Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: syllabic metre (the lines vary between 8 and 13 syllables; the count is ours)

İçmiş isen aşk meyinden
Derya da bir, deniz de bir, göl de bir
Okuduysan haktan gelen kelamı
Yazan da bir, kalem de bir, el de bir
Kendini fark etmeyen irfan sayılmaz
Pişmeyince çiğ süte maya atılmaz
Bir pir sevmişem sevdasına doyulmaz
Sevda da bir, sevgi de bir, aşk da bir
Her işlerin sır olup nur olduysa
Aşkın şarabını nuş edip doldunsa
Hakikatten Hakk’a aşık oldunsa
Ali de bir, Veli de bir, Pir de bir
KUL HÜSEYN’İM güzel pire ben de oldum
Aşık olduğumdan sararıp soldum
Bu fena mülküne geldim kazanç buldum
Kazanç da bir, emek de bir, kâr da bir

In English

1. If you have drunk of the wine of love, the sea is one, the ocean is one, the lake is one. If you have read the word that comes from God, the writer is one, the pen is one, the hand is one.

2. One who does not know himself is not counted wise; yeast is not set in raw milk until it is cooked. I have loved a pir, there is no having enough of his love; passion is one, affection is one, love is one.

3. If all your works have become a secret and become light, if you have drunk the wine of love and are filled, if from the truth you have become a lover of God, Ali is one, the saint is one, the pir is one.

4. I, Kul Hüseyin, too have given myself to a fair pir; from being a lover I have paled and withered. I came to this passing realm and found gain; the gain is one, the labour is one, the profit is one.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This deyiş does not appear in Caner Işık's collection of Kul Hüseyin, and its attribution needs care. A website collecting deyiş publishes it on the page devoted to the Kul Hüseyin of Gaziler Ovacığı, taken from the 2013 album "Böyle Buyurdu Âşık" by Hüseyin and Ali Rıza Albayrak. We were unable to find another source confirming that the text belongs to Kul Hüseyin of Keçiköy; it should also be remembered that more than one poet in Anatolia used the same pen name. The lines of the four quatrains vary between eight and thirteen syllables, and the metre is not regular. The second and fourth lines count three things in a row on the pattern "-da bir, -de bir" (is one) ("Derya da bir, deniz de bir, göl de bir", "Yazan da bir, kalem de bir, el de bir"); the first three lines rhyme as "sayılmaz, atılmaz, doyulmaz", "olduysa, doldunsa, oldunsa", "oldum, soldum, buldum". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the final quatrain as "KUL HÜSEYN'İM".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

From beginning to end the poem is built on the idea of unity. For one who has drunk of the wine of love, sea, ocean and lake are one; for one who has read the word that comes from God, writer, pen and hand are one. These enumerations express, through concrete things ordinary people would understand, the Sufi idea that things apparently separate are in essence manifestations of a single being. The line in the second quatrain, "yeast is not set in raw milk until it is cooked", is a likeness taken from yoghurt-making: the leaven of the path is not set in a person who has not matured.

The third quatrain carries unity to the great figures of the path: for one who has become a lover of God from the truth, Ali, the saint and the pir are one. In the last stanza the poet says he has given himself to a fair pir, has paled and withered from being a lover, and has come to this world and found gain; yet gain, labour and profit are also one. Although its attribution has not been established, the deyiş stands in the same line as the idea of unity in Kul Hüseyin's collected deyiş.

Bibliography

Online sources