Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Siyah perçemlerin hatem yüzlerin
Garip bülbül gibi zareler beni
Hilal ebruların ahu gözlerin
Tığ-i sevda ile yareler beni
Kaşların bismillah vechin Beytullah
Seni öz eliyle yaratmış Allah
Sevmişem ben seni terketmem billah
Aşkın hançeriyle vuralar beni
Elif kametine hayran olduğum
Gece gündüz hayaline yeldiğim
Hep senin içindir boyun eğdiğim
Yoksa zapt’edemez buralar beni
Hub cemalin gördüm ah-ü zar oldum
Aşkına düşeli sevdakar oldum
Kalmadı tahammül bi-karar oldum
Meğer tabutlara saralar beni
SIDKI’yam billahi ben terketmezem
Başka güzellere gönül katmazam
Dövsen de kovsan da burdan gitmezem
Meğer ferman gelip süreler beni

In English

1. Your black locks and your moon-like face make me moan like a lonely nightingale. Your crescent brows and gazelle eyes wound me with the sword of love.

2. Your brows are the basmala, your face is the House of God; God created you with His own hand. I have loved you; by God, I will not leave you, even if they strike me with the dagger of love.

3. It is you whose alif-straight stature I admire, whose image I chase night and day. All my submission is for you; otherwise these places could not hold me.

4. I saw your fair face and fell to sighing and moaning; since I fell in love with you I have been lovesick. I have no endurance left, I have lost all rest; only if they wrap me in a coffin shall I part.

5. I am Sıdkî; by God, I will not leave you; I will not give my heart to other beauties. Beat me or drive me away, I will not go from here; only if a decree comes and they banish me shall I go.

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 "beni" (me), and the words before it, "yareler, vuralar, buralar, saralar, süreler", carry the rhyme; in the first quatrain the second line, "zareler beni", is tied to the same sound. The first three lines of the quatrains rhyme among themselves ("Beytullah, Allah, billah"; "olduğum, yeldiğim, eğdiğim"; "zar, sevdakar, bi-karar" with the redif "oldum"; "terketmezem, katmazam, gitmezem"). The pen name appears in the last quatrain. The phrase "hatem yüzlerin" in the first line stands so in the source; it can be read as a face like the moon (mah) or as the down on the face (hat), and the first reading is preferred in the rendering.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The deyiş begins like a güzelleme, a poem in praise of beauty, and is tied to the Bektashi view that reads the beloved's face as a sacred text and a sacred place: the brows are the basmala, the face the House of God, the Kaaba; the stature is likened to the letter alif. Love for the beloved thus merges with reverence for the fairest of God's works. The lover's oath never to part is limited in the last two quatrains by two conditions: death and banishment.

The words "only if a decree comes and they banish me" in the last line say that only an official order, a decree of exile, could bring about separation. This is a known hyperbole in folk poetry for never leaving the beloved's door. Since there were dervishes banished by decree in Bektashi history, the line may be thought to carry a further echo; but there is no open sign of this in the deyiş and the connection is our own interpretation.

Bibliography

Online sources