Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Arz eyleyip geldim haki payına
Kabul et efendim mihman senindir
Ta ezelden âşık oldum soyuna
Kapının kölesi Selman senindir
Çeker sancağını erler gaziler
Gelir kurbanlıklar koçlar kuzular
Kudümden çalınır naylar sızlar
Saz muhabbet sohbet seyran senindir
Adalet tahtının sultanı sensin
Gönüller evinin mihmanı sensin
Tabipsin cümlenin Lokman’ı sensin
Her türlü dertlere derman senindir
Dergahın cennettir bahçeli bağlı
Garip bülbül gibi yüreğim dağlı
On sekiz bin alem hükmüne bağlı
Sen kutbül aktansın devran senindir
Aşk yolunda terk eyledim canımı
Canımı, malımı, hünü manımı
Kes gerdanımı akıt kanımı
Geldi SIDKI kulun kurban senindir

In English

1. Offering my greeting I have come to the dust of your feet; my master, accept me, the guest is yours. Since pre-eternity I have loved your line; Salman, the slave of your door, is yours.

2. The true men and the warriors carry your banner; the sacrificial animals come, rams and lambs. The kettledrums are beaten, the reed flutes lament; the saz, the fellowship, the talk and the outing are yours.

3. You are the sultan of the throne of justice; you are the guest of the house of hearts. You are the healer, the Luqman of all; the cure for every kind of pain is yours.

4. Your lodge is paradise, with gardens and vineyards; my heart is seared like a lonely nightingale's. The eighteen thousand worlds are bound to your command; you are the pole of poles, the age is yours.

5. On the path of love I have given up my life; my life, my goods, my house and home. Cut my throat, shed my blood; your servant Sıdkı has come, the sacrifice is yours.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a koşma of five quatrains in the eleven-syllable metre (the syllable count is ours). The last lines of the quatrains end with the redif "senindir" (is yours), and the words before it, "mihman, Selman, seyran, derman, devran, kurban", carry the rhyme; in the first quatrain the second line is also tied to this redif. The first three lines of the quatrains rhyme among themselves ("gaziler, kuzular, sızlar"; "sultanı, mihmanı, Lokman'ı" with the redif "sensin"; "bağlı, dağlı, bağlı"; "canımı, manımı, kanımı"). The pen name appears in the last quatrain. "Kutbül aktan" in the fourth quatrain stands so in the source; it has been read as "kutbü'l-aktâb" (the pole of poles).

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The deyiş is a poem of devotion and praise offered to the master of a lodge. The one addressed is called "my master", sultan of the throne of justice, guest of the hearts, Luqman who cures every pain, and pole of poles; his lodge is a paradise with gardens and vineyards. Salman the Persian is, in the Alevi-Bektashi tradition, the model of those who served Ali and the Ahl al-Bayt as servants of the door; the lover counts himself the Salman of this door.

In the second quatrain the lively life of the lodge appears: banners, sacrificial offerings, the sound of kettledrum and reed flute, the saz and fellowship. The eighteen thousand worlds is a Sufi phrase for the whole universe. In the last quatrain the lover offers his life, goods and home as a sacrifice. Who the one addressed is the deyiş does not say; he is probably one of the çelebis of Hacıbektaş to whom Sıdkî was attached, but this is our interpretation.

Bibliography

Online sources