Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilün

İş bu ânda çünkü bildiñ yoḳ nebî
Mürşidân azdır velakin var velî
Ba‘żı gör inkârına ḳā’il dili
Şimdi efzûndur velî min evveli
Çoḳ veliyu’llâh cihânda iş bu ân
Ḳahvelerde kes̱ret içre ṣanma cân
Kûşe-’i vaḥdetde mestûrdur cihân
Sen seni terk et ẓuhûr eyler hemân
İmdi vardır bir bölük ehl-i fesâd
‘İlmine maġrûr olup eyler ‘inâd
Hiç veliyu’llâha etmez i‘timâd
Ḥaşr olur cehliyle olmaz ber-murâd
Der veliyu’llâh ki ḳanda iş bu nâs
‘Aḳl-ile ṣûret ṣanıp eyler ḳıyâs
İçlerinde az olur ‘ârif-şinâs
Ol cehâlet birbirinden in‘ikâs
Fi‘l-i ṣûfîden müberrâ evliyâ
Haḳ-ile dâ’im mu‘arrâ evliyâ
Ḳanda isterseñ hüveydâ evliyâ
Kâşifü’l esrâr-ı eşyâ evliyâ
Sende var mı gerçiden bir keşf-i râz
Bir delîl olmaḳ gerekdir fetḥ-i râz
Boş yere olmaz bu söz ey aḳlı az
Bunları Ḥaḳ gizledi gel olma ḳaz
Sen veliyu’llâhı fehm etmeñ muhâl
Sende lâzımdır anıñ tek bir kemâl
Anları mestûr edipdür ẕü’l-Celâl
Anları bilmek muḥâldir ehl-i ḥâl

In English

1. At this time, as you know, there is no prophet; masters are few, but there are saints.

2. See, the tongues of some are given to denying them; now the saints are more than before.

3. At present there are many saints of God in the world; my soul, do not imagine them among the crowds in the coffee houses.

4. The world keeps them hidden in the corner of oneness; abandon yourself, and they appear at once.

5. Now there is a band of mischief-makers, proud of their learning and obstinate.

6. They never trust a saint of God; they will be raised with their ignorance and not attain their wish.

7. “Where among these people is a saint of God?” they say; judging by reason, they take them for mere forms and compare.

8. Among them few recognise one who knows God; that ignorance reflects from one to another.

9. The saints are free of the outward show of the Sufis; the saints are always stripped bare with God.

10. Wherever you wish, the saints are there to be seen; the saints are the ones who unveil the secrets of things.

11. Do you truly have any unveiling of the secret? To open the secret one needs a guide.

12. O man of little sense, these words are not in vain; God has hidden these men; come, do not be a goose.

13. It is impossible for you to understand a saint of God; you would need a perfection like his.

14. The Lord of Majesty has hidden them; to know them is possible only for the people of spiritual states, for others impossible.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Saints Are Still Here

Saints are many, masters are few: here the poet draws openly a distinction touched on in the book's earlier sections. The heading of these fourteen couplets (317-330) names three things together: “ehlu’llâhıñ kes̱reti”, the abundance of the people of God, “mürşidiñ ḳılleti”, the scarcity of the master, and “münkirânıñ cehâleti”, the ignorance of the deniers. Anyone may be a saint, but the master who will train a seeker and guide him is rarely found.

The third and fourth couplets carry the section's liveliest image. The saints are not to be sought “ḳahvelerde kes̱ret içre”, among the crowds of the coffee houses; the world has hidden them in the “kûşe-i vaḥdet”, the corner of oneness. The coffee house was the centre of social life in the nineteenth-century Ottoman town; the sheikh's use of the word gives the couplet a colour from daily life. From the fifth couplet on, “a band of mischief-makers” who trust in their learning and deny the saints are described; they weigh the saints by the measure of reason and see them in the form of ordinary people.

The warning “olma ḳaz”, do not be a goose, in the twelfth couplet is one of the book's expressions that approach the language of the people: the goose is a symbol of foolishness in divan poetry and in popular speech alike. The section ends with the idea that only one who has reached a perfection like his can recognise a saint.

Bibliography

Online sources