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PİR SULTAN ABDAL and me

~ A personal reflection on the great Alevi poet's lyric works and influence – mostly through translation

PİR SULTAN ABDAL and me

Category Archives: Translations

Translations into English of Turkish deyişler by Paul Koerbin

Aşık İbreti ‘Gördümde geldim’ (İlme değer verdim)

20 Sunday Jun 2010

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Adil Ali Atalay Vadidolu, Aşık İbreti, Musa Eroğlu

Walking in Cennet

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

———————————————————————————————————————

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

Pir Sultan Abdal ‘Şu kanlı zalimin ettiği işler’

07 Monday Jun 2010

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Ali Baba, Ali Haydar Avcı, Annemarie Schimmel, Aşık Ali İzzet, Feyzullah Çınar, Gölpınarlı, Hızır Paşa, Mansur al-Hallaj, Pertev Naili Boratav, İbrahim Aslanoğlu

Pir Sultan statue at Çilehane hill at HacıbektaşA song dealing with the demise of Pir Sultan as he proceeds to his execution while Hızır Paşa – the bloody tyrant referreed to – orders the people to cast stones at him. Legend has it that Pir Sultan’s friend, Ali Baba, tossed a rose; a dissembling act that wounds Pir Sultan the deepest. This of course, as Gölpınarlı and Boratav (1943) the first to publish the text note, revisits the story associated with the martyrdom of Mansur al-Hallaj in 922 when his friend Shibli threw a rose when the people began to stone Hallaj. As Annemarie Schimmel describes it (Mystical Dimensions of Islam, 1975), when Shibli did this Hallaj sighed since those who threw stones did not know what they were doing, but Shibli did. And this has much the same theme in the Pir Sultan context – it is the betrayal that wounds.

Aslanoğlu  (1984) rejects this as a Pir Sultan text and claims it as a composite of verses from Aşık Hüseyin and Tarsuslu Sıkdı. I have not been able to locate the full text of Aşık Hüseyin although Avcı gives a mahlas verse from Aşık Hüseyin (probably 18th century) from a mecmua provided by Adil Ali Atalay that reads: ‘Hüseyin’im eyder can göğe ağmaz / Hakk’tan emr’olmazsa ırahmet yağmaz / Şu illerin sözü hiç bana değmez  / İlle dostun sözü yareler beni‘ (Ali Haydar Avcı Osmanlı gızlı tarihinden Pir Sultan Abdal, 2006 p. 342-343).  Tarsuslu Sıdkı Aslanoğlu refers to Aşık Sıdkı (Pervane) and a text is found in the major collection of Sıdkı’s lyrics compiled by his grandson Muhsin Gül (1984) that bears some similarity. Indeed a number of Sıdkı’s lyrics do bear the language of some of the most renowned lyrics attributed to Pir Sultan including Gelin canlar bir olalım and Kul olayım kalem tutan eller. The source of the text published in Gölpınarlı and Boratav is Aşık Ali İzzet who was forthcoming in his openness about attributing texts as he felt appropriate (see again Ali Haydar Avcı’s monumental work Osmanlı gızlı tarihinden Pir Sultan Abdal (2006 p. 236-351) for a consideration of Ali İzzet’s influence in respect to these lyrics). So Aslanoğlu’s assertion may have merit – but only so far, since it remains without question an important and fixed text of the Pir Sultan of tradition. It is sung to a fine tune, and perhaps the finest recording is that by Feyzullah Çınar made in Paris for Radio France in 1971 under the sponsorship of the late Irene Melikoff.

Pir Sultan Abdal: ‘Şu kanlı zalimin ettiği işler’

Translation: Paul Koerbin

Those blood tainted tyrant’s deeds

Make me moan like a lonely nightingale

Stones rain down like a torrent upon me

But it is the friend’s mere pinch that wounds me

Friend and foe are revealed in my dire straits

My troubles that once were ten are now fifty

The order for my death is fixed to my neck

So let them strike me down or let them hang me

I am Pir Sultan Abdal my soul does not flee

If not decreed by God mercy does not rain down

The stones of those strangers will never touch me

But it’s the rose of that friend that wounds me 

————————————————————————————————————-

Şu kanlı zalimin ettiği işler

Garip bülbül gibi zareler beni

Yağmur gibi yağar başıma taşlar

Dostun bir fiskesi yaralar beni

Dar günümde dost düşmanım bell’oldu

On derdim var ise şimdi ell’oldu

Ecel fermanı boynuma takıldı

Gerek asa gerek vuralar beni

 

Pir Sultan Abdal’ım can göğe ağmaz

Hak’tan emr olmazsa irahmet yağmaz

Şu illerin taşı hiç bana değmez

İlle dostun gülü yaralar beni 

 

Kul Himmet ‘Allah bir Muhammed Ali diyerek’ (Düaz-ı imam)

23 Sunday May 2010

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Arif Sağ, Cahit Öztelli, Düaz-ı imam, Kul Himmet, Shahrbanu, Tolga Sağ, Translation, Şehriban

Istanbul Maarif edition cover 1966While working on a chapter of my PhD devoted to identity issues concerning Kul Himmet and Kul Himmet Üstadım for the thesis it seemed a good time to introduce Kul Himmet to the blog. Kul Himmet ranks with Şah Hatayi and Pir Sultan as the third in the triumvirate of great lyric and didactic Alevi poets. Even less about Kul Himmet is known than of Pir Sultan and certainly Hatayi (Shah Ismail). We do generally understand from the internal evidence of the deyişler that Kul Himmet was the murid (disciple) of Pir Sultan and provides the connection to another great aşık of Alevi ritual culture, Kul Hüseyin; also that he was educated. I will leave the issue of Kul Himmet Üstadım for another day.

This düaz-ı imam is another favourite of Alevi expressive culture. In performance it is sung to a powerful and deeply mysterious melody, somewhat unusually for Alevi music using a garip tetrachord for the lower part of the melody; although this modulates to the hüseyni ayağı for the third, sixth and ninth verses. The tune can be heard in the opening of the unbearably tragic film Journey of Hope.

The main difficulties in translation arise from names and some specific Alevi concepts that are reluctantly translated. For example, what to do with ‘erenler‘? My instinct is to leave as Erens, but I try a translation of ‘enlightened‘. A good translation for ‘vird‘ continues to elude. I have succombed to ‘prayer’ but not happily. This düaz goes beyond the twelve imams and brings in other identities such as Kanber, Salman and Fatma and the especially interesting Bibi Shahrbanu (Şehriban). Will perhaps add some explanation later.

Interestingly the earliest printed version of this text in Besim Atalay’s Bektaşilik ve Edebiyat (1924; republished in modern Turkish translation by Vedat Atila in 1991) does not take the form of a düaz-ı imam and does not include reference to the twelve imams though it does retain the references to Fatma, Şehriban and İmam Hüseyin. The text translated here is from Cahit Öztelli’s Pir Sultan’ın Dostları (2nd ed 1996) with one change to the order of the verses. The verse beginning “İmam Zeynel paralandı, bölündü” appears in Öztelli as the second last verse. Following the recordings by Arif and Tolga Sağ I have moved this to the fifth verse where it makes more sense logically and chronologically in respect to the invocation of the imams.

Kul Himmet ‘Ali bir Muhammed Ali diyerek’ (Düaz-ı imam)

Translation: Paul Koerbin

Every morning the birds sound together

Saying Allah is one, Muhammad, Ali

The nightingale begins a lament for the rose

Saying Allah is one, Muhammad, Ali

Our fate shall turn upon the direction we face

Veysel Karani went to the land of Yemen

We are bees and we fly off for almighty manna

Saying Allah is one, Muhammad, Ali

Let us endure mourning for the Imams

Hear the true voice of the enlightened

Imam Hasan drank the poisoned challice

Saying Allah is one, Muhammad, Ali

The one who seeks is sifted through a fine mesh

The one who believes turns to the True way

Shah Hüseyin was soaked in scarlet blood

Saying Allah is one, Muhammad, Ali

Imam Zeynel was torn to pieces and portioned

Humble respect was given to the Imam Bakir

The essence of direction was given to Cafer-i Sadık

Saying Allah is one, Muhammad, Ali

The heart is a bird’s ramshackle nest

The Shah’s desire become our prayers

The prayer of Kâzım, Musa, Ali Rıza

Saying Allah is one, Muhammad, Ali

Shah Taki and Naki went on as light

Hasan-ül Askerî went on as the brave

The Mehdi went on mysterious in the cave

Saying Allah is one, Muhammad, Ali

Kanber, Salman, Fatma stood for the prayer

Shahrbanu was stripped and mounted on the camel

Jesus was distressed and passed unto the air

Saying Allah is one, Muhammad, Ali

Four books were written and passed to four faiths

The Kuran became Muhammed’s prayers

Kul Himmet passed to the sorrow of his saint

Saying Allah is one, Muhammad, Ali

—————————————————————————-

Original text from Cahit Öztelli Pir Sultan’ın Dostları (2nd ed. 1996)

Her sabah her sabah ötüşür kuşlar

Allah bir Muhammed Ali diyerek

Bülbül de gül içün figana başlar

Allah bir Muhammed Ali diyerek

Kıblemizden kısmetimiz verile

Veysel’kara gitdi Yemen iline

Arıyız uçarız kudret balına

Allah bir Muhammed Ali diyerek

Biz çekelim İmamların yasını

İşit gerçek erenlerin sesini

İmam Hasan içdi ağu tasını

Allah bir Muhammed Ali diyerek

Tâlib olan ince elekden elendi

Mümin olan Hak yoluna dolandı

Şah Hüseyin al kanlara boyandı

Allah bir Muhammed Ali diyerek

İmam Zeynel paralandı, bölündü

Ol İmam Bâkır’a yüzler sürüldü

Cafer-i Sadık’a erkân verildi

Allah bir Muhammed Ali diyerek

Gönül kuşun Kalb evinde yuvası

Virdimize düşdü Şah’ın havası

Kâzım, Musa, Ali Rıza duası

Allah bir Muhammed Ali diyerek

Şah Takî’yle Nakî nur oldu gitdi

Hasan-ül Askerî er oldu gitdi

Mehdî mağarada sır oldu gitdi

Allah bir Muhammed Ali diyerek

Kenber, Selman, Fatma durdu duaya

Şehriban soyundu, bindi deveye

İsâ kahreyledi, çıkdı havaya

Allah bir Muhammed Ali diyerek

Dört kitap yazıldı, dört dine düşdü

Kur’an Muhammed’in virdine düşdü

Kul Himmet pîrinin derdine düşdü

Allah bir Muhammed Ali diyerek

Sefil Selimi ‘İnsana muhabbet duyalı (bana yer kalmaz)’

11 Tuesday May 2010

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Arif Sağ, Feyzullah Çınar, Mahmut Erdal, Sefil Selimi, Translation, Şarkışla

This deyiş is one of my favourites since first hearing it on Arif Sağ’s 1983 masterwork, İnsan Olmaya Geldim, where he performs it with an accompaniment of restrained intimacy and intricacy on the bağlama. It was only recently that I learned that the musical arrangement is in fact by Feyzullah Çınar and heard his recording on the album Aşkın Çilesi. Hearing the way Sağ develops Çınar’s arrangement, particularly in the instrumental bridges between verses,  into an intricate bağlama ornamentation only heightens my admiration for Sağ’s interpretive mastery. It is interesting to note the different emphasis given the lyric by the titles the performers give the song: Sağ (and Sabahat Akkiraz who also recorded the song in 1984) title it ‘İnsana muhabbet duyalı’ (Since feeling love for humanity) while Çınar titles it on his recording ‘Bana yer kalmaz‘ (There is no place for me).

Sefil Selimi, whose real name was Ahmet Günbulut (1932-2003), was born in Şarkışla a place renowned for great aşıks, both Aşık Veysel and Aşık Ali İzzet both coming from this area. Selimi was not from an Alevi family but many of his lyrics show a great interest and empathy with Alevi culture and belief and his work has received reciprocal respect from Alevis. Mahmut Erdal in his book Yine Dertli Dertli İniliyorsun mentions being given a manuscript of Selimi’s by İhsan Öztürk in which, some time later when he looked at the poems, he recognised the remarkable talent and picks out this lyric as an example.

The text given here for my translation of all five verses is taken from Uğur Kaya’s book Şiirleri ve türküleriyle Aşık Sefil Selimî (Sivas, 2001). The recorded versions use only the 1st, 2nd and 5th verses although in this wonderful live recording of Sağ and Akkiraz performing the song together (which looks to be around the mid-1980s) Sağ includes the 4th verse. There are some variations in the versions which are mostly minor and don’t affect the meaning. The main differences affect the 2nd line of the 3rd verse which also occurs as ‘Ne bir hatır sorar, göz yaşım siler in the versin‘ in Erdal (and also in Bekir Karadeniz’s book Elâ Gözlüm); and the 2nd line of the 4th verse which Karadeniz gives as: Kapıya bacaya konmaz dediler.

Sefil Selimi ‘İnsana muhabbet duyalı’

Translation: Paul Koerbin

I have no friends nor any to help me

Since I dressed in the cloak of bravery

Were the world entirely empty there is no place for me

Since I felt love for humankind

My belief is monarch, my conceit is captive

I loved the Sacred Lineage, they said I’m at fault

Some speak cowardly, some bravely

Since I pastured the sheep with the wolf

Those striking my back smile at my face

They scarcely share the butchered morsels

Everyone whets their knife on my neck

Since I presented myself to the open

‘These are Kızılbaş, unwashed’, they say

‘Their sacrifice is forbidden, inedible’, they say

‘They don’t halt at a mosque, great or small’, they say

Since I set out to follow the Shah Imam Hüseyin

Often some seek written proof in me

Not knowing the condition, ask of my forbears

Friends, some decide on my death

Since I called myself Sefil Selimi

——————————————————————————————————–

Original text from Uğur Kaya Şiirleri ve türküleriyle Aşık Sefil Selimî (Sivas, 2001)

Kimse bana yaren olmaz, yar olmaz

Mertlik hırkasını giydim giyeli

Dünya bomboş olsa, bana yer kalmaz

İnsana muhabbet duydum duyalı

İmanım hükümdar, benliğim esir

Ehl-i Beyt’i sevdim, dediler kusur

Kimisi korkak der, kimisi cesur

Kurt ile koyunu yaydım yayalı

Ardımdan vuranlar, yüzüme güler

Kestiği az gibi parçalar böler

Herkes kılıcını boynumda biler

Başımı meydana koydum koyalı

‘Bu Kızılbaş olmuş, yunmaz’ diyorlar

‘Kestiği haramdır, yenmez’ diyorlar

‘Camiye mescide konmaz’ diyorlar

İmam Şah Hüseyn’e uydum uyalı

Çoğu, bende kağıt hüccet arıyor

Hâl bilmeyen, dip dedemi soruyor

Dostlar, ölümüme karar veriyor

‘Sefil Selimî’yem’ dedim diyeli

Pir Sultan Abdal ‘Seher vaktı kalkan kervan’

11 Sunday Apr 2010

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Davut Suları, Gölpınarlı, Translation, İbrahim Aslanoğlu

This deyiş is a fine example of an ostensibly simple lyric that is as keenly wrought as a knife. It evokes the Anatolian highlands in austere and simple terms  as only lyrics attributed to Pir Sultan seem to do, in straigthforward even conventional language with common mystical images of rose gardens, departing caravans and distant beauties. Then within the space of four short verses (and  in the sparce eight syllable metre) the lyric darkens with the appearance of the rival or enemy (‘engel‘) and proceeds to a defiant even violent close – remarkable stuff.

The first publication of the lyric is in Gölpınarlı and Boratav (1943) from which I have taken the text for translation (though it includes a typographic error that is perpetuated in the 1991 reprint). Boratav gives the source as Hamdi Bayran son of Ahı from Öyük village in the Şarkışla region of Sivas. The song has, perhaps, a stronger Erzincan resonance however due to the unmatchable version performed by Davut Sulari on his 1974 recording Üç Telli Turnam. Sulari’s clear and energetic performance is perfectly suited to the lyric. His version is slightly different from the printed versions in Gölpınarlı and Boratav and later Aslanoğlu (1984), but curiously the version printed in Erzincan Türküleri by Fahri Taş and Salih Turhan (2004) in which Sulari is given as the source follows the text of the earlier printed versions rather than that of the recorded version by Sulari.

Pir Sultan Abdal ‘Seher vaktı kalkan kervani

Translation: Paul Koerbin

Day dawns and the caravan sets out

Moaning and lamenting

The heart falling for a beauty

Blossoms and is safely tended

In our garden roses bloom

On the branch nightingales sing

A rival comes and adds his piece

The one doing the deed remains behind

The nightingale comes to land on the branch

The nightingale has no reproach for the rose

The rival casts a stone at the lake

The duck swimming there is wounded

Pir Sultan Abdal let us pass over

Let us drink wine from the hand of the Pir

Let us flee from the one who refutes

One day the denier will be torn to pieces

———————————————————————————————————-

Original text from Gölpınarlı and Boratav (1943)

Seher vaktı kalkan kervan

İniler de zaralanır

Bir güzele düşen gönül

Çiçeklenir korulanır

Bahçenizde güller biter

Dalında dülbüller [sic, i.e. bülbüller] öter

Engel gelir bir kal katar

Olan işler gerilenir

Bülbül geldi kondu dala

Bülbülden hata yok güle

Engel bir taş atar göle

Yüzen ördek yaralanır

Pir Sultan Abdal göçelim

Pir elinden bad’ içelim

İnkâr olandan kaçalım

İnkâr bir gün paralanır

Pir Sultan Abdal ‘Ben dervişim diye göğsün açarsın’

26 Friday Feb 2010

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Besim Atalay, Dervish, Gölpınarlı, Memet Fuat, Translation

The earliest appearance of this deyiş in print is in Bektaşilik ve edebiyatı by Besim Atalay (1882-1965) published in 1924. Gölpınarlı and Boratav (1943) also include the text indicating the sources as Atalay and cönk in the possession of Gölpınarlı. One of the dilemmas for this translation is whether or not to translate the terms mürşid and rehber. While these terms have quite specific connotation in Alevi ritual culture they are to some sufficient degree translatable. I have have therefore translated them, capitalising the terms ‘Teacher’ – not a fully adequate term; perhaps ‘Master’ may be better? – and ‘Guide’ to indicate that the terms have specific rather generic meaning. As Mehmet Fuat (Pir Sultan Abdal, 1999 ed.)  notes in respect to the third line of the second verse – which is somewhat awkward to translate – the reference is to smoking out bees from the hive in order to secure the honey. Fuat also gives guidance in respect to the last line of the lyric which refers to the practice of the novice dervish being brought before the Mürşid during the confirmation ceremony to enter the tarikat and the Mürşid takes the dervish’s right hand in his right hand while the dervish holds the skirt (etek) of the Mürşid with his left hand.

This deyiş has obvious connections to one of the oldest attributable lyrics to the person of Pir Sultan Serseri girme meydana in its theme and imagery.

The curious photograph of the ‘dervish’ is from Alma Wittlin’s book Abdul Hamid: the shadow of God (English translation published by John Lane in 1940).

Pir Sultan Abdal ‘Ben dervişim diye göğsün açarsın’

Translation: Paul Koerbin

You stick out your chest saying ‘I am a dervish’

Do you have the tongue to invoke God?

Look to yourself, what do you want from strangers?

Do you have the strength to reach the state of ecstasy?

Like a fish one day they will ensnare you in a net

They will question you about your Teacher and Guide

Lighting incense, sending you scattering, they will seek

‘I am a bee’ you say – do you have honey?

Do those without affliction complain?

Does a shrewd dervish turn from his vow?

Do all creatures of the air light on a rose branch?

‘I am a nightingale’ you say – do you have a rose?

I am Pir Sultan, your affliction is not laid bare

Those without affliction don’t confront suffering

The ways are not passed over without the Teacher and Guide

Do you have your hand on the Teacher’s cloak?

———————————————————————————————–

Original text from Gölpınarlı and Boratav (1943)

Ben dervişim diye göğsün açarsın

Hakkı zikretmeğe dilin var mıdır

Sen kendi görsene ilde n’ararsın

Hâli hâl etmeğe hâlin var mıdır

Bir gün balık gibi ağa sararlar

Mürşidinden rehberinden sorarlar

Tütsü yakıp köşe köşe ararlar

Ben arıyım dersin balın var mıdır

Dertli olmıyanlar derde yanar mı

Tahkik derviş ikrarından döner mi

Her bir uçan gül dalına konar mı

Ben bülbülüm dersin gülün var mıdır

Pir Sultan’ım senin derdin deşilmez

Derdi olmıyanlar derde duş olmaz

Mürşitsiz rehbersiz yollar açılmaz

Mürşit eteğinde elin var mıdır

Türkü ‘Küstürdüm barışamam (dert bende)’

18 Thursday Feb 2010

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Arif Sağ, Erzincan, Muhabbet, türkü, Translation

 

near_erzincan

View south towards mountains on approach to Erzincan

This song is a somewhat unusual inclusion here as my focus is Alevi deyiş while this is an anonymous türkü (folksong) from Erzincan. Not withstanding the fact that türkü is sometimes used as an all embracing term that includes deyiş, structurally they are different. This türkü has a metre of seven syllables while deyiş commonly have eleven or eight syllables. There is the refrain (bağlantı) which is more common in türkü and the absence of a mahlas. That said, the personal quality of this lyric suggests that a mahlas would not be out of place should an additional verse turn up. It is interesting that this is the opening song on the first of the renowned and influential Muhabbet series of recordings instigated in the mid-1980s by Arif Sağ, who also sings this song on that recording. On the evidence of his recordings Sağ has a particular fondness for songs from the Erzincan region, especially those from the Çayırlı (Erzincan) aşık Davut Sulari – and indeed he has said himself that even at the age of six he exerted himself to see Sulari (Değirmenin Bendine p. 40). This is perhaps not surprising given that Sağ is from Aşkale on the Erzincan side of Erzurum. By opening the Muhabbet series with this song Sağ declares his roots and the sound, mood and performance style of these recordings. This is one of the most bleak and beautiful Turkish folksongs, certainly as performed by Sağ. The source of the song, Erzincanlı Şerif (Tanındı) – although Bekir Karadeniz published a version with Sulari given as the source (Ela Gözlüm Türküler, p. 229) – performs it with a bit more swagger and with and instrumental colour (clarinet, violin, percussion etc). But it is in Sağ’s version that the stark and haunting qualities of the song are truly revealed.

This video shows Arif Sağ and Belkıs Akkale  performing the song (sort of) in 1983.

Küstürdüm barışamam (dert bende)

Translation: Paul Koerbin

I caused offence and cannot be reconciled

I have parted and cannot meet again

I opened my eye and I saw you

I cannot speak among strangers

I am suffering, I am unfortunate

I am suffering, I am unfortunate

Nothing can be done for the pain within

Like the birds without a nest

I’ve become scattered and confused

I pursued her to this mountain’s end

I awoke to the voice of my love

She is a partridge and I a hunter

And so I followed after her

I am suffering, I am unfortunate

I am suffering, I am unfortunate

Nothing can be done for the pain within

Like the birds without a nest

I became scattered and confused

I am estranged, my mate is estranged

My mate my fellow traveller is estranged

I do not grieve for my dying

My stone on the grave is abandoned

I am suffering, I am unfortunate

I am suffering, I am unfortunate

Nothing can be done for the pain within

Like the birds without a nest

I became scattered and confused

———————————————————————————-

Küstürdüm barışamam

Ayrıldım kavuşamam

Göz açtım seni gördüm

Yad ilen konuşamam

Dert bende kara bende

Dert bende kara bende

Eylenmez yare bende

Yuvasız kuşlar gibi

Olmuşum perâkende

Bu dağın ensesine

Uyandım yar sesine

Yar kekliktir ben avcı

Düşmüşüm ensesine

Dert bende kara bende

Dert bende kara bende

Eylenmez yare bende

Yuvasız kuşlar gibi

Olmuşum perâkende

Ben garip eşim garip

Eşim yoldaşım garip

Öldüğüme gam yemem

Mezarda taşım garip

Dert bende kara bende

Dert bende kara bende

Eylenmez yare bende

Yuvasız kuşlar gibi

Olmuşum perâkende

Aşık Sarıcakız ‘Düzen, yokluk açlık, zulüm‘

09 Tuesday Feb 2010

Posted by koerbin in Translations

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Asık İhsani, Aşık Sarıcakız, Nimri Dede, Translation

On the Scent of Reform and Revolution

Browsing through the 2002 edition of the anthology of deyiş and türkü compiled by Aşık İhsani (originally published in the politically volatile 1970s, that is in 1974) with the title Ozan Dolu Anadolu my eye caught this lyric, with its invocation of Pir Sultan as the symbol of oppression and revolution,  from Aşık Saracıkız (b. 1948, real name İlkin Manya). I have already mentioned Aşık Sarıcakız in regard to the possible inspiration she provided to Nimri Dede in the composition of one of his finest deyiş Özde ben mevlana oldum da geldim. The lyric is quite simple and unambiguous in its content but not without the odd challenge for translation.  Most obviously the refrain line has some interest. The repeat of devrim, which most overtly means ‘revolution’, especially in the context of the political nature of the lyric suggests the repetition of ‘revolution’ in the translation. However the repetition also provides the translator with the opportunity to suggest the wider meaning of the original word, so instead of repeating ‘revolution’ I have tried a translation of ‘reform and revolution’. The word kokar (kokmak) means “to smell” or to “to have a smell”, but it can also mean that “something is at hand” or “a sign of something about to happen” which is, I think a relevant meaning here. However, as the context of the third verse makes clear we should not abandon the basic meaning: roses clearly have scent. I think the English phrase “have a scent” or “give a scent” carry enough of the meaning of “something is at hand” to work well in this context.

The line “Nâzımların yön verdiği” is an nice play on names and meaning that is not straightforward in translation. The word ‘nazım‘ (without circumflex over the ‘a’) means ‘verse(s)’. With the circumflex over the ‘a’ ‘nâzım‘ means one who sets things in order or composes (verse) – a versifier, a poet. But this, in the political context of the song, is clearly also an reference to great modern Turkish Communist poet Nâzım Hikmet. The plural form in the lyric here suggests the class of poets like Nâzım Hikmet. I felt the allusion strong enough to put this in the translation. Other subtleties are however lost, such as the use of the word ‘teller‘ in the last line which I have translated as ‘strings’ – which is clearly correct – following the reference to Sarıcakız’s lute (saz). Sadly the hint of an allusion to the bird’s feathers connecting it to the first line of the last verse is lost.

The most troubling line for me was the first line of the third verse “İnsanların her çağında”. The meaning is clear enough – something like ‘people (or human beings) in every age’ – but to get it to an acceptable English equivalent that will work with the verse is a challenge. I tried lines like “in all ages of humanity”, but clearly that was not going to last. My current translation “in people throughout time” does not follow the grammar correctly but I think does give an acceptable sense of the meaning of the line.

Aşık Sarıcakız:Düzen, yokluk açlık, zulüm

Translation: Paul Koerbin

The system, poverty and hunger, oppression

Conditions have the scent of reform and revolution

If talk of truths is silenced

Tongues get the scent of reform and revolution

As Pir Sultan gave his life

As Nâzım’s verses gave direction

As the books demonstrated

The ways have the scent of reform and revolution

In people throughout time

In the exalted and in the lowly

In the garden of democracy

Roses have the scent of reform and revolution

In the cry of the nightingale

In the entreaty of truths

On the saz of Sarıcakız

Strings have the scent of reform and revolution

———————————————————————————————–

Original version from Aşık İhsani Ozan Dolu Anadolu Antoloji,2002

Düzen, yokluk açlık, zulüm

Haller devrim devrim kokar

Gerçeklere sus denirse

Diller devrim devrim kokar

Pirsultan’ın can verdiği

Nâzımların yön verdiği

Kitapların gösterdiği

Yollar devrim devrim kokar

İnsanların her çağında

Yükseğinde alçağında

Demokrasinin bağında

Güller devrim devrim kokar

Bülbüllerin avazında

Gerçeklerin niyazında

Sarıcakız’ın sazında

Teller devrim devrim kokar

Dertli Divani ‘Diktiğimiz fidanlar (sana ne bana ne)’

06 Saturday Feb 2010

Posted by koerbin in Translations

≈ 6 Comments

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Dertli Divani, deyiş, Halil Atılgan, Serçeşme, Translation

A. Aykut, P. Koerbin, Dertli Divani, M. Kılçık. V. Ulusoy (Postnişin), Sydney 2007

This is one of the most well known and performed deyiş of Dertli Divani (real name Veli Aykut, born 1962 in Kısas near Şanlıurfa). Divani is arguably the most important living Alevi aşık and a remarkable individual who straddles, with ease, the worlds of the Alevi source culture and that of the modern recording artist. He is also tireless in his efforts to explain and promote an understanding of the true nature and spirit of Alevi culture to as wide an audience as possible. Divani is from dede lineage (his father is the late Aşık Büryani)  and leads cem services in Turkey (Kısas, Nurhak, Banaz) and throughout the world (Europe, North America and in Australia) and is the source and composer of many of the finest Alevi lyrics of the last quarter century. Though clearly he has the ambition to make Alevi culture widely understood his lyrics are still deeply mystical and present challenges for the translator, even more overtly social lyrics such as this one.

This deyiş is somewhat remarkable for the fact that it has a refrain (bağlantı) that introduces new text – many deyiş when sung introduce refrains though more commonly they are repetitions of the words of the verses. Adding to the interesting form is the fact that the verses are in 8 syllable metre while the refrain is in 11 syllable metre. While I generally aim to translate deyiş line by line, in this case it is necessary in some parts to treat two lines together for the purpose of coherence in the translation. Another difficulty was what to do with the “ne … ne” construction particularly in the first refrain. This construction normally means “neither … nor” though the conjuctions are usually placed before the words to which they refer, not after them as in this lyric. For this reason I have read “ne” in this instance as its other meaning of “what” which makes more sense in the theme of the lyric. In the last refrain I was tempted to use the word “wayfarer” for “yolcu” to pick up on the assonance of the Turkish, as in “the wayfarer who does not take the way” – but I did not completely convince myself of the desirability of this. I did, however, for good or ill, fall for the use of “hence”, in its archaic mean of “from here/this” for a translation of “bundan“.

Divani recorded the lyric on his album Serçeşme and in a repeat of the third line of the second verse he replaces “yârin” (beloved) with “pirin” (spiritual guide) as he does also in this live performance of the deyiş.  The text given below is from Kısaslı Aşıklar by Halil Atılgan published in Şanlıurfa in 1992. The text printed in the CD/cassette booklet for Serçeşme is the same. Curiously in a later publication by Atılgan (with Mehmet Acet) titled Harran’da Bir Türkmen Köyü Kısas published by the T.C. Kültür Bakanlığı in 2001, the last line includes an odd reading (or editorial mistake) contracting “Şaha ne” to “şahane” (royal, regal, magnificent).

Update #1: Again my most dedicated reader, Olga, has made some very pertinent and helpful comments (see comments section). She has articulated the theme of the lyric, which I completely agree with. She also, most usefully, notes the misreading in regards to “sana ne bana ne“. As Olga notes this construction means “I/you don’t care” or as I would re-phrase it “what’s it to you, what’s it to me”. And of course this suggests an allusion to the aşık that Divani himself has said is one of his greatest influences, Aşık Daimi and his great lyric titled Bana Ne. Interestingly that lyric includes the mahlas form “Dertli Daimi” – the full line is “Dertli Daimi’yim yardır sevdiğim“. This form of the mahlas is very uncommon in Daimi’s lyrics. Is this a deliberate allusion by Dertli Divani? Also, as Olga notes, the last line of the lyric suggest the famous Pir Sultan Abdal cry  “Gelin canlar bir olalım” though that line can also be attributed to another great and influential Alevi poet Aşık Sıdkı, a poet who is also a strong influence on Dertli Divani. In revising some lines upon Olga’s suggestion, and my reluctance to use her suggestion of “pilgrim” for yolcu, I have given in to my original inclination and used ‘wayfarer’. And I removed my “hence” – a shame about that.

Dertli Divani: Diktiğimiz fidanlar

Translation: Paul Koerbin

We could not eat the fruit

Of the shoots we planted

Whatever was their fault

(Hold on tyrant!) we cannot say

So saying, what’s it to you and what’s it to me?

Thus we’re fodder for lord and master

The doctor caused my wound to smart

Inflamed by my sweet soul

The love of the beloved sets me

To wandering through foreign lands

I have been hurt by the hand of the blind ignorant friend

I have grown tired and disgusted with reproaches

Divani speaks freely of conceit

This ignorance casting us down

Hand to hand, heart to heart

Let us give and be as one

The uncommitted wayfarer is at fault with the way

And so, what concern for the subject one to the Sultan or Shah?

——————————————————————————————–

Original text from Kısalı Aşıklar by Halil Atılgan, Şanlıurfa, 1992

Diktiğimiz fidanların

Meyvasını yiyemedik

Ne suçu vardı onların

Dur be zalim diyemedik

Sana ne bana ne hep diye diye

Böylece yem olduk ağaya beye

Tabip yaramı azdırdı

Tatlı canımdan bezdirdi

Beni bir yârin sevdası

Diyar be diyar gezdirdi

Yanmışam kör cahil dostun elinden

Bıkmış usanmışam acı dilinden

Der Divani senlik benlik

Bizi yıkan bu cahillik

El ele gönül gönüle

Verelim olalım birlik

Yolcu yola gitmez yola bahane

Bundan kula Sultana ne Şaha ne

Pir Sultan Abdal ‘Yürüyüş eyledi Urum üstüne’

07 Saturday Nov 2009

Posted by koerbin in Translations

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

deyiş, Gölpınarlı, mahlas, Memet Fuat, Pertev Naili Boratav, Sadettin Nüzhet Ergun, Shah Ismail, Shah Tahmasp, Talat Halman

approaching KayseriThis 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.

Update:

An astute reader makes some good critical comments on this translation. Firstly in relation to my rendering, or non-rendering of the Persian izafet (nominal compound) construction Şah-ı cihan which is more correctly Shah of the World. I am inclined to agree with the reader that this would be a better translation to adopt. My original rendering and interpretation as “mortal Shah” was rather to emphasise the reference to the worldly rule of  Şeyh Haydar (Sheik Haydar) to who it refers. Nevertheless ‘Shah of the World’ conveys that meaning and does have are rather more poetic tone, perhaps, than a compromise rendering of ‘worldly Shah’ which I also considered. So I have changed this.

The reader suggests that perhaps imam should not be translated at all since the religious context is lost. This is perhaps true. In the construction of the On İki İmam in the final verse I do not translate imam because of its specific reference, whereas in the refrain line Ali nesli güzel imam geliyor I originally tranlated it as leader. This was deliberate in order to assert the temporal leadership that I think is certainly a strong aspect of the way these lyrics are looked upon today. I think the perspective of the age considering these lyrics is relevant for a work that emerges from folklore and certainly this is a consideration in my interest in these lyrics – the life and meaning they have now. However, I have decided to change this, for now, to ‘guide’ which perhaps retains a element of the religious or spiritual context. I am also inclined to persist with this line as a fully translated line – for the English reader for whom the translation is intended – since it is the refrain line.

The reader very reasonably questions the logic of rendering mağrib as West. Mağrib can mean Morocco or the Magreb, the place where the sun sets, that is the West. But this line did trouble me in my translation, for the geographic illogic. Still, these lyrics are of a nature that narrative logic is not always present, so I was prepared to render it as best I could and accept the meaning may remain obscure. However in looking at this again, I am coming to the view that the intended word here may not be mağrib but rather magib which means being absent or in concealment. It would be helpful to find variants of this lyric that pointed to such a reading, but I have not. Nevertheless I am prepared to go out on a limb and adopt this meaning, since the meaning of the ‘West’ may also incorporate a sense of  ‘absence’ or ‘concealment’. So I have changed the reading of this line to “Emerging from concealment he appears again” – which also obviously hints at the emergence of the twelfth imam.

The reader also suggest a reading of dolu with its meaning of ‘hail’ and in her view referring to the Shah’s martial spirit. I don’t concur with this reading. In Alevi and Turkish folk culture dolu specifically refers to a cup full of spirit or liquor. Özbek ( in Türkülerin Dili) gives the meaning as “içki, içkiyle dolu kadeh“; and Korkmaz (in Alevilik ve Bektaşilik Terimleri Sözlüğü) gives “içki doldurulmuş kadeh, içki“. In the Alevi cem ceremony the Saki scatters the holy liquor over the congregation. I have amended my translation to try this reading: “he dispersed the full cup of spirit at each step”. Not sure this is better, but these are works in progress.

In considering the readers comments I am reminded of Talat Halman’s – Halman is probably the best translator of this material – assertion that a single translator can hardly do a definitive version and that “a whole consort of virtuoso renditions … might be far more effective”.  As Halman further noted “many of the best poems were actually created as musical composition in their own right and require a miracle for successful transposition” (see Halman’s article Translating Turkish Literature and “Cultranslation” in Translation Review No. 68, 2004).

Pir Sultan Abdal: Yürüyüş eyledi Urum üstüne

Translation: Paul Koerbin

He made a march on Anatolia

The beautiful guide of Ali’s descent is coming

I came down and kissed his hand

The beautiful leader of Ali’s descent is coming

He dispersed the full cup of spirit at each step

Arab horses tied in his stable

If you ask of his origin he is the Shah’s son

The beautiful guide of Ali’s descent is coming

His fields are marked out step by step

From the hand of his rival his heart grieves

Dressed in green the young novice warrior

The beautiful guide of Ali’s descent is coming

Emerging from concealment he appears again

No-one knows the secret of the sainted one

Descendant of Old Haydar  Shah of the World

The beautiful guide of Ali’s descent is coming

I am Pir Sultan Abdal if I see those things

If I pay humble respect entreating

From the first the prince of the twelve imams

The beautiful guide of Ali’s descent is coming

————————————————————————————————————————–

Original text from Memet Fuat Pir Sultan Abdal (1999 ed.)

Yürüyüş eyledi Urum üstüne

Ali nesli güzel imam geliyor

İnip temennâ eyledim destine

Ali nesli güzel imam geliyor

Doluları adım adım dağıdır

Tavlasında küheylânlar bağlıdır

Aslını sorarsan Şah’ın oğludur

Ali nesli güzel imam geliyor

Tarlaları adım adım çizili

Rakîbin elinden ciğer sızılı

Al yeşil giyinmiş köçek gazili

Ali nesli güzel imam geliyor

Meydana çıkar görünü görünü

Kimse bilmez Evliyanın sırrını

Koca Haydar Şah-ı cihan torunu

Ali nesli güzel imam geliyor

Pir Sultan Abdal’ım görsem şunları

Yüzün sürsem boyun eğip yalvarı

Evvel baştan On İki İmam severi

Ali nesli güzel imam geliyor

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