Pir Sultan'ın Dostları"; there the second line reads "Bağdat diyarına vardın mı turnam".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In Alevi-Bektashi poetry the crane is the bird that travels between the holy places and the lover and brings news. The deyiş puts questions to a crane that has wandered distant lands and through these questions draws the sacred geography of Alevi belief: the station of Mother Fatma in Medina, Imam Ali at Najaf, Selman at Ctesiphon, the grave of Imam Musa Kâzım in Baghdad, Hür and Imam Hüseyin at Karbala. Each question asks whether the crane has laid its face at these places and bound itself to the pledge.

The fifth and sixth quatrains bring two examples from popular narrative: the story that of the worms in Job's wounds one became the silkworm and the other the bee, and Behlül, who saw his station in paradise while lying in the dungeon. Işık explains the lines of the sixth quatrain thus: as Behlül saw paradise from the dungeon, the meaning is "keeping away and drawing back from evil, being in the cem of the saints, did you see the station of the Forty, my crane". The seventh quatrain brings Veysel Karani wandering in Yemen and the question of when the Mahdi will appear. In the closing quatrain the questions turn to the poet himself: he wishes to go to God, lay his face at His lodge and see the Shah, and asks the crane, "did you see that sultan".

Bibliography

Online sources