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Some Reflections on Yunus Emre's "Tekerleme" Author(s): ANNEMARIE SCHIMMEL Source: Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Vol. 3/4, Part 2. Eucharisterion: Essays presented to Omeljan Pritsak on his Sixtieth Birthday by his Colleagues and Students (1979-1980), pp. 706711 Published by: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41035866 . Accessed: 01/09/2013 08:31
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on Yunus Emre's Tekerleme Some Reflections

ANNEMARIE SCHIMMEL

One ofthemostintriguing poemsascribedto Yunus Emreis theone that It beginswith a nonsensepoemin Western languages.1 closelyresembles the line ... erikdahnazmtoplamaga iktim I climbed upontheplumtree there To pluck grapes ofthegarden askedme: The master do youeat mywalnut? Why - and goes on enumerating facts. The line variousseemingly impossible "When thepoem has becomealmostproverbial: bahk kavaga iktifrom thefish climbson thepoplartree"has come to mean"whenthepigflies," in otherwords,never. One day I foundan exact parallelto thislineof Yunus's poem in the after Kabr,who lived about two centuries poetryof the Indian mystic has discussed thisand similar "reversed" him.Charlotte Vaudeville images His poetry, calledultabhansi, contains verses in herlatestworkon Kabr.2 like this: whichtranslate itsprey, and consumes The oceanis burning fortheprey thefish is angling of Germannursery songs such as: Theyare reminiscent undwillnicht Ich willeucherzhlen lgen: ... Gnsefliegen. Ich sah dreigebratene Kabr statements more Witheven may sing: paradoxical is thecow, and barren birth The bullhas given thrice a day.. . . thecalfis milked thecattheboat, The mouseis theboatman, ... ofthesnake. under theprotection is sleeping andthefrog in riddleswas not and particularly In India, thisreversed stylein poetry
1 Yunus Emre Divani, ed. by Abdulbaki Glpinarh (Istanbul, 1943), p. 131. 2 CharlotteVaudeville, Kabir (Oxlord, iy/!>);idem,Kabir Uranthvali( Doha) {Vondicherry,1957), no. 12.

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YUNUSEMRE'S TEKERLEME

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itgoes backto Vedictimes invented and was usedlargely byKabr;rather, It is said thattheazry-songs of the Buddhist in the Tantrictradition.3 and "wheninterpreted sidd hcryasare enigmas, literally, they yieldthe butwhenone obtainsthekeyto them mostabsurdmeaning, and learns to enterin, one getsat thetruemeaninghiddenbehind."4In thiscase, the centers truemeaningis connectedwiththe variousspiritual and secret soul have to be of and which awakened the devotee. by powers body latermystics wouldfindallusionsto the in Yunus's tekerleme Similarly, variousstepson the mystical path. For example,Niyaz Misr wrote: ofdeeds toshow that tree hasa special With this the wants of verse kind every poet hints with venerable master and"nut"at the fruit Themost "prune," "grape," Path(ariqa), andDivine Divine law(sharVa ), the Reality mystical (haqiqa). For ... Asfor butnotitsinterior. itis outer ofthe the oneeatsthe prune, parts grape, Butsince still delicious aremadeofit a few kernels of andmany eaten, things init,itiscalled exist andostentation "Interior but fame, Acts," vanity, hypocrisy, a symbol ofReality. Intheinterior Thenut, is completely of not"Reality." now, Itsinterior iscompletely must bethrown isnothing that the nut there edible, away. is ita remedy! . . .5 illnesses and forhowmany thecenturies. In This kindof poetryhas remainedpopular throughout the so-called of Goraknth are still India, forinstance, puzzles especially popular in rural Bengal. Also, a studyof popular Sindhi riddlesand with a view to the paradoxical and probablymystical conundrums, meaningexpressedin them,would be worthwhile. theimagery ofthemystical enough, paradoxseemsnotto Interestingly to culture. One constant is to prove tendency changemuchfromculture than stubborn thatapparentweaknesscan finally prove stronger pride are more or less interchangeable. When and thatthe sense perceptions one of the ultabhansiversesclaims that: and devoured The cowhascutthelionin pieces [it],6 me of a NorthAfrican Sufi story it immediately reminds told by Emile on hislion,wentto visitanother A conceitedSufi,riding Dermenghem.7 at themaster's conmasterwho lived in themountains. Havingarrived he vent,he was told to tetherhis lion in the cow's stable. Grudgingly
3 Sharhibusan Das Gupta,ObscureReligiousCults, 3rded. (Calcutta,1969),appendix(E): "Enigmatic Languageof theOld and MedievalPoets,"dd. 413-24. 4 Das Gupta,ObscureReligious Cults, p. 415. 5 tfamzaTahir,"'at-tasawwuf ash-sha'b fi'1-adab alat-turk'"Mqjalla Kulliyat db (Cairo), 12,no. 2 (1950); for a full see Annemarie citation, Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill,N.C., 1975),p. 334. 6 Das Gupta,ObscureReligious Cults, p. 418. 7 EmileDermenghem, Le Cultedes Saintsdansl'Islammaghrbin (Paris,1954),p.

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the master'sroom,theSufifoundhimsurrounded obeyed. Entering by which madehimquestionhiscolleague'sspiritual rankeven dancinggirls, more.But whenthevisitor wentto thestablenextmorning to mounthis he found that the animal had been devoured the cow. lion, by Otherultabhansipoetry fromIndia, particularly from thelatertradiof Mauln Rm's paradoxes. Thus, the lines by tion, is reminiscent Sundards, The blind seesthethree worlds and thedeaf hears various themanwithout a nose sounds; smells thelotusand thedumbsupplies much news,8 recall Rm's tale in the Mathnaw (Daftar III, line 2609ff.)about the thesharp-hearing blindperson, deafperson, and thenakedone farsighted witha longskirt, all ofwhomrepresent certain vices.This tale serves as a similarinstance, if we prefer notto consideronlyGermanfairy tales or in whichsuch people play a prominent role. nursery rhymes In the Indian tradition, such poems can be used to show how maya on thepersonwho has not yetopened his eyesto reality. playsitstricks More generally, on thechangeof sensesin ecstasy, theycan also reflect whenduring theunitive visionthedifferences insensualexperience areno as Ibn al-Frid has shown so in longerfelt, beautifully his Ta'iyya: I knew forsurethat we arereally One,and thesobriety ofunion restored thenotion ofseparation, and mywholebeing wasa tongue to speak, an eyeto see, an earto hear, and a handto seize.9 Justas the experience itself can be expressedonlyin paradoxes,so the truecontent oftheexperience, God's presence, can be expressed namely, leads themystical onlybil kaifa ("withoutHow") and necessarily poet to use oxymora inan attempt to convey whatcannotbe conveyed through Thus God is described as "positive "logical"language. {'adam), Not-Being" or berhelle Nacht (by QuirinusKuhlmann and otherGermanBaroque or as netineti 'No no' (in the Upanishads). mystics), In thisstatethemystic livesin perfect timelessness. He breaksthrough the zunnr ("the infidel's henceserialtime,as Iqbal girdle")of created, would say.10 This is a reexperiencing of theProphet'sstateat theend of his mVrj, when he exclaimedli ma'a Allah waqt ("I have a timewith
8 Das Gupta,ObscureReligiousCults, 419. p. 9 Reynold A. Nicholson, Studiesin Islamic Mysticism 1921, (Cambridge, reprinted 1967),chap. 3, verse580,of Ibn al-Frid'sTa'iyya. 10 See Annemarie Gabriel's A Study intotheReligious Schimmel, IdeasofSir Wing: Muhammad Iqbal (Leiden,1963),p. 295.

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YUNUSEMRE'S TEKERLEME

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God") and even theloftiest being,Gabriel,was excluded.This spiritual assertions timelessness leads the mystical which poets to make strange invert the sequence of events.A song of an ulta haul in Bengalgoes: n The father was bornon thedayofthemother's marriage, and theson was borntwodayslater. theIslamicist of themostfamousparareminds The lineimmediately doxical poem in Arabic,Hallaj's qasida: y thiqtl. . . Uqtulr Killme,o mytrustworthy friends, is mylife. . . .12 forin mybeing killed there in mysticalpoetry, This, too, is a phrase which reoccursuniversally oflifeand death.IJalofthefinalunity alludingas itdoes to themystery lj statestowardsthe end of his qasida : - verily is amazing, herfather that has borne Mymother ... have become and myyoung mysisters daughters The Iraki scholarKmil M. ash-Shaibhas collecteda remarkably large whichuse thiskindof tradition of Arabicpoems in themystical number paradox. The cycleof poems in honorof al-IJalljbythecontemporary itsthird Irakipoet'Abdulwahhb al-Bayat, poem("Mosaic"), especially oftheparadoxical,timeless, and spaceless is a finemoderncontinuation of IJallj.13 expressions to paradoxes fortwo reasons:to conveyat had to resort The mystics ofloving union and to hidethesecret oftheTruth, leasta weak reflection fromtheeyesof thecommonpeople. Not in vain was Hallj accused of and executedforifsha as-sirr ("Divulgingthesecret"). That is whythe could not to use a language which the uninitiated mysticspreferred Kharrz as in ishrt would understand. ("hints, allusions"), They speak the of classical did Junaid him, and, following al-Baghdd during height
11 Das Gupta,ObscureReligiousCults, p. 423. 12 KamM. ash-Shaibi, t. Sharh 1973),p. 166 dwnal-Hallj '(BaghdadandBeirut, ofthepoemis inAnnemarie A German translation Al-Halladsch, Schimmel, Mrtyrer der Gottesliebe (Cologne,1968),p. 48ff. ofSt. be itinthework ofLife= Deathpermeates Theoxymoron literature, mystical of thewhole or Mauln Rumi;infact, oftheCross,Richard John Crashaw, concept of thisexperience. can be seen as a perfect expression fana and baq in Sufism to todying andbeing dancepoints oftheMevlevi thesymbolism resurrected, Likewise, Stirbund Werde. see Toshihiku "The in Islamicmysticism, For theuse ofparadoxingeneral Izutsu, inAnagogie ofMystery ofShabastari," intheGarden and Darkness ParadoxofLight P. Strelka ed. byJoseph Park,Pa., 1971). (University of Literature, Qualities 13 'Abdulwahhab wa'th-t haura(Baghdad,1965);a German al-Bayati, Safaral-faqr arabische translation Lyrik Schimmel, (TbinZeitgenssische appearsinAnnemarie gen,1975),p. 77ff.

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artificial like the or theywould even invent Sufism,14 languages, be usedtoallude tothe Evena "kitchen balbailn.15 vocabulary" might as Hellmut Ritter has shown of unitive on mysteries experience, highest thebasisofa Turkish manuscript.16 is more conducive to a true On theother hand, language paradoxical - a fact than most oftheTruth lucidly everyday language understanding the Zenmaster his where a inthe Buddhist visible tradition, gives disciples the illumination of the to produce sudden mind. ko'an in order satori, - Joshu ornot? nature suchas "Has thedogtheBuddha said: Questions shock Itseems aremeant tobe an "intellectual that Mu,"17 technique."18 tothe effect intended several Sufi canbeapplied this sameterm by sayings tothis ofmystical inIslam topoint andpoems. Thefirst aspect language to al-Ghazzal's was W. H. TempleGairdner who,in hisintroduction that this thefeeling "willful and Mishkt al-anwr, expressed paradox" to make their was "intended flesh a creep "pioushighfalutin'" perhaps sake."He continued: "Do we nottaketheir fortheir health's little lanitisreally tooseriously? Itparades as scientific; poetico-rhetorical."19 guage His statement seemsto be validformany but earlySufidefinitions, that in the Islamic for the lands. Persian developed poetry especially in Rumi, who is filled with statements, particularly paradoxical poetry to thepoint shock ofintrouses"intellectual very ingeniously, therapy" or evendownright of an absolutely unmystical vulgar ducingstories thelower levels ofeveryday orusing words from character Yet, language. studied from thisviewpoint. The his language has never beenproperly in and the inIndia, Sufis Urdu, early regional writing Persian, languages this andwere almost cerPashto),tookover tendency, (Sindhi, Panjabi, the in of of their use ultabhansi influenced by paradoxes poetry tainly a true must Hinducompatriots. their However, paradox spring spon14 See Paul Nwyia, S. J.,Exgsecoranique et langage (Beirut, 1970),p. mystique 240ff.; see also Schimmel, Dimensions, Mystical pp. 55, 59. 15 IgnazGoldziher, aus derLiteratur dermuhammedanischen "Linguistisches Mysder Deutschen 26 (1872): 765; Alestik,"Zeitschrift Morgenlndischen Gesellschaft sandroBausani,"Abouta CuriousMystical in East and West4, no. 4 Language," (1958). 16 Hellmut is in Aya IX," Der Islam25 (1938); themanuscript Ritter, "Philologica Sofya2052,fol.53b. 17 ZenkaiShibayama, Zen Comments on theMumonkan (NewYork,1974),p. 19 no. 1). (story 18 Eleanor inSpanish andEnglish McCann, Writers," Mystics "Oxymora Metaphysical in Comparative 1969. Literature, 19 W. H. TempleGairdner, Al-GhazzalVs "Mishkat al-anwr": TheNiche forLights (London,1915),p. 71.

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YUNUSEMRE'S TEKERLEME

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and one of the weaknessesof ulfabhansi taneouslyfromexperience,20 is thattheparadoxessoon Sufipoetry, as wellas ofstandardized poetry, and thustheirprovocativeness. become clichs,losingtheir spontaneity Yunus seemsto have been thefirst greatexponentof theart of paraHis tekerleme in doxical poetry Turkey. is, as faras we can judge, the Yunus becamequitepopularthere. which starting pointforthistradition, was followedand, in manyinstances, surpassedin thisfieldbyKaygusuz - after has been explaineddifferently all, Abdal, whosecolorful poetry for is a catchword that out has AbdulbakiGlpinarli kaygusuz pointed that Kaygusuz'spoems mightbe the resultsof hashish,thus implying if this were the case, his versefalls into the same even But "trips."21 the of the as singers, paradoxes the Sufis,the Indian mystical category of the other the and Zen monks, mystical representatives many Japanese thanexplain,theTruththat traditions. Theyall triedto allude to, rather and negative, intopositive lies beyondthebifurcation yinand yang,Nunc and serialtimeas it came intoexistence, aeternum accordingto Islamic alasi the rz-i the of the at Covenant, (see Sra 7/171) - a belief, Day but onlyby Truththat is not to be attainedby philosophicalinquiry, word by dhauq ("tasting"),as theSufiswould say (thevery experience, in that looms kitchen the with fit would large imagery perfectly dhauq both Rm's and KaygusuzAbdal's poetry!). Yunus Emre's "nonsenseverses" must not be taken as an isolated of mystical phenomenon.Rather,theybelong to a universaltradition is beyond that which to tries the in which explain mystic expression, to wordsby usingparadoxes. For theveryfactthathe who feelshimself and seen" he has be "mute,withno tongue[for]what despitea speaks, of the last experience, of the ineffability constantreiteration goes on is a that books learned and paradox describing experience, writing poems in itself. Harvard University

20 R. H. Blyth, Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics(Tokyo,1942;reNew York,1960),p. 183. print, 21 KaygusuzAbdal, Hatayi,Kul Himmet, ed. by AbdulbakiGlpinarli [Varlik For Dimensions, (Istanbul, 1953);also see Schimmel, Klasikleri] Mystical p. 335ff.. Germantranslations of his poems,see Annemarie Aus dem goldenen Schimmel, Becher: Trkische von13.biszum20. Jahrhundert Lyrik (Istanbul, 1973),pp. 59-63.

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