Asik Ali Izzet Ozkan

Asikk Ali Izzet was born in the village of Höyük near Şarkışla, the son of Musa Ağa and Kamer Kadın. His paternal grandfather Palabıyık Mustafa and one of his mother's relatives, İğdecikli Âşık Veli, were âşıks (troubadours). In 1917, his father arranged his marriage to a girl called Gülizar and in 1927, he took a second wife named Fatma. He had five daughters and two sons from his first marriage, and two daughters and one son from his second. He made his living primarily as a farmer until 1938, all the while continuing to compose poetry. Later he took a number of different jobs, travelling from one village to other. Following his family tradition, he entered the Bektaşi lodge where he adopted the name İzzeti which he would continue to use in all of his poems. Asik Ali Izzet Ozkan was arrested in 1949 for allegedly spreading "communist propaganda." After 1961, he became involved in a number of leftist groups, among them the Aşıklar Derneği (Troubadours' Organization), established by the Turkish Worker's Party. A revolutionary voice and the Alevi ideology constitute the backbone of his poetry. The best scholarly work ever written on this significant âşık is İlhan Başgöz's Asik Ali Izzet Ozkan (Istanbul: Indiana Üniversitesi & Pan Yayıncılık, 1994; first published by İş Bankası Yayınları in 1979), in which a substantial selection of his poems were recorded. 

OH ALİ!

Are you the creator or the created, what are you?

Everything is clear and known to you, oh Ali!

God forbid, not two, you are the one and only.

The world is in awe of your wisdom, oh Ali!

Sometimes you became Jesus, showed yourself in the light,

Sometimes you became Moses, showed yourself on Sinai,

Sometimes you became Abraham, showed yourself in the fire.

Burning fires cannot singe you, oh Ali!

Muhammad Mustafa said "You are my relative,

You are my blood, my soul, my existence!"

He fell in love with you, "You are my dignity" he said.

The angels in the heaven recite your glories, oh Ali!

If you ordered these mountains, they would split,

If you said "Stop!" to the rivers, they would,

The water would flow for Hasan Hüseyn's sake.

My heart is burning like crazy, oh Ali!

Please forgive me, oh commander of the next world!

Before you burn the sin, don't burn your sinful slave.

Don't leave Al'İzzet without water in the next world.

Mercy, mercy! Bestow benevolence upon me, oh Ali!

 

Translated by Kemal Silay

 

[From An Anthology of Turkish literature, Edited by Kemal Silay]