Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilün

Bu ṭarîḳat Ḥaḳ için bir ṭoġrı yol
Hem olup maġz-ı şerî‘at bâ-uṣûl
Bil şerî‘atden ki ġayri olsa yol
Râh-ı şeyṭândır buyurdı ḥaḳ resûl
İnzivâ eyle hemîşe ṭut ṣıyâm
Mu‘tekif ol etme boş yerde kelâm
İctihâd et nefsiñe aldırma kâm
Girme ḫalḳ içre mücâhid ol müdâm
Haḳḳ’a mevḳūf eyle her bir sâ‘ati
Haḳ için eyle müdâ’im ṭâ‘ati
Eyle ẕikru’llâh riyâżet ‘âdeti
Bil helâk eyler ki açlıḳ şehveti
Etme nefsiñ üzre pey-der-pey ḫarâm
Ḳıllet et nevm u kelâm hem ṭa‘âm
Eyle nefsiñden ki aḫẕ-ı intiḳām
Ehl-i ‘aşḳa yoḳ bunuñ fevḳinde kâm
Bil nedir seyr ü sülûke pür müdâr
Çây eder âsân olursa iḳtidâr
Nûş edip ba‘de’t-tâ‘âm ḫoş bir ḳarâr
Bir iki bardaḳdan efzûndur żarar
Çayda vardır bi-nihâyet bir ‘ilim
Kim anın vaṣfından ‘âcizdir dilim
Bir iki nûş etse bir ḳalb-i selîm
Kim olur ol-demde ḥaḳḳānî kelîm
Kim bu ta‘rîfim ṭutup mu‘tâd eden
Tîz varır maḳṣûdına böyle giden
Vâḳıf oldum çayda ki esrâra ben
Sâlikî eyler hemân kimyâ beden

In English

1. This path is a straight road for God; with its method it has become the marrow of the law.

2. Know that a road other than the law is the road of the devil; the Messenger of God said so.

3. Keep always to retreat and fast; enter seclusion, do not speak idle words.

4. Strive, do not let your self have its desire; do not mingle with the people, be always a fighter.

5. Devote every hour to God; obey always for God's sake.

6. Make the remembrance of God and austerity your habit; know that hunger destroys lust.

7. Do not lay forbidden burdens on your self one after another; lessen sleep, speech and food.

8. Take revenge on your self; for the people of love there is no desire above this.

9. Know what greatly helps the journey of the path: tea, if you can afford it, makes it easy.

10. Drinking it after a meal in pleasant measure is good; more than one or two glasses does harm.

11. In tea there is an endless science that my tongue is unable to describe.

12. If a sound heart drinks one or two, at that moment it becomes one who speaks of God.

13. Whoever keeps to this description of mine and makes it his habit, going thus, reaches his goal quickly.

14. I have become acquainted with the secrets in tea; it turns the traveller's body at once to alchemy's gold.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Striving and a Eulogy of Tea

In the poet's view one of the things that most helps the journey of the path is tea, for those who can afford it; the section on striving keeps this unexpected counsel for its second half. The first eight couplets list familiar counsels: retreat, fasting, seclusion, avoiding idle words, little sleep, little speech, little food, taking revenge on the self. The heading of these fourteen couplets, 512-525 in the edition, speaks of the path as the “maġz”, the marrow, of the law, of encouragement to spiritual striving, and of its “çâbük nef‘”, its quick benefit. For the notion of austerity in the work Şensöz turns to the sixth couplet.

After the ninth couplet the subject turns to tea, and only then does the “quick benefit” of the heading become clear. The measure is given too: one or two glasses after a meal, in pleasant measure; more does harm. The poet says that in tea there is “an endless science”, that a sound heart becomes one who speaks of God after one or two glasses, that he has become acquainted with the secrets of tea, and that it turns the traveller's body into “alchemy”.

Tea was a drink that began to spread in Ottoman Anatolia in the second half of the nineteenth century and still stood in the shadow of coffee; that a sheikh who came from Tirebolu on the Black Sea coast and was trained in Istanbul recommended it for remembrance and wakefulness is a small but vivid detail of lodge life. It is known that coffee was used in Sufi circles to stay awake; these couplets show the same function passing to tea. Such an everyday detail is rarely met in the book's other sections.

Bibliography

Online sources