Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün (approximately)

Ṣofiyâ devrâna gel Allâh hû yâ hû diyü
Şevḳ ile meydâne gel Allâh hû yâ hû diye

In English

1. O Sufi, come to the devran, the circle of dhikr, saying "Allah Hû, yâ Hû". Come with fervour to the meydan, saying "Allah Hû, yâ Hû".

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The couplet is the opening couplet (matla) of a ghazal. The metre is close to the remel pattern "fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün"; but the dhikr formula "Allâh hû yâ hû" does not fit the pattern exactly, because it brings long syllables where the pattern has short ones. This arises from taking the words of the dhikr into the poem as they are said, without adapting them to the pattern, and it is common in lodge poems that are sung. The identification of the metre is ours. The refrain (redif) is "gel Allâh hû yâ hû diyü"; the rhyme is built on the sounds "-âna / -âne" in the words "devrâna" and "meydâne". In the article the refrain is written "diyü" in the first line and "diye" in the second; this difference may arise from the spelling in the cönk or from the transcription in the article, and the text is left here as it stands in the article. Because Hakverdioğlu's article gives only the first verse unit of each poem in the cönk, the rest of the poem is unknown.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet is an invitation. The "sofi" is a person who has entered the Sufi path and frequents the dervish lodge; the poet calls him to two places. "Devran" is the name of the standing dhikr in orders such as the Halveti and Qadiri, in which dervishes form a circle hand in hand or shoulder to shoulder and turn. The "meydan" is the place in the lodge where the dhikr and the rite are performed and the dervishes gather; in the Bektashi tradition the meydan room is used in this sense. The repetition of the same structure in both lines creates a parallel between devran and meydan, between "come" and "come with fervour", and carries into the couplet the rhythm of dhikr, which rests on repetition. That each line ends with "Allâh hû yâ hû" draws the reader and listener into the dhikr: the ghazal does more than describe a dhikr, it is itself spoken with a dhikr phrase. "Hû", meaning "He", is the pronoun that names God and is one of the most repeated words of lodge dhikr.

Historical Context

The couplet is on page 64 of the Merzifon Cönkü, introduced by Metin Hakverdioğlu in 2019; Hakverdioğlu gives it twice in his article, with the same text (pp. 554 and 556). That a dhikr ghazal entered the same notebook as Bâkî's ghazals and the minstrels' koşmas shows that lodge hymns were also recited in the poetry gatherings of Merzifon. The identity of the poet is unknown. For Rızâ and the poets of the same pen name, see the page on Rızâ.

Bibliography

Online sources