Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Hay ettiler al kınalı dağlardan
Ayırdılar mor sümbülü bağlardan
Haberin aldılar uzak yollardan
Dinlerim bir geyik candan iniler
Gelme avcı gelme ahım ulaşır
Kurşun yedim bacaklarım dolaşır
Yavrularım peşim sıra ağlaşır
Dinlerim bir geyik candan iniler
Gelme avcı gelme benim izime
Yeşil sinek konmuş ala gözüme
Körpe kuzularım kimler emzire
Dinlerim bir geyik candan iniler
Kırıldı kalmadı boynuzum dalım
Kadir Mevla’m sana malumdur halim
Dilerim ey avcı kırılsın kolun
Dinlerim bir geyik candan iniler
Hay ettiler al çuhalı tazıya
İndirdiler bir engince yazıya
Can çabada bakamadım kuzuya
Dinlerim bir geyik candan iniler
Hep avcılar başucumda gözlüyor
Dertli sinem dilip dilip közlüyor
Kuzularım gelir diye özlüyor
Dinlerim bir geyik candan iniler
Kul Hüseyin’im eş dolusun içiyor
Sarı geyik tatlı candan beziyor
Yavruları başın almış kaçıyor
Dinlerim bir geyik candan iniler

In English

1. They startled the deer from the red, henna-coloured mountains; they parted the purple hyacinth from the vineyards. From far roads they got word of her; I listen: a deer moans from the depths of its soul.

2. Do not come, hunter, do not come, my sigh will reach you; I have taken a bullet, my legs are tangling. My young weep behind me as I go; I listen: a deer moans from the depths of its soul.

3. Do not come, hunter, do not come upon my trail; a green fly has settled on my hazel eye. Who will nurse my tender lambs; I listen: a deer moans from the depths of its soul.

4. My horn is broken, no branch is left to me; Almighty Lord, my state is known to you. Hunter, I pray your arm may break; I listen: a deer moans from the depths of its soul.

5. They loosed the hound in red broadcloth upon me; they drove me down to a wide plain. In my death throes I could not look at my lamb; I listen: a deer moans from the depths of its soul.

6. All the hunters stand watching at my head; my grieving breast turns to embers slice by slice. My lambs long for me, thinking I will come; I listen: a deer moans from the depths of its soul.

7. I, Kul Hüseyin, drink the cup of the mate; the yellow deer grows weary of her sweet life. Her young take flight and run; I listen: a deer moans from the depths of its soul.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Each of the seven quatrains closes on the refrain "Dinlerim bir geyik candan iniler" (I listen: a deer moans from the depths of its soul), while the other three lines rhyme among themselves: "dağlardan, bağlardan, yollardan", "ulaşır, dolaşır, ağlaşır", "izime, gözüme, emzire", "dalım, halim, kolun", "tazıya, yazıya, kuzuya", "gözlüyor, közlüyor, özlüyor", "içiyor, beziyor, kaçıyor". The metre is the eleven-syllable syllabic measure; Işık counts the deyiş among the güzelleme. The pen name (mahlas) "Kul Hüseyin'im" is found in the last stanza. The text rests on the renderings of Ali Yüksel of Keçiköy and Halil Sezgin.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

It belongs to the deer-lament tradition widespread in Turkish folk poetry: a wounded mother deer addresses the hunter, thinks of her young and tells of her death. Most of the poem is spoken by the deer; the refrain is the voice of the poet listening from outside: "I listen: a deer moans from the depths of its soul". Details such as the green fly settling on the hazel eye, the broken horn, the hounds in red broadcloth and the death throes on the wide plain turn the scene into a concrete and pitiful picture.

In Alevi-Bektashi poetry the deer is named as an animal close to the world of the saints; in another of Kul Hüseyin's deyiş too the line "for three hundred years I grazed with the deer" appears. The curse spoken against the hunter in the poem can therefore be read as the defence of an animal and, beyond it, of an innocent life that must be protected. In the last quatrain the poet "drinking the cup of the mate" and the yellow deer growing weary of her sweet life may be extended to the state of a person facing death and separation; this extension is our interpretation. Işık stresses that Kul Hüseyin joins images taken from the life of his region with a mystical understanding; in a life spent as a shepherd the images of mountain, deer and hunter are also part of daily life.

Bibliography

Online sources