Cennet Mağarası (grotto of heaven in near Narlıkuyu in Mersin Province)
This is probably Aşık İbreti’s most famous deyiş and the one that gives the title to collection of İbreti’s works prepared by Adil Ali Atalay (Vaktidolu) and published under the title İlme Değer Verdim by Can Yayınları in 1996. This title reflects the influence of the performed rather than the published version of the deyiş since the phrase “ilme değer verdim” does not actually appear in the published text. The title given the lyric is ‘Gördümde geldim’ and the opening line is “ilme hizmet edip uykudan kalktım”. The popular version as recorded by Musa Eroğlu on his 1994 recording Yolver Dağlar sharpens the focus of the words reducing the verses from five to three (a common performance practice) singing only the first and last two verses. A number of changes are made to the words in Eroğlu’s performance. Besides the small change from hizmet to değer in the opening line most notable changes are in the second last verse with the change of softa to yobaz which gives it a stronger invective and the substantially changed last two lines. The performed version has a somewhat more straightforward and clarifying sentiment replacing the original metonymical lines with “cahil cühalaya edemem minnet / bütün zincirleri kırdımda geldim”.
Aşık İbreti whose real name was Hıdır Gürel (1920-1976) was one of the finest mid-twentieth century Alevi ozans and his lyrics are sharp, passionate and with a great feeling for the central place of the human. Musa Eroğlu’s recording is worth a listening too and may surprise those looking for the exotic in Turkish music. The arrangement using bağlama, guitar and bass guitar is wonderfully engaging, appropriate and sympathetic to the lyric.
Note: I revised this translation in February 2018. Mostly some subtleties and refinements; not changes of substantive meaning.
Aşık İbreti: Gördümde geldim (İlme değer verdim)
Translation: Paul Koerbin
I gave myself to knowledge and awoke from sleep
I let go of the turban and the prayer mat
I was tired of the daily preaching of sermons
I came and tossed Ramadan to the torrent
As long as I was angry inside my grief increased
Listen, the matter of the Hajj was another worry
The rich were just about the only ones who went
I came and saw while they were stoning Satan
I placed the Four Books in a suspended bag
I ceased my interest in the heavenly Houris
I fell mute thinking – don’t believe the conjuring Hodja
I came to the point of giving them no attention
I don’t entertain the distractions of the next world
I have consideration for the concerns of humanity
For the illusion of heaven’s private garden
I came and banished the mob of bigots
Ibreti – my desire is service to humankind
My wife is my Houri, my home is my heaven
There remains no obligation to the Hajji and the Hodja
I came and broke the rosary and cruet
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Original text from Aşık İbreti İlme Değer Verdim prepared by Adil Ali Atalay Vaktidolu (Can Yayınları, 1996)
İlme hizmet edip uykudan kalktım
Sarık, seccadeyi elden bıraktım
Vaizın her günkü vazından bıktım
Ramazanı sele verdim de geldim
Karnım acıktıkça kederim arttı
Hele hac kaygısı ayrı bir dertti
Paralılar hemen hac’ oldu gitti
Şeytanı taşlarken gördüm de geldim
Dört kitabı koyup torbaya astım
Cennet hurisinden ilgimi kestim
Muskacı hocaya sanmayın sustum
Ağzının payını verdim de geldim
Aklım ermez ahret eğlencesine
Saygım var insanın düşüncesine
Hayal cennetinin has bahçesine
Softa sürüsünü sürdüm de geldim
İbreti, emelim insana hizmet
Eşim bana huri, evim de cennet
Hacıya, hocaya kalmadı minnet
Irbığı, tesbihi kırdım da geldim
This deyiş appears in Ergun’s 1929 collection of Pir Sultan’s lyrics and again in Gölpınarlı and Boratav’s 1943 edition where the source is given as Ergun, although with a couple of slight changes. In the first line of the 4th verse Ergun has Mağripte (Mağrib = Magreb, the West) while Gölpınarlı/Boratav give Meydana; and in the 3rd verse Ergun has küçük gazili while Gölpınarlı/Boratav have köçek gazili. The version used for my translation is from Memet Fuat (1999 reprint edition) who follows Ergun in regards to Mağripte (well almost, since he has the ablative Mağriğtan rather than the locative) and Gölpınarlı/Boratav in regards to köçek (both versions give the sense of a novice entering the tarikat). This deyiş is a good example of a theme found in the lyrics of Pir Sultan – the hope and expectation of the coming of the Shah, in this case the temporal ruler. It is for such allegiances that the kızılbaş were pursued by the Ottoman authorities. The word Urum refers to the land of ‘Rum’, Anatolia, the Ottoman lands. Three generations of the Safavids are referred to in the lyric (as Fuat notes): Shah Tahmasp is the ‘beautiful leader’ who is expected; and he is the ‘Shah’s son’, that is the son of Shah Ismail, the first Safavid ruler, while ‘Old Haydar’ refers to Ismail’s father and Tahmasp’s grandfather. The mahlas verse reveals that this expectation may be but a wish of Pir Sultan’s.