Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Eksiklik yakamda sitem özümde
Yolum bir hercai yâre düş geldi
Mah kafam şuleli Kur’an azimli
Aşığın yoluna türlü iş geldi
İşte böyle halden hale eyledi
Sitemkâr sözünü alan eyledi
Gerçek akıllıyı deli eyledi
Yüze gülen gül yerine taş geldi
Gülün rengini giyinince amber
Hakikat babına erdi peygamber
Yâr yârin sırrına aşna aşikâr
İşte erin ere huyu hoş geldi
Erenden seçmeyen yârsız kalmasın
Yüze gülünce yâr elim almasın
Bir çiçek takında yaz güz solmasın
Yolda mizan terazide baş geldi
Kul Hüseyn’im baştan söyler bahtını
Kendi yerde gökte derler tahtını
Gözleyelim sahip sultan vaktini
Sene bin iki yüz yirmi de geldi

In English

1. Lack is at my collar, reproach in my essence; my road has fallen to a fickle beloved. My head is aflame like the moon, set firm on the Qur'an; all manner of trouble has come upon the lover's road.

2. See how she has made me pass from state to state; so too she did to the one who took her reproachful word. She has made the truly wise mad; to the one who smiles at her face, a stone has come instead of a rose.

3. When amber put on the colour of the rose, the Prophet reached the door of truth. The beloved is plainly familiar with the beloved's secret; see, the nature of man to man has come out fair.

4. Let not one who does not choose from among the saints be left without a beloved; when she smiles, let not the beloved let go of my hand. Let not the flower she wears fade in summer or autumn; on the road the head has come to the scale of judgement.

5. I, Kul Hüseyin, tell my fortune from the beginning; they speak of his throne on earth and in heaven. Let us await the time of the master sultan; the year one thousand two hundred and twenty has come too.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

In each quatrain something is said to "have come": lines two and four end with the redif "geldi" (has come), preceded by "düş, iş, taş, hoş, baş" (fallen, trouble, stone, fair, head). The rhymes of the first and third lines are: "özümde, azimli", "eyledi, eyledi, eyledi", "amber, peygamber, aşikâr", "kalmasın, almasın, solmasın", "bahtını, tahtını, vaktini". The metre of the five quatrains is the eleven-syllable syllabic measure; Işık classes the text as a güzelleme. The pen name (mahlas) "Kul Hüseyn'im" is in the last quatrain. The sole informant is Hüseyin Zeytünlü, known as Âşık Kara Hüseyin.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem describes the state of a lover who has fallen for a fickle, inconstant and faithless beloved: lack is at his collar, reproach in his essence; the beloved has made him pass from state to state, made the truly wise mad and thrown a stone instead of a rose at the one who smiles at her. In the third quatrain the love relation is carried to a higher plane: the Prophet's reaching the door of truth and "the nature of man to man", the fitting conduct of brothers of the path towards one another, are named. The fourth quatrain wishes that one who does not choose from among the saints may not be left without a beloved.

The date in the closing quatrain poses a particular problem. The line "the year one thousand two hundred and twenty has come too" gives the Hijri year 1220, that is, 1806. Işık notes that this date does not match the information in the collection: there Kul Hüseyin's birth was established as between 1795 and 1800, so that in 1806 the poet would have been between six and eleven years old. According to Işık either the dating in the line is wrong or Kul Hüseyin's life was longer than has been established. Since the line also speaks of "awaiting the time of the master sultan", that is, the appearing of the Mahdi, the date may also point to a year of expectation; this possibility is our interpretation.

Bibliography

Online sources