Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilün

Ṣûfi mürde mürde ṣanma sen veli ervâḥını
Öyle bir seyf-i Ḫudâdır çoḳ keser kim tîşeden
Gerçi emvât-ı ḳulûba kim olup var u müdâm
Bir devâ te’s̱îr eder çıḳdıkda âḫir şîşeden

In English

1. O Sufi, do not think the spirits of the saints dead, mere corpses; such is God's sword that it cuts more than an axe.

2. For the dead among hearts it exists and endures; it is a remedy that takes effect at last when it comes out of the flask.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Book's Only Rubai

The book's only rubai follows the long section on the superiority of the Naqshbandis; its four lines, warning against thinking the saints' spirits dead, read like a short reply to the dispute at the end of that section. The edition gives its four lines in the remel pattern most often found in the book's ghazals; the known aruz patterns of the rubai come from the ahreb and ahrem branches of the hezec, so in form this piece is less a classical rubai than a quatrain given that name. The first, second and fourth lines meet in the rhyme “tîşeden / şîşeden”, while the third line is free.

The subject of the rubai is the spiritual presence of the saints. Addressing the “ṣûfî”, the poet tells him not to think the spirits of dead saints lifeless: they are God's sword, which cuts more than an axe. In the second couplet the image changes: the spiritual power of the saints is a remedy for dead hearts, kept in a flask and showing its effect when it comes out. In a later section of the book the question whether a traveller whose sheikh has died can receive grace from the spirit is discussed separately; this rubai is like a poetic summary of that discussion.

The rhyme of “tîşe”, axe, and “şîşe”, flask, sets two opposite objects side by side through likeness of sound, the cutting iron and the fragile glass. The poet does not interpret this contrast; he leaves it to the reader.

Bibliography

Online sources