Yunus Emre II

Yunus Emre II 

Turkish-American News, "Turkish Poets", s. 4 

1952-12-11 

İstanbul Üniversitesi 

Turkish poets :

YUNUS EMRE II

(Continued from last issue)

By Bülent Ecevit

An even more impressive example of the humanistic elemant in Yunus Emre, the thirteenth century folk poet, is his "News from the Land of Hell". In this poem, his compassion for humanity seems to predomitave his relitigious feelings:

If you ask for news of the land of hell
They burn and burn and weep
For the great prophet of religion
They hope and hope and weep.

Burning burning they turn into coal
Gone to the depth of hell their soul
Thousands of years they stay in hell
They bum and burn weep.

The impious stand tortures dire
A burning air they all respire
On their necks are chains of fire
They bear and bear and weep.

Find a remedy for this pain, Yunus says,
Go to the Prophet pray for their case
Vast is God’s ocean of grace
They hope and hope and weep.

In the voice of the water-wheel, Yunus Emre puts into words the nostalgia of the true mystic.

Why do you wail O water-wheel
Sorrowful I am so I wail
I have fallen in love with God
This is the reason that I wail.

I’m the sorrowful wheel they say
Sparkling my water flows away
God, has ordained it in this way
Sorrowful I am so I wail.

They found me on a mountain there
Of limbs and wings they stripped me bare
And so this fate I have to bear
Sorrowful I am so I wail.

I am the tree of a mountain high
I am not sweet nor sour am I
My Lord I humbly thank and pray
Sorrowful I am so I wail.

From the mountain I was unset
All my order has been upset
I am an unfailing poet
Sorrowful I am so I wail.

One can’t attain the heart’s desire
Sorrowful I am so I wail.
None can endure this wailing dire
Sorrowful I am so I wail.

From below my water I draw
Then higher this water I pour
Come and see what I suffer so
By their carpenters I was hewn.

Yunus one does not smile in here
All my parts have been set in tune
This wailing came to me from God
Sorrowful I am so I wail.

Note for correction: In introduction to Yunus Emre's poetry in our last issue, the word "subjective" (first paragraph, line four), should be "objective".