The text given here and used for this translation is from Ergun’s 1929 publication and I have retained the original orthography which includes some flexibility in the choice of vowel, e.g. gice for gece, aktur for aktır, dir for der. This text is another that seems to have some age to it with strong sufi elements. Erkan Oğur and İsmail H. Demircioğlu recorded a languid, contemplative arrangement (tune written by Demircioğlu) on their 1998 Kalan recording Gülün Kokusu Vardı, which brings out this characteristic. Their recording includes some variations in the text, notably in the last couplet of first verse which they sing as Bu cefayı kendi özüm / Pek mail gördüm yalınız (the accompanying booklet prints cezayı for cefayı but they sing the latter). This verse equates to the text as presented by Ali Haydar Avcı in his work Osmanlı gızlı tarihinde Pir Sultan Abdal ve bütün deyişleri, Noktakitab, 2006 (p. 775).  He also provides another version of these lines: Yüce dağların başında / Kaynadım çoştum yalınız. Both these readings avoid the reference to the three day new moon period of the lunar month mihâk. The singers also discard the 4th verse. The other notable variations to be found refer to the final verse where “the forty” (kırklar) is added to “the three” and “the seven”, replacing Erenler; and Ergun also notes a variant in second line of the third verse, found in mecmua number 40 in the Selim Ağa Kütüphanesi in Üsküdar, which reads: Varsam hayır himmet alsam.

Pir Sultan Abdal: Ey benim dîvane gönlüm

Translation: Paul Koerbin

Hey my foolish heart

I fell upon the mountains alone

This is the reason for this sigh of mine

I saw a time of the new moon alone

There are mountains higher than mountains

Can the soul endure this force

Of my pain for three days and nights

If I speak ceaseless, alone

If I were to reach the foot of the Shah

If I were to take the blessed prayer

If I were to plunge into the Red River

If I were to purl and flow alone

My Shah’s river flows clear

It’s taste more sweet than sugar

There is nothing greater than Allah

God I said and stood alone

I am Pir Sultan those who see tell

Those giving salutation to the saints

The Enlightened by threes and sevens

I came for blessing alone

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Original text from Sadettin Ergun, Pir Sultan Abdal, 1929

Ey benim dîvane gönlüm

Dağlara düştüm yalınız

Bu benim âhım yüzünden

Bir mihâk gördüm yalınız

Dağlara var dağlardan yüce

Can mı dayanır bu güce

Hâlimi üç gün üç gice

Söylesem bitmez yalınız

Şâh’ın ayağına varsam

Hayırlı gülangin alsam

Kızıl ırmaklarına dalsam

Çaglasam aksam yalınız

Şâh’ımın ırmağı aktur

Lezzeti şekerden çoktur

Bir Allah’tan büyük yoktur

Hak didim durdum yalınız

Pir Sultan’ım dir görenler

Pirlere niyaz idenler

Üçler yediler erenler

Mürvete geldim yalınız