24 Sunday May 2009
Posted in Banaz
Looking towards the village while walking over the hill from Topuzlu Baba to the amphitheatre.
View of the Pir Sultan Abdal Şenlikleri site looking towards Yıldız Dağı
Closer view of the amphitheatre
Tolga Sağ performing at the 2007 Pir Sultan Abdal Etkinlikleri
Gülcihan Koç and crowd at Banaz 2007
21 Thursday May 2009
Posted in Translations
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I am the Mirror of All CreationThis is my translation of Aşık İsmail Daimi’s masterpiece deyiş ‘Kainatın Aynasıyım’. Having in the past been pondering the themes found in Alevi deyiş, this is a prominent example of the humanist theme with, as Melih Duygulu notes, the religio-mystical (dini tasavvuf) references never really absent. If not always overt then certainly immanent. This is also a great example of the ability of the mahlas (or mahlas verse) to structure and form the unity of the lyric. The mahlas verse introducing a shift in tone and the humble nature of the subject (the aşık, the human being) reveals the enel-hak (I am God) theme as one that grounds and honours the human being and is no arrogant assertion. Again, there are plenty of challenges in translating this to English, even though this is a modern composition. I could translate the first line (title) as, more simply, “I am the mirror of the cosmos” or “I am the mirror of the universe”, a meaning that kainat certainly has. It also has the sense of “all creation” which I have preferred because, while it conveys the sense of the universal it also has association with the living being among other things. The dilemma of how or if to translate aşık again arises however. While I am inclined to leave it un-translated to leave the multiple meanings of “one seeking to enter the tarikat“, “a minstrel-bard”, and a “lover” intact, I have experimented with “enraptured bards” (for the plural aşıklar) in this translation. I’m not entirely convinced by this and also experimented with “enraptured dervishes” though that did not scan as well. In Daimi’s recording (I think made in the 70’s and available on the album Gücenme Sevdiğim – unfortunately still not released on CD) he omits the second last verse. Interestingly, on the version of the song on the seminal early 1980s recording (by Arif Sağ, Musa Eroğlu and Muhlis Akarsu), Muhabbet 2, the subtle lyric change from “Kuran’ım” to “Kuran’ı” (dropping the personal possessive) is made. Halil Atıkgan in his book Türkülerin İsyanı (Akçağ, 2003: pages 70-72) notes rather more comprehensive changes to the lyric in the TRT “repertoire” (no. 4070) version. You can hear Daimi’s recordng from Gücenme Sevdiğim on YouTube.
Aşık Daimi: Kainatın aynasıyım (I am the mirror of all creation)
Translation: Paul Koerbin
I am the mirror of all creation
Since I am a human being
I am the depth of God’s being
Since I am a human being
Man in God and God in Man
If you seek look in the human
There is no deficiency within Man
Since I am a human being
In me is knowledge in me is scripture
How many are the worlds in me
The writing tablet and pen are in me
Since I am a human being
So much desire wells up within
Comes forth fizzing like fireworks
Let the angels bow to me
Since I am a human being
I can write the Pentateuch
I can arrange the New Testament
I can discern my Quran
Since I am a human being
With my name I am God
With my body I reached God
With my design I resemble God
Since I am a human being
I am Daimi I am desolate
Humble as dust on the feet
I am wine for enraptured bards
Since I am a human being
——————————————————————————————
Kainatın aynasıyım
Mademki ben bir insanım
Hakkın varlık deryasıyım
Mademki ben bir insanım
İnsan hakta hak insanda
Arıyorsan bak insanda
Hiç eksiklik yok insanda
Mademki ben bir insanım
İlim bende kelam bende
Nice nice alem bende
Yazar levhi kalem bende
Mademki ben bir insanım
Bunca temenni dilekler
Vız gelir çarkı felekler
Bana eğilsin melekler
Mademki ben bir insanım
Tevrat’ı yazabilirim
İncil’i dizebilirim
Kuran’ım sezebilirim
Mademki ben bir insanım
Enel Hakkım ismin ile
Hakka erdim cismim ile
Benziyorum resmim ile
Mademki ben bir insanım
Dâimi’yim harap benim
Ayaklarda turap benim
Aşıklara şarap benim
Mademki ben bir insanım
18 Monday May 2009
Posted in Translations
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Kırklar meydanı at Banaz with view towards Yıldız Dağı (Photograph: P. Koerbin, 2002)
This is my translation of one of the few Pir Sultan deyiş that survive from a near contemporary source. The oldest source for Pir Sultan’s poems is the Menâkıb ül-Esrâr Behçet’ül Ahrâr the büyük buyruk or İmam Cafer buyruğu assumed to date from the time of Shah Tahmasp (and possibly the work of Kul Himmet) although the surving manuscripts are early 17th century CE. The Menâkıb includes a small number of nefes (deyiş) although different manuscripts include different poems. Also included are poems by Şah Hatayî (Shah Ismail of Iran) along with Pir Sultan, clearly linking Pir Sultan to the Safavid Kızılbaş (Qizilbash) cause.
This particular lyric is from a manuscript of the Menâkıb that belonged to the the great Turkish literary and sufi historian Abdülbâkî Gölpınarlı and is included in what is still the most useful book on Pir Sultan, published originally in 1943 by Gölpınarlı with the great folklorist Pertev Naili Boratav (with an expanded edition published in 1991). Unfortunately, as has also been lamented by Fuat Bozkurt in his edition of the İmam Cafer-i Sadık Buyruğu, we do not have access to the manuscript that was in Gölpınarlı’s possession, so the details cannot be confirmed or expanded nor the manuscript dated. Gölpınarlı identifies three nefes in his manuscript as being by Pir Sultan. In the editon of the Menâkıb published by Ahmet Taşğın there are only two nefes from Pir Sultan, and they are different to the three given by Gölpınarlı. The manuscript used by Taşğın and produced in (fairly rough) facsimile in his 2003 edition dates from around 1612 or 1613. Anyway this lyric, Serseri girme meydana, gives a good sense of the feisty and robust lyric along with a pithy turn of phrase that seems to be authentic Pir Sultan. The language, as is often the case with this material, is both simple in essence and difficult and elusive in parts. It uses quite a bit of older Turkish and terms associated with the mystical pursuit. I have incorporated what I felt I reasonably could into the English translation, except for meydan (meanıng open space, but specifically the space where the ritual ceremonies are conducted) and aşık, meaning one who wishes to enter the tarikat (mystic order) way.
Pir Sultan Abdal: Serseri Girme Meydana
Translation: Paul Koerbin
Vagrant, don’t enter the meydan
They require conditions from the aşık
Don’t come the high and mighty with deceit
They want affirmation for the outward show
Awake from this somnolent stupor
They require proof of the inner person
From the conversation of every aşık
They require the way with declaration
Those who reach truth play a sure bet
There is no trick attached to this way
Here there are no baubles peddled
They require the ruby and the pearl
They go through parts splitting hairs
They grasp the one way and they go
The don’t count much for mere talk
The condition they require is within
Pir Sultan Abdal what do you do?
You say you have done the hard yards
You are a bee working over the flower
Tomorrow they will require honey from you
—————————————————————————————–
Original text from Gölpınarlı and Boratav, Pir Sultan Abdal (1943)
Serseri girme meydana
Aşıktan ahval isterler
Kallâşlık ile urma dem
Tasdik ehli kal isterler
Uyan bu gaflet hâbından
İsbat isterler bâtından
Her aşıka sohbetinden
İkrar ile yol isterler
Erenler oynar utulmaz
Bu yola hile katılmaz
Bunda harmühre satılmaz
Ya gevher ya la’l isterler
Kılı kırk pâre ederler
Birin yol tutup giderler
Dile n’ itibar ederler
Hâl içinde hâl isterler
Pir Sultan Abdal n’eylersin
Müşkil halledip söylersin
Arısın çiçek yaylarsın
Yarın senden bal isterler
17 Sunday May 2009
Posted in Translations
Here is my translation, with Turkish text, of the version of Pir Sultan’s famous Kul Olayım Kalem Tutan Ellere. This was included on Muhlis Akarsu’s postumous release “Sivas Ellerinde Ömrün Çalınır” recorded and sung by Arif Sağ and Sebahat Aslan. Arif told me that after a funeral service for Sivas victims someone handed him this text and he felt it was the most appropriate response he could make to the events at the time. Obviously written centuries after Pir Sultan lived by Hüseyin Aşkın though based on one of the most famous songs attributed to Pir Sultan Abdal, it forms part of the Pir Sultan tradition. I have heard this version sung in a cem in Australia. Of course much is lost in translation, most obviously the play on names. The mention of Nesimi could refer to the 15th century martyr expecially as it occurs on the same sentence as Haydar (referring to Pir Sultan and/or Imam Ali); or Nesimi could refer to Nesimi Çimen the great ‘working man’s’ aşık and victim of the Sivas massacre. The following line about Akarsu (i.e. Muhlis Akarsu one of the greatest modern aşıks) suffers in translation since the sense of cutting of the flow of the water of life (the meaning of Akarsu is ‘flowing water’) is lost. Similarly the next line refering to yet another victim, the prodigy and catalyst for the performance of şelpe style on the bağlama, Hasret (Gültekin) loses the meaning of hasret as longing or yearning. The reference to ‘Madımak’ in the last verse is a reference to the hotel in Sivas that was burnt down by the the rabble crowd and in which 35 of the victims (33 attending the Festival and 2 hotel employees) died. Translations only serve as an impetus to further and deeper understandings.
Hüseyin Aşkın (after Pir Sultan Abdal): Kul olayım mızrap tutan ellere
I would submit to the hand striking the strings
Scribe, write thus of my condition to the Shah
I would plant a rose where the blood was spilt
Scribe, write thus of my condition to the Shah
In the lands of Sivas your life is struck down
Hearts as hot as embers are broken in two
Separated from my Companion, my heart will break
Scribe, write thus of my condition to the Shah
One of you is called Haydar one Nesimi
They cannot stem your voice my Akarsu
To the world I would mourn aloud my Hasret
Scribe, write thus of my condition to the Shah
In the Madimak the fire reaches the sky
Thirty seven souls are taken all in one
Pir Sultans die and die and will rise again
Scribe, write thus of my condition to the Shah
*****************************************************************************
Original text by Hüseyin Aşkın
Kul olayım mızrap tutan ellere
Katip arzu halim yaz şah’a böyle
Gül dikeyim kan dökülen yerlere
Katip arzu halim yaz şah’a böyle
Sıvas ellerinde ömrün çalınır
Kor yürekler bölük bölük bölünür
Dosttan ayrılmışam bağrım delinir
Katip arzu halim yaz şah’a böyle
Bir ismin Haydar’dır biri Nesimi
Akarsu’yum kesemezler sesini
Hasret’ime duyurayım yasımı
Katip arzu halim yaz şah’a böyle
Madımak’da ateş göğe gerinir
Otuzyedi canın birden alınır
Pir Sultanlar ölür ölür dirilir
Katip arzu halim yaz şah’a böyle
15 Friday May 2009
Posted in Uncategorized
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My favourite Abidin Dino picture. Image taken from volume 23 of the CD releases of Ruhi Su recordings called Uyur İken Uyardılar. Seems to be a representation of the halay dance.
15 Friday May 2009
Posted in Uncategorized
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Picture of Mahzuni’s grave on Çilehane hill above the town of Hacıbektaş taken in July 2002 (he died in May 2002). The grave takes its place among a scattering of monuments honouring Hacı Bektaş Veli, Yunus Emre and Alevi aşıks in general and Pir Sultan in particular.
Since I mentioned it, this is the monument to Pir Sultan or aşıks generally.
11 Monday May 2009
Posted in Uncategorized
Leaving work for a couple of months to concentrate on the thesis isn’t always easy. Had a final task left over to do before switching from web archiving to Pir Sultan Abdal, an opinion piece for ABC news online.
11 Monday May 2009
Posted in Uncategorized
Writing about definitions of deyiş today; the point to be made is that that as a functional term it has a broad scope – and consequently allows for an inclusiveness when composing in this form – while at the same time derives its principle character and meaning from specific Alevi contexts. In a sense itis not about how the lyric form is defined but rather what it signifies – which can be many things but significantly refering back to, or at least inhereting meaning from, more specific sub-genres (duaz, mersiye, tevhid etc), themes and subjects (tarikat principles and beliefs). But the deyiş is in essence a ‘statement’ – demek – and so the poetic identity, in the form of the mahlas, becomes a critical element.
All this going fine until I tried to work out how to have Endnote insert references at the end of the master document rather than in each sub-document. That is yet to be resolved.
07 Tuesday Apr 2009
Posted in Translations
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Cover of original cassette release, 1983
My translation of one of the greatest modern Alevi deyiş, İnsan Olmaya Geldim by Nimri Dede (İsmail Dehmen who died in 1986). Hearing Arif Sağ’s musical arrangement and recording of this song was a revelation to me many years ago and though I could not understand it when I first heard it, it sent me on my path to find out what this music, so full of mystery and poetry, was all about. Remarkably a year or so after hearing this song I walked into a music shop in Şehzadebaşı in Istanbul, played a little of the song on a bağlama only to find that the poet’s grandson was working in the shop! Sercihan Dehmen, a very fine mey/ney/zurna player also, even more remarkably, had a typescript of his grandfather’s deyişler with him; and I was able to get a copy of the original words. The translation below however mostly follows the popular recorded version of the song, by Arif Sağ and others. Nimri Dede’s original line was ‘Mevlana oldum da geldim’ which is changed in the popular version to ‘insan olmaya geldim‘. A few other words were also changed (e.g. ‘kirini‘ to ‘kinini’ in the opening line) and two verses omitted. I have translated Nimri Dede’s original version elsewhere on this blog.
İnsan Olmaya Geldim (I have come to be a human being)
Translation: Paul Koerbin
I cast out the enmity of duality from within me,
In the true self I have come to become a human being.
Establish the throne to the heart of the true ones;
In word I have come to become a human being.
I have laid myself open,
I have come to be a human being.
Whatever love is, it is the essence of the soul;
The true direction to it lies between the eyes.
The work of truth is the tint of strength.
On the face I have come to become a human being.
I have laid myself open,
I have come to be a human being.
What all the teachers have described;
The halting place that the true ones have reached;
Where the Prophets and saints have gone;
In these footsteps I have come to become a human being.
I have laid myself open,
I have come to be a human being.
Sometimes I have considered and sometimes been considered;
How many years have I been attached to a noose;
In the path of love I burned and was consumed;
In the ashes I have come to become a human being.
I have laid myself open,
I have come to be a human being.
At last I have come, drinking the wine of love.
I have chosen each pure beam from the darkness.
The mountains of existence I have pierced and passed over;
On the level I have come to become a human being.
I have laid myself open,
I have come to be a human being.
Behold now what Nimri Dede has done:
Of the true love to every heart he has sung;
To all manner of corruption he has bid farewell;
On the saz I have come to become a human being.
I have laid myself open,
I have come to be a human being.
Nimri Dede
(Ismail Dehmen d. 1986)
Nimri Dede (d. 1986) photograph from İsmail Onarlı’s book ‘Şeyh Hasan Aşireti’
07 Tuesday Apr 2009
Posted in Banaz
When I last visited Banaz in 2007 there was a new memorial erected to the 2nd July 1993 Sivas victims. The memorial includes a sculpture of doves – one for each of the victims – and a stele with the names of the 33 ‘Alevi souls’ killed. The number of victims of the Sivas massacre is often confused and variously given as 37, 35 or 33. As in the Banaz memorial the 33 people associated with the Pir Sultan Abdal festival are commonly honoured and named by Alevis. The memorial also notes the death of two employees (though not named) of the Otel Madımak. Two others, making up the 37, were killed outside the hotel from among the rioters.
PİR SULTAN ABDAL and me 