Yunus Emre_Turkish poet and Sufi mystic.
Yunus Emre:
(Turkish pronunciation: [juˈnus emˈɾe]) (1240?–1321?) was a Turkish poet and Sufi mystic. He has exercised immense influence on Turkish literature, from his own day until the present. Because Yunus Emre is, after Ahmet Yesevi and Sultan Walad, one of the first known poets to have composed works in the spoken Turkish of his own age and region rather than in Persian or Arabic, his diction remains very close to the popular speech of his contemporaries in Central and Western Anatolia. This is also the language of a number of anonymous folk-poets, folk-songs, fairy tales, riddles (tekerlemeler), and proverbs.
Like the Oghuz Book of Dede Korkut, an older and anonymous Central Asian epic, the Turkish folklore that inspired Yunus Emre in his occasional use oftekerlemeler as a poetic device had been handed down orally to him and his contemporaries. This strictly oral tradition continued for a long while.
Following the Mongolian invasion of Anatolia facilitated by the Sultanate of Rûm's defeat at the 1243 Battle of Köse DaÄŸ, Islamic mystic literature thrived in Anatolia, and Yunus Emre became one of its most distinguished poets. Poems of Sultan Yunus Emre — despite being fairly simple on the surface — evidence his skill in describing quite abstruse mystical concepts in a clear way. He remains a popular figure in a number of countries, stretching from Azerbaijan to the Balkans, with seven different and widely dispersed localities disputing the privilege of having his tomb within their boundaries.
Hear oh fellows,
A precious thing is love.
No eminent meets it,
A respectable thing is love.
Makes mountain like ash,
Makes paths in hearts,
Makes sultans like serviles,
An erudite thing is love.
Who shoot arrows to whom?
No grief no qualm.
All bawl all curse,
A disruptive thing is love.
Boils the seas,
Moves the waves.
Gives the rocks voice,
A strong thing is love.
What should poor Yunus do?
Who should he say so?
YUNUS EMRE