Don't sing nightingale

By Pir Sultan Abdal,

Translated by Thomas Parker

Don't sing, nightingale, don't sing. My garden's cast down

My friend, from your suffering, I burn and burn.

My oil is used up and the wick has run down

My friend, from your suffering, I burn and burn.

Into the turbid torrents of the sea, I've turned

Into roses opened before their date, I've turned

Into ashes of an extinguished fire, I've turned

My friend, from your suffering, I burn and burn.

If you get news of me, it'll be with the brave ones

You'll swaddle my wounds with the martyred ones

For forty years, I've roved with deer of the mountains

My friend, from your suffering, I burn and burn.

Pir Sultan Abdal I am. I was finished and waned

Without eating, without drinking, I was drained

For my strong love of the truth, I was hanged.

My friend, from your suffering, I burn and burn.

Ötme Bülbül Ötme

Ötme bülbül ötme şen değil bağım

Dost senin derdinden ben yana yana

Tükendi fitilim eridi yağım

Dost senin derdinden ben yana yana

Deryadan bölünmüş sellere döndüm

Ateşi kararmış küllere döndüm

Vakitsiz açılmış güllere döndüm

Dost senin derdinden ben yana yana

Haberin duyarsın peyikler ile

Yaramı sarsınlar şeyikler ile

Kırk yıl dağda gezdim geyikler ile

Dost senin derdinden ben yana yana

Abdal Pir Sultan'ım, doldum eksildim

Yemeden içmeden sudan kesildim

Zülfün kemendine kondum asıldım

Dost senin derdinden ben yana yana

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Pir Sultan Abdal was a 16-century Alevi folk poet born in Sivas. His real name is believed to have been Haydar. Belonging to the Alevi sect, his poems, written in vernacular language, in addition to the usual Sufi topic of love of the divine in its many manifestations, called for rebellion against the Ottomans and praised the Safavids. With no reliable documentation of his life, most information on him has come from oral tradition, often his own verses. Complicating thigns further, other poets have also taken his pen name after him. Ultimately executed for collobration with the Safavids, he continues to be an important figure for Turkey’s tradition of folk poetry and for its Alevi community.

Thomas Parker is a Muslim-American poet, writer and translator from Texas. He writes original poetry in English as well as translating from Turkish and Arabic. He is the co-founder and poetry editor of the Bosphorus Review of Books and is currently at work on a debut novel.