Schimmel on Yunus emre

7/30/2019 Schimmel on Yunus emre

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The President and Fellows of Harvard College

Some Reflections on Yunus Emre's "Tekerleme"Author(s): ANNEMARIE SCHIMMELSource: Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Vol. 3/4, Part 2. Eucharisterion: Essays presented toOmeljan Pritsak on his Sixtieth Birthday by his Colleagues and Students (1979-1980), pp. 706-711Published by: Harvard Ukrainian Research InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41035866 .

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Some Reflectionsn Yunus Emre'sTekerlemeANNEMARIE SCHIMMEL

One ofthemost ntriguingoems scribed oYunus Emre stheone thatcloselyresembles nonsense oem nWesternanguages.1tbeginswiththe ine-iktimrik ahnazm oplamaga. .I climbedpon heplum reeTo pluck rapes hereThe masterfthegardenskedme:Why oyou atmywalnut?- andgoesonenumeratingarious eeminglympossible acts. he line

bahkkavagaiktifrom hepoemhas become lmostproverbial:Whenthefish limbs n thepoplartree"has cometo mean when hepigflies,"in otherwords,never.One day I found n exactparallel o this ine ofYunus'spoem nthepoetry f the ndianmysticKabr,who livedabout twocenturies fterhim.Charlotte audeville asdiscussed his ndsimilarreversed"magesin her atestwork n Kabr.2Hispoetry,alledultabhansi,ontains erseswhich ranslate ike this:Theocean sburningnd consumestsprey,the ish sanglingor hepreyTheyare reminiscentf Germannursery ongssuchas:Ich will uch rzhlenndwillnichtgen:Ich sah drei ebratenensefliegen.. .With venmoreparadoxicalstatements abrmaysing:The bullhasgiven irthnd barrens the ow,the alf s milkedhrice day. . .The mouse s theboatman,he attheboat,andthe rogssleepingnder heprotectionf he nake. .

In India,thisreversedtylenpoetrynd particularlynriddleswasnot1 Yunus Emre Divani, ed. byAbdulbaki Glpinarh(Istanbul, 1943), p. 131.2 CharlotteVaudeville,Kabir (Oxlord, iy/!>);idem,KabirUr nthvali( Doha) {Von-dicherry, 957), no. 12.

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YUNUSEMRE'S TEKERLEME 707invented yKabr;rather,tgoesbacktoVedic imes nd wasused argelyin the Tantric radition.3t is said thattheazry-songsftheBuddhistsiddhcryas reenigmas,nd "when nterpretediterally,heyyield hemost bsurdmeaning, utwhenoneobtains hekey o them nd earns oenter n,one gets t thetruemeaninghiddenbehind."4 n this ase,thetruemeaning s connectedwith hevariousspiritual enters nd secretpowersof bodyand soul whichhave to be awakenedbythedevotee.Similarly,n Yunus's tekerlemeatermysticswouldfind llusions o thevariousstepson themystical ath.For example,NiyazMisrwrote:With his ersehe oetwantso how hatveryreef eeds as special ind ffruit Themost enerable asterints ithprune,"grape,"nd nut"at heDivineaw sharVa,themysticalathariqa ,andDivine ealityhaqiqa).Forone ats he uter arts f he rune,utnot ts nterior... As for he rape,t seaten,ndmanyelicioushingsremade f t But ince till few ernelsfhypocrisy,ame,anity,ndostentationxistn t, t scalled Interiorcts,"utnot Reality."henut, ow,scompletelysymbolfReality.nthe nteriorfthe ut heresnothinghatmust ethrownway.ts nteriors ompletelydible,andforhowmanyllnessess it a remedy!. .5This kind ofpoetryhas remained opularthroughouthecenturies.nIndia,for nstance,he o-calledpuzzlesof Goraknth re still speciallypopular in ruralBengal. Also, a studyof popularSindhiriddles ndconundrums,witha view to the paradoxical and probablymysticalmeaning xpressed nthem,wouldbe worthwhile.Interestinglynough, he mageryfthemystical aradox eemsnot ochangemuchfrom ulture o culture.One constant endencystoprovethat pparentweakness an finally rovestrongerhanstubborn rideand thatthe senseperceptionsre more or less interchangeable. henone of theultabhansiverses laims that:

The cow hascut he ion npieces nddevouredit],6it immediatelyemindsme ofa NorthAfrican ufistory oldbyEmileDermenghem.7 conceited ufi,riding nhis ion,went ovisit nothermasterwho lived n the mountains.Havingarrived t the master's on-vent,he was told to tetherhis lion in the cow's stable.Grudginglye3 Sharhibusan as Gupta,ObscureReligiousCults, rd d. (Calcutta, 969), p-pendix E): "Enigmatic anguage ftheOld andMedievalPoets,"dd.413-24.4 Das Gupta,ObscureReligious ults, . 415.5 tfamzaTahir, 'at-tasawwufsh-sha'b i'1-adabt-turk'"Mqjalla Kulliyatl-db (Cairo), 12,no. 2 (1950);for full itation,eeAnnemariechimmel, ysticalDimensionsf slam Chapel Hill,N.C., 1975),p. 334.6 Das Gupta,ObscureReligious ults, . 418.7 EmileDermenghem,e Culte esSaintsdans 'IslammaghrbinParis,1954),p.



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708 ANNEMARIE SCHIMMELobeyed. Enteringhe master's oom, he Sufifoundhim urrounded ydancing irls,whichmadehim uestionhis olleague's piritual ank venmore.But when hevisitorwent o the tablenextmorningomounthislion,he foundthattheanimal had beendevouredbythe cow.Otherultabhansipoetry romndia,particularlyrom he ater radi-tion, s reminiscentf Mauln Rm's paradoxes.Thus, the linesbySundards, The blind ees he hree orlds nd thedeafhears ariousounds; hemanwithoutnose

smellshe otus nd thedumb uppliesmuch ews,8recallRm'stale in theMathnaw DaftarIII, line2609ff.) bout thefarsightedlindperson, he harp-hearingeafperson, nd thenakedonewith long kirt,ll ofwhomrepresentertain ices.This taleserves s asimilar nstance,fwe prefer ot to consider nlyGermanfairy ales ornursery hymesnwhich uchpeople playa prominentole.In the Indian tradition,uchpoemscan be used to show howmayaplays tstricks n thepersonwho has notyetopenedhiseyesto reality.Moregenerally, hey an also reflect n thechangeofsenses necstasy,whenduringheunitive ision hedifferencesnsensual xperiencere nolongerfelt, s Ibn al-Frid has shown o beautifullyn his Ta'iyya:I knew or ure hatwearereally ne, nd the obrietyofunion estoredhenotion f eparation,andmywhole eingwas a tongueospeak, n eye osee,an ear tohear, nd a hand o seize.9Just s theexperiencetself an be expressed nly nparadoxes, o thetrue ontent fthe xperience, amely,God's presence,an beexpressedonlybilkaifa "withoutHow") and necessarilyeads themystical oetto useoxymoran anattemptoconveywhat annotbeconveyedhrough"logical" anguage. husGodisdescribeds "positive ot-Being"'adam),or berhelleNacht by QuirinusKuhlmannnd otherGermanBaroquemystics), r as netineti No no' (in theUpanishads).In this tate hemysticives nperfectimelessness. e breaks hroughthezunnr "the infidel's irdle")ofcreated, ence erial ime, s Iqbalwouldsay.10 his s a reexperiencingftheProphet's tate t theend ofhismVrj,whenhe exclaimed i ma'a Allah waqt ("I have a timewith8 Das Gupta,ObscureReligiousCults, . 419.9 Reynold . Nicholson,tudies n slamicMysticismCambridge,921, eprinted1967), hap.3,verse 80,of bnal-Frid'sTa'iyya.10 SeeAnnemariechimmel, abriel'sWing: Studynto heReligiousdeasof irMuhammadqbal (Leiden,1963),p. 295.



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YUNUSEMRE'S TEKERLEME 709God") and eventhe oftiestpiritual eing,Gabriel,was excluded.Thistimelessnesseads themystical oetsto makestrange ssertionswhichinvert hesequenceof events.A songof an ulta haul inBengal goes:nThe father asborn n thedayofthemother's arriage,and the on was born wodays ater.The line mmediatelyemindshe slamicist f the mostfamouspara-doxical poeminArabic,Hallaj's qasida:Uqtulr thiqtl . .Killme, my rustworthyriends,for nmybeing illed heresmy ife. . .12This, too, is a phrasewhich reoccursuniversallyn mystical oetry,alluding s itdoesto themysteryfthefinal nity f ife nd death. Jal-lj states owards he end of hisqasidaMymother asborne er ather verilyhatsamazing,andmyyoung aughtersavebecomemy isters . .The Iraki scholarKmilM. ash-Shaibhas collected remarkablyargenumber f Arabicpoems nthemysticalradition hich sethiskindofparadox.The cycleofpoems n honorofal-IJalljbythe ontemporaryIrakipoet Abdulwahhb l-Bayat, speciallyts hird oem "Mosaic"),is a finemodern ontinuationftheparadoxical, imeless,ndspacelessexpressions f IJallj.13The mystics ad to resort o paradoxesfor woreasons: o convey tleast weakreflectionftheTruth, ndtohide he ecret f oving nionfrom heeyesofthe commonpeople.Not in vain was Hallj accusedofand executedfor fshaas-sirr"Divulgingthe ecret").That iswhy hemystics referredo use a languagewhichthe uninitiated ould notunderstand.heywouldspeak n shrt "hints, llusions"), s Kharrzand,following im,Junaid l-Baghdddidduring heheight f lassical11 Das Gupta,ObscureReligiousCults, . 423.12 KamM.ash-Shaibi,harh wnal-Hallj(Baghdad ndBeirut,973), . 166 .A Germanranslationf hepoem s n Annemariechimmel,l-Halladsch, rtyrerder GottesliebeCologne,1968),p. 48ff.TheoxymoronfLife Deathpermeates ysticaliterature,e t nthework f t.John ftheCross,Richard rashaw, r MaulnRumi; nfact,hewhole oncept ffana and baq in Sufism an be seen as a perfectxpressionf this xperience.Likewise,he ymbolismf heMevlevi ancepointsodyingndbeing esurrected,oStirb ndWerde.For theuse ofparadox ngeneraln slamicmysticism,ee Toshihikuzutsu,TheParadox fLightnd DarknessntheGarden fMysteryfShabastari,"nAnagogieQualities fLiterature,d. byJoseph . StrelkaUniversityark,Pa., 1971).13 'Abdulwahhabl-Bayati, afar l-faqrwa'th-taura Baghdad, 965); GermantranslationppearsnAnnemariechimmel,eitgenssischerabische yrikTbin-gen,1975),p. 77ff.



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710 ANNEMARIE SCHIMMELSufism,14r theywouldeven invent rtificialanguages,ike thebalbailn.15ven "kitchenocabulary" ighteused oallude othehighest ysteriesfunitivexperience,s Hellmut itter as shown nthebasisofa Turkishmanuscript.16Onthe ther and, aradoxicalanguagesmore onduciveoa trueunderstandingf heTruthhan verydayanguage afactmostucidlyvisiblen heBuddhistradition,herehe enmasterives is isciplesko'an norder oproduceatori,he uddenlluminationfthemind.Questionsuch s "Hasthe og heBuddha aturernot? Joshuaid:Mu,"17remeant o be an"intellectualhock echnique."18t eems hatthis ame ermanbe ppliedothe ffectntendedy everal ufi ayingsandpoems. hefirstopointothis spect fmysticalanguagen slamwasW. H. TempleGairdner ho, nhis ntroductionoal-Ghazzal'sMishktl-anwr,xpressedhe eelinghat his willfularadox"nd"pioushighfalutin'"asperhapsintendedo make heir leshreeplittle or heir ealth'sake."He continued:Do we not ake heiran-guageoo eriously?tparadessscientific;t sreallyoetico-rhetorical."19His statementeems o be validformany arly ufidefinitions,utespeciallyor hepoetryhatdevelopedn the slamicands.Persianpoetrys filledwith aradoxicaltatements,articularlynRumi,whouses intellectualhock herapy"eryngeniously,o thepoint f ntro-ducing tories f an absolutely nmysticalrevendownrightulgarcharacterrusingwords romhe owerevels f verydayanguage.et,his anguage as never eenproperlytudied rom his iewpoint.heSufisn ndia,writingnPersian,arly rdu,ndthe egionalanguages(Sindhi, anjabi, ashto), ook ver his endency,ndwere lmoster-tainlynfluencedntheir seofparadoxes ytheultabhansioetryftheirHindu ompatriots.owever, true aradoxmust pringpon-14 See Paul Nwyia, . J.,Exgse oranique t angagemystiqueBeirut, 970),p.240 f.; eealso Schimmel,Mystical imensions,p.55,59.15 IgnazGoldziher,Linguistischesus derLiteraturermuhammedanischenys-tik," eitschrifter DeutschenMorgenlndischenesellschaft6 (1872):765;Ales-sandroBausani, About CuriousMystical anguage,"nEast and West , no.4(1958).16 Hellmut itter,PhilologicaX," Der Islam 25 1938);themanuscripts nAyaSofya2052,fol.53b.17 ZenkaiShibayama, en Comments n theMumonkanNewYork,1974),p. 19(story o. 1).18 EleanorMcCann,OxymoranSpanishMysticsndEnglish etaphysicalriters,"inComparativeiterature,969.19 W. H. TempleGairdner, l-GhazzalVsMishkat l-anwr": heNiche orLights(London,1915),p. 71.



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YUNUSEMRE'S TEKERLEME 111taneously rom xperience,20nd one of the weaknesses f ulfabhansipoetry,s wellas ofstandardized ufipoetry,s that heparadoxes oonbecomeclichs, osing heir pontaneitynd thus heir rovocativeness.Yunus seemsto havebeenthefirst reat xponent fthe artofpara-doxical poetrynTurkey.His tekerlemes, as far s we can judge,thestartingointfor his radition, hich ecame uitepopular here. unuswas followed nd, nmanynstances,urpassednthis ield yKaygusuzAbdal,whosecolorful oetry as beenexplaineddifferently after ll,AbdulbakiGlpinarlihas pointed utthatkaygusuz s a catchword orhashish, hus mplyinghatKaygusuz'spoemsmightbe theresults f"trips."21 ut even if this werethe case, his versefalls nto thesamecategory s theparadoxesoftheSufis, he Indianmystical ingers,heJapaneseZen monks, ndthemany ther epresentativesf themysticaltraditions. hey ll tried o alludeto,ratherhan xplain, heTruth hatliesbeyond hebifurcationntopositivendnegative, in ndyang,Nuncaeternumnd serial ime s it cameintoexistence,ccording o Islamicbelief, t theDay oftheCovenant, he rz-i lasi (see Sra 7/171)- aTruth hat s notto be attainedbyphilosophical nquiry, utonlybyexperience, y dhauq ("tasting"),as the Sufiswouldsay theveryworddhauq wouldfitperfectly ith hekitchenmageryhat ooms arge nbothRm'sand KaygusuzAbdal's poetry!).Yunus Emre's "nonsenseverses"mustnot be taken as an isolatedphenomenon.Rather, heybelongto a universal radition fmysticalexpression,n whichthemystic ries o explainthat which s beyondwordsbyusingparadoxes.For thevery act hathe who feelshimself obe "mute,withno tongue for]whathe has seen"speaks, nddespiteconstantreiterationf the ineffabilityf the last experience, oes onwriting oems ndlearned ooksdescribinghat xperience,s a paradoxin itself.

HarvardUniversity

20 R. H. Blyth, en in English iteraturend Oriental lassics Tokyo,1942; e-print, ewYork,1960),p. 183.21 KaygusuzAbdal,Hatayi,Kul Himmet,d. byAbdulbakiGlpinarli VarlikKlasikleri]Istanbul, 953);also seeSchimmel,Mystical imensions,. 335 f.. orGerman ranslationsf his poems, ee Annemariechimmel, us demgoldenenBecher: rkischeyrik on13.bis um 0.JahrhundertIstanbul, 973), p.59-63.

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Schimmel on Yunus emre

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