Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Gine azmeyledin gurbet elleri
Efendim sultanım eğlenme tez gel
Bunca muhibbanlar bekler yolları
Kaşları kemanım eğlenme tez gel
Dolaşma gurbeti ey şah-i huban
Yanıktır bağrımız çeşmimiz al kan
Düştü gönlümüze ah ile figan
Nevreste fidanım eğlenme tez gel
Bize cevreyledin nesl-i mevali
Saldın gönlümüze derd ü melali
Ağlatma SIDKI’nı Yakup misali
Yusuf-u Kenanım eylenme tez gel

In English

1. Once again you have set out for foreign lands; my master, my sultan, do not linger, come quickly. So many devotees await you on the roads; my beloved with bow-shaped brows, do not linger, come quickly.

2. O king of the fair, do not keep wandering in foreign parts; our breasts are burning, our eyes weep blood. Sighs and laments have fallen upon our hearts; my young sapling, do not linger, come quickly.

3. O scion of masters, you have made us suffer; you have sent pain and grief into our hearts. Do not make Sıdkı weep like Jacob; my Joseph of Canaan, do not linger, come quickly.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a short koşma of three quatrains in the eleven-syllable metre (the syllable count is ours). Every quatrain ends with the words "eğlenme tez gel" (in the last quatrain "eylenme tez gel": do not linger, come quickly), and the words before them, "sultanım, kemanım, fidanım, Kenanım", carry the rhyme. The first quatrain has cross rhyme ("elleri, yolları"); in the others the first three lines rhyme among themselves ("huban, kan, figan"; "mevali, melali, misali"). The pen name appears in the last quatrain.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The deyiş is an entreaty to a "master" and "sultan" who has set out on a journey to return quickly. There are "so many devotees", disciples who love him, waiting for the one addressed; this detail and the phrase "nesl-i mevali" (scion of masters) suggest that he is a spiritual guide, most probably a çelebi descended from Hacı Bektaş. Who he is the deyiş does not say; this interpretation is ours.

In the last quatrain the poet turns to the story of Joseph and Jacob told in the Qur'an and in folk tales: Jacob, having lost his son Joseph, wept until his eyes could no longer see. Sıdkî likens himself to Jacob and the one awaited to Joseph of Canaan, famed for his beauty. Longing for the guide is thus told as a feeling as deep as a father's longing for his child.

Bibliography

Online sources