• About Pir Sultan Abdal
  • About the ‘me’ in this blog
  • Index of translations on this blog
  • More translations available in my PhD thesis
  • Regarding the translations on this blog

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

Tag Archives: Aşık Ali İzzet

Pir Sultan Abdal ‘Hak’tan inayet olursa’

04 Friday Feb 2011

Posted by koerbin in Translations

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Aşık Ali İzzet, Divriği, Gölpınarlı, Kızılbaş, mahlas, Pertev Naili Boratav, Safavid

This deyiş makes its first appearance in publication in Gölpınarlı and Boratav’s 1943 collection. It is one of the many deyiş collected by Aşık Ali İzzet Özkan, in this case from Hüseyin Efendi from Kale village in Divriği. This is one of the clearest most insistent of the kızılbaş ‘optative’ lyrics recounting the desires and hopes that the triumph of the Şah (Shah) and the coming of the Mehdi will bring. As is common in these lyrics, mention of the Shah evokes both the great Shah Ali (Şah-ı Merdan, although not with that epithet in this case) and the Safavid monarch, unnamed although the reference to Husrev with its connotation of the ‘great monarch’ Cyrus makes this clear. It is indeed a battle cry, mentioning holy war (gaza) and the sword of Ali, Zülfikar. The lyric has an  almost ecstatic quality in its repetition the dervish’s cry for victory. The mahlas is slightly odd being in the genitive case although the following line dramatically shifts the lyric to a personal declaration. I have left ‘Rum’ untranslated in this version although it could be translated simply as ‘Anatolia’.  Good stuff. This early draft translation leaves some terms untranslated that I will probably consider translations for later: bey (chief, noble), paşa (someone of high rank) and dede (devish leader, from the ehlibeyt line).

Pir Sultan Abdal: Hak’tan inayet olursa

Translation: Paul Koerbin

If by the grace of God

May the Shah come to Rum one day

In holy battle may he strike Zulfikar

Against the unbelievers one day

May all tribes come together

May they be slaves for the Shah

The destitute in the land of Rum

May they rejoice and smile one day

May they raise and bear the banner

May the Shah sit in Istanbul

May he return the captives from the Franks

May he release them to Horasan one day

May he gather together bey and pasha

May he sieze the four exremities

May the monarch march and enjoy

May Ali establish court one day

That the Shah’s rose was born

That abundant mercy rained down

That happy days were born

May such a world rejoice one day

My dede Mahdi must come

Ali must establish the court

He must break down injustice

May he wreak vengeance one day

Pir Sultan’s work is but a sigh

I am in expectation of the beautiful Shah

The administration that is sovereign

May he be its master one day

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

Original Turkish text from Gölpınarlı and Boratav (1943)

Hak’tan inayet olursa

Şah Urum’a gele bir gün

Gazâda bu Zülfikarı

Kâfirlere çala bir gün

Hep devşire gele iller

Şah’a ola köle kullar

Urumda ağlıyan sefiller

Şâd ola da güle bir gün

Çeke sancağı götüre

Şah İstanbul’a otura

Firenkten yesir getire

Horasana sala bir gün

Devşire beyi paşayı

Zapteyleye dört köşeyi

Husrev ede temaşayı

Âli divan kura bir gün

Gülü Şah’ın doğdu deyü

Bol ırahmet yağdu deyü

Kutlu günler doğdu deyü

Şu âlem şâd ola bir gün

Mehdi Dedem gelse gerek

Âli divan kursa gerek

Haksızları kırsa gerek

İntikamın ala bir gün

Pir Sultan’ın işi ahtır

İntizarım güzel Şah’tır

Mülk iyesi padişahtır

Mülke sahib ola bir gün

Pir Sultan Abdal ‘Gelin canlar bir olalım’

12 Thursday Aug 2010

Posted by koerbin in Translations

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Aşık Ali İzzet, Aşık Sıtkı, Gölpınarlı, Pertev Naili Boratav, Translation, Zafer Gündoğdu

One of the most renowned Pir Sultan songs and one of the most political being something of an anthem for the political left from the 1970s.  Performances more commonly only include the first, second and last verses, leaving out the more overtly aggressive third and fourth verses. While all of the Pir Sultan lyrics can only be considered to be attributed to him this lyric is perhaps one of the more doubtful and some assert the lyric originates with Aşık Sıtkı. Muhsin Gül in his book on Sıtkı includes two lyrics that seem to be models for this song, one of which is very similar although it does not include the outright injuction to murder the Sultan (Padışah) and is in fact a more sophisticated lyric. But whether Sıtkı’s is a reworking of the Pir Sultan original or the other way around can hardly be established definitely. Hayrettin İvgin in his 1976 book on Aşık Sıtkı Pervane states that is is a Pir Sultan lyric, though this seems based on the inclusion of the lyric in Gölpınarlı and Boratav’s 1943 book on Pir Sultan and İvgin’s book predates the more substantial work by Gül. The source of the text given by Gölpınarlı and Boratav is again Aşık Ali İzzet Özkan who obtained it from a mecmua (manuscript collection) belonging to one Muharrem from the village of İğdiş in the Şarkışla region of Sivas.

In regards to translation issues, choice of language will determine the degree of political and religious interpretation. For example, how to translate ‘canlar’? Literally this means ‘souls’ but can be understood as ‘friends’ or ‘brothers’ or ‘companions’. Given the political nature of the lyric and its adoption as such in popular culture, I have preferred ‘comrades’.  ‘Münkir‘ also presents some problems. This means ‘deniers’ and may be understood in a religious context. Finding the term ‘deniers’ a bit cumbersome I have tried ‘false hearted’. References to the Umayyad caliphs Yezid and Mervan (Marwan) are fairly straightforward – although it is uncertain whether the reference to Mervan is to the short rule of Marwan I or the last Ummayad caliph Marwan II, though more probably is a reference to the despised Ummayad caliphs generally –  as these caliphs in their actions of opposition to Shi’a and in the murder of Hüseyin represent the essence of treachery and for the Alevi these names are metonyms for treachery and falsehood and are used as invectives.  To convey this adequately in the English remains a challenge, perhaps.

This song presents a good example of the complexities of expressions of identity in Turkey through the shared and yet specific heritage of Turkish Alevi culture. For example this song, besides its historical political associations, was one used to dramatic effect in at the Cologne Bin Yılın Türküsü event at the beginning of 21st century – an event asserting Alevi identity in a transnational context – see video here; while it is also performed on Turkish Radio and Television in the context of the standard national folk orchestra and choir in a concert expressing a particular musical mode  – see this video. Interestingly, the conductor in both instances is Zafer Gündoğdu and the musical arranger for the latter the Alevi virtuoso Erdal Erzincan. Both versions include only the first, second and final verse.

Pir Sultan Abdal: Gelin canlar bir olalım

Translation: Paul Koerbin

Come comrades and let us be as one

Let us strike swords against the false hearted

Let us avenge the blood of Hüseyin

I put my trust in God

Let us bind ourselves together

Let us murmur like the waters

Let us take up the march

I put my trust in God

Let us unfurl the banner of red

Let the time of  deceitful Yezids pass

In our hand is the dagger of passion

I put my trust in God

Let us strike at the race of Mervan

Let us ask for the blood of Hüseyin

Let us kill the Padishah

I put my trust in God

I am Pir Sultan, I’m at boiling point

The false hearted shall be driven mad

What is destined shall come to pass

I put my trust in God

——————————————————————————————–

Original Turkish text from Gölpınarlı and Boratav (1943)

Gelin canlar bir olalım

Münkire kılıç çalalım

Hüseynin kanın alalım

Tevekkeltü taâlâllah

Özü öze bağlıyalım

Sular gibi çağlıyalım

Bir yürüyüş eyliyelim

Tevekkeltü taâlâllah

Açalım kızıl sancağı

Geçsin Yezidlerin cağı

Elimizde aşk bıçağı

Tevekkeltü taâlâllah

Mervan soyunu vuralım

Hüseynin kanın soralım

Pâdışahın öldürelim

Tevekkeltü taâlâllah

Pir Sultan’ım geldi cûşa

Münkirlerin alkı şaşa

Takdir olan gelir başa

Tevekkeltü taâlâllah

Pir Sultan Abdal ‘Şu kanlı zalimin ettiği işler’

07 Monday Jun 2010

Posted by koerbin in Translations

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

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 

 

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • PİR SULTAN ABDAL and me
    • Join 132 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • PİR SULTAN ABDAL and me
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...