Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilün

Ṭâlib-i ṣâdıḳ ḳoma sen adıñı
Sil çıḳar dilden ‘iyâl u evlâdıňı
Ḥaḳḳ’a maḫṣûṣ eyle gel feryâdıñı
Yoḫsa bil nâkıṣdır isti‘dâdıñı
Mürşide rehber kişiniñ ḥâleti
Bildiren Allâh’ı özge ġayreti
Ṭâlibiñ ḥaḳ olsa muṭlaḳ ḥâceti
Pes olur mürşid Ḫudâ’nıñ âleti
Ba‘żı ṭâlib var ki mürşidân arar
Ol televvün ḥâlde dâ’im bî-ḳarâr
Ḫâliṣân yoḳ inḳiyâd kendin yorar
Bilmez ol bî-çâre eyler âh u zâr
Ba‘żı ṭâlib der ki yoḳ mürşid eger
Olmasa ‘âlem olur hep zîr u ber
Bunda yoḥsa Çin’e ‘azm et ḳıl sefer
Dâmeni altında olsa bî-ḥaber
Sen Celâleddin olursuñ var velî
Reh-nümâ eyler Ḫudâ bir ekmeli
Sen olursañ râh-ı Ḥaḳḳ’ıñ ḳābili
Şems olur mürşid küşâd eyler dili
Yoḳ demem ṭâlib bu an eż‘âf-ı ḳatı
Cîfe’i dünyâda seyret ṣûreti
Ẕât-ı Ḥaḳ’dan başḳa olsa niyeti
Hiç bulur mu ol ‘azîzim vuṣlatı
Bî-ġaraż ‘arż eyle mürşid ṣoḥbetin
Feyż-i Ḥaḳ taḥṣîli olsun niyetiñ
Etme dânâlıḳ tamâm al himmetin
Bil teraḥḥümdür ganîmet Elif’ten

In English

1. O sincere seeker, do not even keep your own name; wipe your wife and children from your tongue and put them out.

2. Come, make your lament God's alone; otherwise know that your capacity is deficient.

3. What guides one to the master is a person's state; what makes God known is another kind of zeal.

4. If the seeker's absolute need is God, the master becomes God's instrument.

5. Some seekers keep searching for masters; in that changeable state they are always restless.

6. There is no sincerity, no submission, they only wear themselves out; the poor wretch does not know, he sighs and laments.

7. Some seekers say, “There is no master”; were there none, the world would be turned upside down.

8. If there is none here, travel to China; even if he were under your own hem, you would not know it.

9. If you become a Celâleddîn (Rûmî), go, there are saints; God makes a perfect one your guide.

10. If you are fit for the road of God, the master becomes your Şems and opens your tongue.

11. I do not say there is no seeker now, but they are very weak; look at their form in the carcass of the world.

12. My dear, if one's intention is other than the essence of God, will he ever find that union?

13. Join the master's company without self-interest; let your intention be to gain the grace of God.

14. Do not play the know-all; take up his spiritual help entirely; know that mercy is a gain that comes from Elif (from God).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Wavering Seekers

The poet looks for most of the obstacles before the traveller not in the master but in the seeker himself. The heading of these fourteen couplets (266-279) looks at the seeker too: its subject is the seekers' “dûn-himmet”, their low aspiration, their “tereddüd”, hesitation, and their “televvünât”, their changing from one colour to another. In the third and fourth couplets he says so plainly: what guides one to the master is one's state; if the seeker's absolute need is God, the master becomes an instrument of God.

After the fifth couplet two kinds of seeker are described. The first wanders from master to master, surrenders to none and wears himself out. The second says “there is no master”; the poet reminds him that he should go as far as China if need be, but that what he is looking for may be “under his own hem”. Şensöz summarises these two types among the themes of the work: “that seekers looking for a master are restless, and that some seekers say no master is left”.

The ninth and tenth couplets carry the best-known reference of the section: Celâleddîn-i Rûmî and Şems-i Tebrîzî. The poet says that if the seeker becomes a Celâleddîn, the master will become his Şems; that is, the master's greatness depends on the seeker's capacity. The word “Elif” in the last couplet, the first letter of the Arabic alphabet and the beginning of the word Allah, is a symbol of oneness; the meaning of the line is not entirely clear, and it has been read here as saying that mercy is a gain coming from God.

Bibliography

Online sources