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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

Tag Archives: Nimri Dede

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

Nimri Dede ‘Özde ben Mevlana oldum da geldim’

29 Saturday Aug 2009

Posted by koerbin in Translations

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Ahmet Buran, Arif Sağ, Aşık Sarıcakız, deyiş, Mevlana, Nimri Dede, Translation

I have already posted an English version of Nimri Dede’s İnsan Olmaya Geldim as recorded by Arif Sağ which includes some word changes from Nimri Dede’s original and omits two verses. Here then is a translation of the original complete version with the original refrain line ‘…de ben Mevlana oldum da geldim‘ rather than ‘…de ben bir insan olmaya geldim‘, some other relatively small word changes and the two missing verses. The fifth verse (one of the verses omitted by Sağ) does pose some translation challenges, partly because of parataxis and partly because of the deft way Nimri Dede has divided Aşık Sarıcakız’s mahlas over the third and fourth lines.  I am not yet convinced of my rendering of this verse. This verse, perhaps, also gives a clue to the inspiration for this deyiş – was it composed upon hearing Aşık Sarıcakız (real name İlkin Manya), a renowned female ozan/aşık? We are fortunate to finally have a published collection of Nimri Dede’s deyişler prepared by Professor Dr Ahmet Buran published in Elazığ in 2006 by Manas Yayıncılık. However the version of this song included in that book has a small error in the first line of the second verse where ‘meğer‘ should read ‘meğerse‘ in order to fill the syllable count requirement of the koşma form. In a typescript provided to me by Nimri Dede’s grandson, Sercihan Dehmen, the correct form is given (see image below).

Nimri Dede: Özde ben Mevlana oldum da geldim

Translation: Paul Koerbin


I cast out this filthy duality from within me,

In the true self I came to become Master

Since established in the heart of the mystics

In the word I have come to become Master

Whatever love is, it is the essence of the soul;

The direction to it lies between the eyes.

The work of truth is the tint of strength.

In the face I have come to become Master

What all the teachers have described;

The halting place that the true ones have reached;

Where the Prophets and Saints have gone;

In the footsteps I have come to become Master

Those seeking Truth found it in the heart

Truth overflowed the heart and filled the world

All faces became the mirror of me

In you I have come to become Master

I have a garden clean of every thorn

They entered and trampled until rent in half

Her eyes closed, in Aşık Sarıca

Kız  I have come to become Master

At times I have examined and been examined

How many years I have been attached to a noose;

In a manner I have set alight that love and been set alight;

In the ashes I have come to become Master

At last I have come, drinking the wine of love.

Every bit of whiteness I have selected from the darkness.

I pierced the mountains of existence and passed over;

On the level I have come to become Master

See then what Nimri Dede now has done:

Of the true love to every heart he has sung;

He has at last bid farewell to wine and whatever

On the lute I have come to become Master

————————————————————————————————————–

Original version from typscript provided by Sercihan Dehmen

nimri_dede

İnsan Olmaya Geldim (Nimri Dede)

07 Tuesday Apr 2009

Posted by koerbin in Translations

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

deyiş, Nimri Dede, Translation

sag_cassette

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'

Nimri Dede (d. 1986) photograph from İsmail Onarlı’s book ‘Şeyh Hasan Aşireti’

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