Original Persian Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Şīr-i Ḥayy-ı lā-yemūt ān ki ‘Aliyy-i Ḥaydarest
Ẓāt-ı pāk-i bī-naẓīreş hel etā-rā maẓharest
Der-reh-i dīn-i ḥabībullāh berāy-ı şer‘-i pāk
Kāfirān-rā āfet ü kişver-küşā-yı Ḥayberest
Serv-i bāġ-ı lā-fetā vü şem‘-i cem‘-i aṣfiyā
Nūr-ı çeşm-i evliyā vü vāṣī-i peyġamberest
Düldül-i ū hem-‘inān-ı ablaḳ-ı eyyām şod
Ẕü’l-fiḳār-ı vey zi-berḳ-ı ra‘d bes lāmi‘terest
Şod hümā-yı himmeteş-rā şāḫ-ı sidre āşyān
Menzil-i ḳadreş zi-çarḫ-ı a‘ẓam ey dil ber-terest
Şīr-i merdān k’ān ‘Aliyy-i murtażā vü müctebā
Ḫayl-i cem‘-i evliyā-rā reh-ber ü ser-leşkerest
Sāḳī-i kevs̱er emīr-i taḫt-gāh-ı lev-küşif
Ḫᵛāce-i ma‘ṣūm u pīr-i rāh-ı Ḥayy-ı ekberest
Ger Münīr ez-cān u dil şod bende-i dīrīneeş
Men ġulām-ı Ḳanberem Ḳanber ġulām-ı Ḥaydarest

In English

1. Ali Haydar is the lion of the Ever-Living God who never dies; his pure and peerless being is the manifestation of the verse "hel etâ". ("Hel etâ", in its dictionary sense "has there come", is the opening phrase of the Sura al-Insan of the Qur'an; Ersoy too explains the couplet as being the object of this verse.)

2. On the path of the religion of God's beloved, for the sake of the pure sacred law, he became a scourge to the unbelievers and the conqueror of the land of Khaybar.

3. He is the cypress of the garden of "lâ fetâ", the candle of the gathering of God's chosen servants, the light of the eyes of the saints and the Prophet's appointed heir. (Ersoy links "lâ fetâ" to the saying "there is no hero but Ali".)

4. His horse Düldül came to run rein to rein with the piebald steed of the days; his sword Zülfikâr is far brighter than the lightning that flashes with the thunder. (The "piebald steed of the days" is, in its dictionary sense, a horse that bears white and black together, an image for time in which day and night follow each other; Ersoy reads the line as "it keeps pace with time".)

5. O heart, his lofty resolve became a huma bird and made its nest on the branch of the Sidra tree; the station of his worth lies above even the greatest sphere of heaven. (The huma is, in its dictionary sense, the fabulous bird believed to bring sovereignty to whomever its shadow falls on; the Sidra is the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary in the seventh heaven.)

6. That lion of men, Ali, is Murtazâ and Müctebâ; he is the guide and the commander of the host of the saints. (In their dictionary sense murtazâ means "approved, the one God is pleased with" and müctebâ "chosen"; Ersoy explains them as "the one with whom God is pleased and to whom He gave lofty ranks".)

7. He is the cupbearer of Kevser, the lord of the throne of "lev küşife", a sinless master and the elder on the path of the Greatest, Ever-Living God. ("Lev küşife", as Ersoy explains, means "if the veil were lifted"; in its dictionary sense it is the beginning of the saying attributed to Ali, "were the veil lifted, my certainty would not increase".)

8. If Münîr has become his slave of old with heart and soul, I am the slave of Kanber, and Kanber is the slave of Haydar.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a Persian kaside (qasida) of eight couplets and bears the number Kaside 7 in the edition. The kaside is a verse form in which both lines of the first couplet and the second lines of the following couplets run on the same rhyme, written mostly for praise; this example is quite short beside the other kasides of the divan. The metre is the "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün" pattern of the remel measure. The rhyme is the sound "-er" (Ḥaydar, maẓhar, Ḫayber, peyġamber, lāmi‘ter, ber-ter, ser-leşker, ekber); the redif (refrain word) is "-est", the shortened form of the Persian copula "is". The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 16a) and Vienna (VY 25a) manuscripts and is absent from the Istanbul manuscript. Its heading in the edition is "Der-menāḳıb-ı ḥażret-i ‘Alī kerremallāhü vecheh", "On the virtues and deeds of Hazrat Ali". When Ersoy counts the twenty-nine kasides of the divan by subject, he lists one as "a eulogy of Hazrat Ali"; this is that kaside. There is no information on when or on what occasion it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

From beginning to end the kaside lists the attributes and legendary deeds of Ali; it has no introductory section and no section of petition or prayer, and only in the last couplet does the poet speak of his own devotion. The attributes are the familiar names of the tradition: Haydar (1), "the lion of God" and "the lion of men" (1, 6), Murtazâ (6), the Prophet's appointed heir (3), the cupbearer of Kevser (7). The deeds are each recalled by allusion (telmih): the conquest of Khaybar (2), the saying "lâ fetâ" (3), his horse Düldül and his sword Zülfikâr (4), the verse "hel etâ" (1) and the saying "lev küşife" (7). The Arabic phrases are set into the couplets as parts of a construction: "serv-i bāġ-ı lā-fetā" (the cypress of the garden of lâ fetâ) and "taḫt-gāh-ı lev-küşif" (the throne of lev küşife) turn a well-known saying into an image.

Couplet 4 rests on tenasüp (congruence of images). In the first line Düldül and "ablaḳ-ı eyyām" (the piebald steed of the days) are set side by side, and the word "hem-‘inān" (rein to rein) completes the vocabulary of the horse race; in the second line Zülfikâr is compared with thunder and lightning and found brighter than them. In couplet 5 resolve is likened to the huma and the branch of the Sidra to its nest; by placing Ali's worth above the greatest of the heavens, the praise is completed through hyperbole. "Ḥayy" (the Ever-Living), which appears as an attribute of God in the first couplet, returns in couplet 7 as "Ḥayy-ı ekber"; the kaside thus stays within a frame that ties Ali to God.

The last couplet is the most striking place in the poem. The pen name (mahlas) comes in the form "Münīr" and in the third person; in the second line the poet speaks as "I". Kanber is Ali's freed slave; by counting himself Kanber's slave, the poet expresses his devotion to Ali from one step further down. The chained repetition of the words "ġulām" and "Ḳanber" within the line (ġulām-ı Ḳanberem, Ḳanber ġulām-ı Ḥaydar) builds this descent in sound as well. As Ersoy notes in his introduction, in Mesnevi 1, the first poem of the divan, the poet likewise names the Prophet, the four caliphs and the twelve imams and asks for forgiveness for their sake; praise of Ali finds a further place in the religious opening section of the divan with this kaside.

Bibliography

Online sources