Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilün

Faḳr-ı esbâb ḳanâ‘atdir kemâl-i ni‘metim
Milk-i ḫânlıḳdır gedâlıḳ izz ü câh devletim
Elde bu sermâye-i sırr-ı ḳanâ‘at var iken
‘Arżuḥâl etmem mülûk-ı şâha yoḳdur minnetim
Germ-i dûzaḫdır baña eẕvâḳ-ı dünyâ ‘iyş-i nûş
Ger cehennem olsa efḳarlık ḳabûl-i cennetim
İḫtilâṭ-ı ehl-i dünyâdan beni ma‘ẕûr ṭutuñ
Ben ki ‘anḳā meşrebim ḫalḳdan ferâġat ‘âdetim
Ẕikr u tesbîḥ vü ‘îbâdet teklif etme zâhidâ
Ben ḫarâbât ehl-i rindim zühd-ile yoḳ ülfetim
Ḫidmet-i mürşide sa‘yimdir bu himmet feyż-i ḥaḳ
Bir ḥayât vermiş göñülden iltifât-ı ‘İṣmet’im
Keşf-i râz etsem eger aḥvâlimi Mir’ât-nümâ
Muṭlaḳa herkes ṭutup taḥḳīḳ bulur farżıyyetim

In English

1. Poverty of means is contentment, the perfection of my blessing; beggary is the realm of a khan, my honour, my rank, my fortune.

2. While I hold the capital of this secret of contentment, I lay no petition before kings and sovereigns, I owe no gratitude.

3. The pleasures and sweet living of the world are to me the heat of hell; even if poverty were hell, accepting it would be my paradise.

4. Excuse me from mixing with the people of the world; I have the nature of the Ankâ, withdrawal from the people is my habit.

5. O ascetic, do not urge on me remembrance, rosary and worship for show; I am a rake of the tavern, I have no familiarity with asceticism.

6. My zeal for the service of my master is this spiritual power, the grace of God; the kindness of my İsmet has given life from the heart.

7. Mir'ât-nümâ, were I to reveal the secret of my states, everyone would surely take it up and find my duty truly.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Poverty and the Rake

Poverty is contentment, beggary is the realm of a khan, honour and fortune: coming after the section on striving, these seven couplets present poverty as wealth. The four-foot remel carries a refrain ending in the sound “-im”, my (ni‘metim, devletim, minnetim, cennetim, ‘âdetim, ülfetim, ‘İṣmet'im, farżıyyetim).

The third couplet rests on a reversal: the pleasures of the world are the heat of hell to the poet; even if poverty were hell, accepting it would be his paradise. In the fourth couplet the poet likens himself to the legendary bird Ankâ: living on Mount Kaf and never seen, this bird is the symbol of withdrawal from the people. The fifth couplet uses the divan poetry contrast of rake and ascetic; the poet counts himself “ḫarâbât ehl-i rind”, a rake of the tavern, and rejects the ascetic's showy worship. That this comes from the pen of a sheikh who stresses the law so strongly shows that rakishness is used here figuratively, in the sense of an inner state free of hypocrisy.

The “iltifât-ı ‘İṣmet'im” of the sixth couplet is a clear reference to the poet's master Mustafa İsmet Efendi; the word “‘iṣmet” can be read in two ways, both as the sheikh's name and in its sense of “protection from sin”.

Bibliography

Online sources