Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Bir selam göndermiş o nazlı yarım
Yüz sürüp payına gitmeyinc’olmaz
Artar bülbül gibi Ah ile zarım
Dostun bahçesinde ötmeyinc’olmaz
Cennet bahçesinde Huri kızları
Hayal oldu, gözlerime gözleri
Keman ebruları güneş yüzleri
Sükker leblerinden tatmayınc’olmaz
Abdal oldum hırka giydim şal gibi
Aceb gülermiyim ben de el gibi
Bahçede açılmış gonca gül gibi
Canımı canına katmayınc’olmaz
Daha ne gam yarı bulduktan sonra
Sinem sinesine sardıktan sonra
Dost yolunda abdal olduktan sonra
Ar namus hırkasın atmayınc’olmaz
Kul PERVANE’m gitmez oldu hayalin
Ne yaman yeğindir derd ü melalin
Hublar serfirazı Nur-i Cemalin
Ulaşıp destine yetmeyinc’olmaz

In English

1. My graceful beloved has sent a greeting; I must go and lay my face at those feet. My sighs and laments grow like the nightingale's; I must sing in the garden of the Friend.

2. The eyes of the houris in the garden of paradise have become a vision before my eyes. I must taste the sugar lips of those beauties whose brows are bows and whose faces are suns.

3. I became an abdal and put on a cloak like a shawl; I wonder, shall I too laugh like other people? Like a rosebud opened in the garden, I must join my soul to your soul.

4. What sorrow is left once the beloved is found, once my breast is wrapped around that breast? Once one has become an abdal on the path of the Friend, one must throw off the cloak of honour and reputation.

5. I am Kul Pervane; your image no longer leaves my sight; how heavy are your pain and grief. I must reach your radiant face, chief of the fair, and come to your hand.

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 "-meyinc'olmaz" ("it cannot be without...", rendered "I must"): "gitmeyinc'olmaz, ötmeyinc'olmaz, tatmayınc'olmaz, katmayınc'olmaz, atmayınc'olmaz, yetmeyinc'olmaz". The first quatrain has cross rhyme ("yarım, zarım"); in the others the first three lines rhyme among themselves ("kızları, gözleri, yüzleri"; "şal, el, gül" with the redif "gibi"; "bulduktan, sardıktan, olduktan" with the redif "sonra"; "hayalin, melalin, cemalin"). The pen name appears in the last quatrain as "Kul Pervane".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The deyiş tells of a lover who is set in motion by a greeting and resolves to go and be united with the beloved. The familiar images of beauty, the houri, the bow-shaped brow, the sun-like face and the sugar lip, are tied after the third quatrain to the theme of the abdal. The abdal is the dervish who withdraws from the world and takes to the road; the line "one must throw off the cloak of honour and reputation" speaks of not caring what people say on the beloved's path, of taking off concern for fame and standing like a cloak. The line "shall I too laugh like other people?" shows the dervish's estrangement from the joys of the world.

The phrase "Nur-i Cemalin" in the last quatrain describes the radiant face of the beloved. Considering that during the years Sıdkî used the pen name Pervane the guide he served was Cemaleddin Çelebi, an allusion to that name may be seen in the word "Cemal"; but this is our own interpretation and the deyiş does not say so openly.

Bibliography

Online sources