Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre
Müminlerin yaşın yaşın ağlatan
Ah senin dertlerin İmam Hüseyin
Kerbala çölünde kanın çağlatan
Ah senin dertlerin İmam Hüseyin
Şehit düştü İmamların şahbazı
Bu imiş takdirde yazılan yazı
Arşa çıktı Ehlibeytin avazı
Ah senin dertlerin İmam Hüseyin
İptida meydanı Hürşehit açtı
Arştaki melekler kanlı yaş saçtı
Yetmiş iki pehlivan hep şehit düştü
Ah senin dertlerin İmam Hüseyin
İmam Zeynel kaldı Ali’den aslı
Şükür kesilmedi Ehlibeyt nesli
Yüz yirmi dört bin peygamber yaslı
Ah senin dertlerin İmam Hüseyin
Lanet olsun ol Yezd’in canına
Kasteyledi İmamların kanına
Hasret oydu yâr ü hanümanına
Ah senin dertlerin imam Hüseyin
SEFİL SIDKÎ şu gönlümün zarı var
Kerbala’da Ehlibeytin nuru var
On iki ay kan ağlasam yeri var
Ah senin dertlerin İmam Hüseyin.
In English
1. You who make the believers weep with streaming tears, you who made your blood flow like a flood in the desert of Karbala: ah, your sorrows, Imam Hüseyin.
2. The falcon of the imams fell a martyr; this, it seems, was what was written in fate. The cry of the Ahl al-Bayt rose to the Throne; ah, your sorrows, Imam Hüseyin.
3. Hürr the martyr was the first to open the field; the angels in heaven shed tears of blood. All seventy-two champions fell as martyrs; ah, your sorrows, Imam Hüseyin.
4. Of Ali's line Imam Zeynel remained; thanks be, the lineage of the Ahl al-Bayt was not cut off. The one hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets are in mourning; ah, your sorrows, Imam Hüseyin.
5. A curse upon the soul of that Yazid; he sought the blood of the imams. They were left longing for their homeland, their house and home; ah, your sorrows, Imam Hüseyin.
6. I am wretched Sıdkî; my heart is full of lament; in Karbala lies the light of the Ahl al-Bayt. Were I to weep blood for twelve months it would be fitting; ah, your sorrows, Imam Hüseyin.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Structure of the Poem
This is a mersiye of six quatrains, composed in koşma form and in the eleven-syllable metre (the syllable count is ours). Every quatrain ends with the line "Ah senin dertlerin İmam Hüseyin" (ah, your sorrows, Imam Hüseyin); in the first quatrain this line also appears as the second line. In the first quatrain "ağlatan" rhymes with "çağlatan"; in the others the first three lines rhyme among themselves ("şahbazı, yazı, avazı"; "açtı, saçtı, düştü"; "aslı, nesli, yaslı"; "canına, kanına, hanümanına"; "zarı, nuru, yeri" with the redif "var"). The pen name appears in the last quatrain as "Sefil Sıdkî". This mersiye is not among the twenty-one deyiş on the compilation site; its text is taken from Necdet Kurt's study.
Meaning and Figures of Speech
The mersiye is, in Alevi-Bektashi poetry, the lament sung for Imam Hüseyin and his kin martyred at Karbala, recited especially in the month of Muharram. Sıdkî's mersiye too tells the events of Karbala in brief strokes: Hüseyin's blood flowing in the desert, the martyrdom of Hürr who first opened the field, the seventy-two martyrs, the survival of Imam Zeynelâbidin and with him of the line of the Ahl al-Bayt, and the curse upon Yazid. Hürr is the man who was at first in Yazid's army at Karbala, then went over to Hüseyin's side and is counted among the first martyrs.
The language of the mersiye is plain and direct; rather than the ornate elegies of divan poetry, it has the air of a folk lament suited to communal singing in the cem. The angels in heaven shedding tears of blood and the one hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets in mourning are hyperboles saying that the grief spreads through the whole of creation. The words "Were I to weep blood for twelve months it would be fitting" in the last line describe the mourning of Muharram as a grief too great to be contained in a single month.
Bibliography
- Necdet Kurt, "Zakirlik Geleneğinin Kökenleri ve Amasya Yöresinin İz Bırakan Zakirleri", Geçmişten Günümüze Uluslararası Dinî Mûsikî Sempozyumu Bildiriler Kitabı, Amasya: Amasya University, 2017, pp. 116-117. https://isamveri.org/pdfdrg/G00310/2017/2017_KURTN.pdf
Online sources
