Observations placeholder
Yunus Emre
Identifier
006310
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Yunus Emre (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.
A description of the experience
Yunus Emres from the City of the Heart
This poem starts with a wish to enter the spiritual world
Poor Yunus is, as all, by nature's fourfold elements sustained
I yearn to be within the mystery, of Love and life contained
And his wish is granted
Engulfed by fire of Love I walk, blood hued, for all the world to see
No more is mind, nor mindlessness: come, see what Love has made of me
One moment I am dust upon the Road – the next, as breezes free
And now, a flowing brook become: come see what Love has made of me
I am a foaming mountain stream; my Being writhes in agony
Weeping, as I recall my Sheyk; come see what Love has made of me
My eyes with tears of blood are filled; a stone is set where heart should be
You sufferers, you know my state; come see what Love has made of me
O raise me by the hand – O bring me to You, where I long to be
You made me weep – let me now smile; come see what Love has made of me
As Mejnun once, so now I roam; in dreams alone my Love I see
And waking; am brought low again; come see what Love has made of me
Poor Yunus I, now wholly spent; from head to foot my body rent
Far, far from Friendship's lands now sent; come see what Love has made of me