Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: syllabic metre (the lines vary between 10 and 13 syllables; the count is ours)

Gönül niçin beni zari zar ağlatırsın
Verdiğim ikrardan dönen değilim
Senden başkasına vermem gönlümü
Uçup daldan dala konan değilim
Kimseler çıkmasın senin köşküne
Elif ile Mim yazarım meşkine
Yandım da kül oldum senin aşkına
Şair ateşlere yanan değilim
Her daim efendim yanımda olsan
Hicran sinem kırkpare bölünse
İstemem şu âlem hep güzel olsa
Senden başkasını seven değilim
İkman göllere de ördek az gelir
Güzelden güzele cilve naz gelir
Yüzyıl cemaline baksam yine az gelir
Bin yıl dahi baksam kanan değilim
KUL HÜSEYİN’ im der bilirsin halimi
Efendimsin cüda etme kulunu
Senden başkasına vermem elimi
Vallahi billahi yalan değilim

In English

1. Heart, why do you make me weep so bitterly; I am not one who turns back from the pledge he gave. I will not give my heart to any but you; I am not one who flies and lights from branch to branch.

2. Let no one climb to your pavilion; I write elif and mim in your lesson. I have burned to ash in your love; I am not one who burns in other fires.

3. Were my master at my side at every moment, though my breast were split into forty pieces by separation, though the whole world were fair, I would not want it; I am not one who loves any but you.

4. For wide lakes the ducks are few; coquetry and grace pass from beauty to beauty. Were I to gaze on your face for a hundred years it would still be little; were I to gaze for a thousand years I am not one to be sated.

5. I, Kul Hüseyin, say: you know my state; you are my master, do not part your servant from you. I will not give my hand to any but you; by God, by God, I am not one who lies.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This deyiş, absent from Işık's collection, is published without a source by a website collecting deyiş, on the page it devotes to the Kul Hüseyin of Gaziler Ovacığı. We were unable to find another source confirming that the text belongs to Kul Hüseyin of Keçiköy; since more than one poet in Anatolia used the same pen name, the attribution remains open. The lines of the five quatrains vary between ten and thirteen syllables. Lines two and four end with the redif "değilim" (I am not one who), preceded by "dönen, konan, yanan, seven, kanan, yalan" (turns back, lights, burns, loves, is sated, lies); the rhymes of lines one and three are built on "ağlatırsın, gönlümü", "köşküne, meşkine, aşkına", "olsan, bölünse, olsa", "gelir, gelir, gelir", "halimi, kulunu, elimi". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last quatrain as "KUL HÜSEYİN'im".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

This is an oath of devotion. The lover addresses his heart and asks why it makes him weep; but immediately afterwards he declares one after another that he does not turn back from his pledge, does not light from branch to branch, does not burn in other fires and loves none but his beloved. The word "değilim" closing each quatrain reinforces this oath through a series of negations.

In the second quatrain the writing of the letters elif and mim in the beloved's lesson ties in with the symbolism in Alevi-Bektashi poetry in which these letters recall God and Muhammad. In the third quatrain not even the beauty of the whole world can take the beloved's place; in the fourth it is said that gazing on the beloved's face for a hundred years, even a thousand, would not be enough. In the closing quatrain the beloved is addressed as "my master" and asked not to part his servant from him; this address shows that the beloved may also be read as a guide or as God. Although its attribution has not been established, the deyiş belongs, through its theme of faithfulness to the pledge, to the same world as Kul Hüseyin's collected deyiş.

Bibliography

Online sources