(AD 1238–1321; AH 635–720)
Yunus Emre is the most popular Sufi or mystic poet of Turkey. Though Sultan Veled is more revered as the father of Turkish mysticism and that nation’s early poetry, it is Yunus who had the common touch and adopted the spoken idiom of his age. He is regarded as a folk hero and his diction follows that of many folk singers, poets and storytellers in Turkey and Central Asia.
Yunus Emre’s poetry celebrates love and the common wisdom of Sufi saints and minstrels. At the same time his verses are infused with the Wahdatul Wujud (Unity of Being) ideas of Mohyuddin Ibn ‘Arabi. The influence of Jalaluddin Rumi is also apparent in his poetry.
Yunus Emre’s achievement lies in making Turkish the main discourse of Sufi poetry and ideas, and in breaking away from the over-formalized Turkish poetry composed in Persian. The main body of Yunus’s works consists of a divan of more than 300 ghazals and 600 couplets in masnavi form. His popularity stretches to many countries in the Balkans and Central Asia.
He who goes with Love finds to the Truth the way;
Never shall he die, nay, he shall live for aye.
Whoso looks with Love into his dear one’s face,
Wheresoe’er he look, behold, what meets his gaze!
Glory therefore in thy Love, O Lover true;
’Tis through Love that man hath passed this Kingdom, through.
Whosoe’er hath Love for wings, forth let him go!
Heav’n forfend that he should bide on earth below!
O my God! may we ne’er lose the Narrow Way,
Never let us from Thy Love depart or stray.
E. J. W. Gibb
That Mighty One of ‘Be! and ’tis’, that Lord of gracious sway am I.
That King who ere ’tis cut provides for each his bread each day am I.
The One who maketh man of seed, who maketh bird from egg proceed,
Who makes the Tongue of Power to speak, He who remembereth aye am I.
Who maketh some ascetics be, and some to work iniquity;
The Argument and Proof who veils their faults and flaws alway am I.
Who unto one doth horses give, doth wives and wealth and children give,
The while another lacks a groat, that One of Gracious sway am I.
Who bringeth snow and doth earth freeze, who on each brute his food bestows,
Who worketh all these businesses, the Soul of souls in fay am I.
I am Eternity in sooth, that King, the Unconditioned Truth;
Tomorrow Khizr may water dole, who wipes his sins away am I.
Know ye what from Four Things proceed, behold, I am the Sign indeed;
That God who builded Fire and Air and Earth and Water, yea, am I.
Who holds the veils of flesh and skin and bone and life and body e’en;
My works are Power and many an one, the Hid and Open aye am I.
The Outer and the Inner I, the Former and the Latter I;
Yea, I am He, and He is I, He whom they praise alway am I.
No truchman may between Us be, all wroughten there is clear to me;
Who giveth me this tongue is He; yon Sea that rolls each way am I.
He who did earth and sky create, who maketh Throne and Stool rotate;
Thousand and one His Names, Yunus. He of the Qur’an, yea, am I.
E. J. W. Gibb
Come and let us two be comrades, come and let us seek the Loved One;
Come and let us two be helpmates, come and let us seek the Loved One.
Come and guide me on our faring; to the Friend be our repairing;
Cast aside all dule and caring, come and let us seek the Loved One.
Let us quit the world together, cheated not, for it doth wither;
Let us two be parted never, come and let us seek the Loved One.
Soothly is the world unstable; ope thine eye, thy soul is sleeping;
Unto us be fere and comrade, come and let us seek the Loved One.
Ere the clutch of Fate impel us, ere the voice of Death do hail us,
Ere that Azrail assail us, come and let us seek the Loved One.
Let us see the loyal lover, tidings of the Truth to gather,
Let us find the lover Yunus, come and let us seek the Loved One.
E. J. W. Gibb
Those who have mastered life’s meaning shall know no pain;
The hearts that feel God’s truth will never die in vain.
Flesh is mortal, not the soul; the dead can’t return.
Only the body dies, souls can never be slain.
Hearts may take a hundred roads to find life’s essence;
Unless one has God’s grace one has nothing to gain.
Take care, don’t break the loved one’s heart, it’s made of glass;
Once broken, you can’t put it together again.
God created the world for the Prophet’s friendship;
Those who come into this world go, they can’t remain.
Not a soul senses what we do,
Nor has an inkling about us;
We harbour no greed or hatred,
We disdain our selfhood as crass.
We don’t scorn or vituperate –
Or laugh at anybody’s state.
To scholars, we’re not infidels
Nor do we crave the Christian cross.
We know what life is all about
What’s there in the world to seek out?
For ourselves we desire nothing;
We roam the world to find its bliss.
Yunus declares: ‘My Lord, listen,
I have my own supreme Sultan.’
In this world we desire neither
Gold and silver nor bronze and brass.
Talât S. Halman
I drank wine from the cup-bearer
At an inn higher than the sky.
Our souls are goblets in His hands,
Deep in His ecstasy we lie.
At our private place of meeting,
Where our hearts are scorched with yearning
Like moths, the Sun and the Moon ring
Our candle whose flames rise high.
Yunus, don’t tell these words of trance
To those steeped in dark ignorance.
Can’t you see how swiftly the chance
Of ignorant men’s lives goes by?
Talât S. Halman
Let’s not remain adoring,
Come, let’s go to the Friend, my soul.
Let’s not die longing, imploring,
Come, let’s go to the Friend, my soul.
Let’s leave this city and this land;
Let’s weep, shedding tears for the Friend,
With the cup of love’s wine in hand;
Come, let’s go to the Friend, my soul.
From this world we’d better be gone;
Why be duped, it couldn’t live on.
Let’s not be split while we are one;
Come, let’s go to the Friend, my soul.
As I take the road, be my guide;
Let’s set out for the Loved One’s side.
Let’s not look behind or ahead;
Come, let’s go to the Friend, my soul.
Before the news of death arrives,
Before my marked soul vainly strives,
Before Gabriel routs our lives,
Come, let’s go to the Friend, my soul.
Let’s go to the truly sacred;
Let’s ask for the news about God,
And taking Yunus on the road;
Come, let’s go to the Friend, my soul.
Talât S. Halman
My fleeting life has come and gone –
A wind that blows and passes by.
I feel it has been all too brief,
Just like the blinking of an eye.
To this true word God will attest:
The Spirit is the Body’s guest,
Some day it will vacate the breast
As birds, freed from their cages, fly.
Life, my good man, can be likened
To the land that the farmer sows:
Lying scattered all over the soil,
Some of the seeds sprout, but some die.
If you visit and give water
To a sick man who needs care,
With God’s wine, he shall hail you there
One day when you soar to the sky.
Talât S. Halman