Rumi's Contemporary Sufi Poet, Yunus Emre

The great Turkish Sufi Poet, Yunus Emre
(1238 -1320)

Shrine of Yunus Emre in Turkey




Selected Poems by Yunus Emre (English)


Yunus Emre Divani (in Turkish)





Mystic is what they call me,
Hate is my only enemy;
I harbor a grudge against no one,
To me, the whole wide world is one.





Torah, Psalms, Gospel, and Quran
what these books have to say,
we found in the body.
The night and the day, the planets,
the words inscribed on the Holy Tablets,
the hill that Moses climbed, the Temple,
and Israfil's trumpet, we observed in the body.
Everybody says these words of Yunus are true.
Truth is wherever you want it.
We found it all within the body.





For those who truly love God and his ways
All the people of the world are brothers.
We regard no one's religion as contrary to ours,
True love is born
when all faiths are united as a whole.
True faith is in the head, not in the headgear.





You better seek God right in your own heart
He is neither in the Holy Land nor in Mecca.





When love arrives, all needs and flaws are gone.
I love you beyond the depths of my soul.
I was born with divine love.
Death is for beasts, it is not the Lover's destiny.
I love you, so the hand of death can never touch me. 





Firm hands will lose their grip one day
And tongues that talk will soon decay:
The wealth you loved and stored away
Will go to some inheritor.





Come, let us all be friends for once
Let us make life easy on us,
Let us be lovers and loved ones,
The earth shall be left to no one.

Excerpts from the great Turkish scholar, Talat Halman's "Yunus Emre and His Mystical Poetry"



Yunus Emre was one of the first and most influential Turkish poets and Sufi philosophers. He was considered to be the founder of Anatolian Turkish literature and, in that sense, is compared to Dante in Europe. His Sufi approach has influenced many Islamic sects; his hymns have been recited, chanted and handed down by mouth from one generation to the next since the late 13th century.Many poets who lived after his death borrowed his name and contributed to the major pool of hymns bearing his name. There exist numerous tombs attributed to him all over Anatolia.




A total of 357 poems have been attributed to him as a result of literary analysis. Yunus came from a poor peasant family and was initiated into a mystic sect of Islam. He is said to have met Rumi, the poet and founder of Mevlevi sect. According to Velayetname(the Book of the Saints of the Bektasi order), Yunus was a student of Tapduk Emre, a dervish who belonged to a school of Turkish intellectuals coming from Asia in front of the Mongol flood towards Anatolia. Yunus Emre lived in a most unstable, chaotic period of Anatolian history, a time when the Mongolian invaders abolished the Seljuk State.

Under these conditions of persistent injustice, robbery and murder, Yunus Emre invited people to the love of God, human beings, and peace.

I am not here on earth for strife
Love is the mission of my life.
See all people as equals,
See the humble as heroes.

Unlike Rumi who wrote in Persian, the literary language of the era, Yunus expressed himself in his native tongue, Turkish. His language is direct and easy-to-understand, while his style is rich in Sufi metaphors. His verses are full of penetrating, humane and enthusiastic feelings and ideas. According to his approach, God and man are the same; everyone has a piece of God within himself, and only the body dies and the soul reaches God, but only if he has loved mankind and forgiven faults, endured pains and tried to learn the secrets, the reasons, and the forms of being..

I am before, I am after
The soul for all souls all the way.
I'm the one with a helping hand
Ready for those gone wild, astray.

I made the ground flat where it lies,
On it I had those mountains rise,
I designed the vault of the skies,
For I hold all things in my sway.

To countless lovers I have been
A guide for faith and religion.
I am sacrilege in men's hearts
Also the true faith and Islam's way.

I make men love peace and unite;
Putting down the black words on white,
I wrote the four holy books right
I'm the Koran for those who pray.

It's not Yunus who says all this:
It speaks its own realities:
To doubt this would be blasphemous:
"I'm before-I'm after," I say.





Knowledge should mean a full grasp of knowledge:
Knowledge means to know yourself, heart and soul.
If you have failed to understand yourself,
Then all of your reading has missed its call.

What is the purpose of reading those books?
So that Man can know the All-Powerful.
If you have read, but failed to understand,
Then your efforts are just a barren toil.

Don't boast of reading, mastering science
Or of all your prayers and obeisance.
If you don't identify Man as God,
All your learning is of no use at all.

The true meaning of the four holy books
Is found in the alphabet's first letter.
You talk about that first letter, preacher;
What is the meaning of that-could you tell?

Yunus Emre says to you, Pharisee,
Make the holy pilgrimage if need be
A hundred times -- but if you ask me,
A visit to the heart is best of all.

To be real on this path you must be humble
If you look down at others you'll get pushed down the stairs.

If your heart goes around on high, you fly far from this path.
There's no use hiding it
What's inside always leaks outside.

Even the one with the long white beard, the one who looks so wise
If he breaks a single heart, why bother going to Mecca?
If he has no compassion, what's the point?

My heart is the throne of the Beloved,
the Beloved the heart's destiny:
Whoever breaks anther's heart will find no homecoming
in this world or any other.

The ones who know say very little
while the beasts are always speaking volumes;
One word is enough for one who knows.

If there is any meaning in the holy books, it is this:
Whatever is good for you, grant it to others too--

Whoever comes to this earth migrates back;
Whoever drinks the wine of love
understands what I say

Yunus, don't look down at the world in scorn

Keep your eyes fixed on your Beloved's face,
then you will not see the bridge
on Judgment Day.





The drink sent down from Truth,
we drank it, glory be to God.
And we sailed over the Ocean of Power,
glory be to God.

Beyond those hills and oak woods,
beyond those vineyards and gardens,
we passed in health and joy, glory be to God.

We were dry, but we moistened.
We grew wings and became birds,
we married one another and flew,
glory be to God.

To whatever lands we came,
in whatever hearts, in all humanity,
we planted the meanings Taptuk taught us,
glory be to God.

Come here, let's make peace,
let's not be strangers to one another.
We have saddled the horse
and trained it, glory be to God.

We became a trickle that grew into a river.
We took flight and drove into the sea,
and then we overflowed, glory be to God.

We became servants at Taptuk's door.
Poor Yunus, raw and tasteless,
finally got cooked, glory be to God.





My soul,
the way of the masters
is thinner than the thinnest.
What blocked Solomon's way was an ant.

Night and day the lover's
tears never end,
tears of blood,
remembering the Beloved.

"The lover is outcast and idle,"
they used to tell me.
It's true.
It happened to me.

I tried to make sense of the Four Books,
until love arrived,
and it all became a single syllable.

You who claim to be dervishes
and to never do what God forbids --
the only time you're free of sin
is when you're in His hands.

Two people were talking.
One said, "I wish I could see this Yunus."
"I've seen him," the other says,
"He's just another old lover."

True speech is the fruit of not speaking.
Too much talking clouds the heart.

If you want to clear the heart,
say this much, the essence of all talking:

Speak truly. God speaks through words truly spoken.
Falsity ends in pain.

Unless you witness all of creation in a single glance,
you're in sin even with all your religion.

The explanation of the Law is this:
The Law is a ship. Truth is her ocean.

No matter how strong the wood,
the sea can smash the ship.

The secret is this:
A "saint" of religion may in reality be an unbeliever.

We will master this science and read this book of love.
God instructs. Love is His school.

Since the glance of the saints fell on poor Yunus
nothing has been a misfortune.





Ask those who know,
what's this soul within the flesh?
Reality's own power.
What blood fills these veins?

Thought is an errand boy,
fear a mine of worries.
These sighs are love's clothing.
Who is the Khan on the throne?

Give thanks for His unity.
He created when nothing existed.
And since we are actually nothing,
what are all of Solomon's riches?

Ask Yunus and Taptuk
what the world means to them.
The world won't last.
What are You? What am I?

من برای جنگ نیامده ام تلاش من برای دوستی است


یونس امره

از مهمترين شاعران متصوف در قرن سيزدهم ميلادي يونس امره شاعر متصوف تركي مي باشد. يونس امره تركي را با طرز و اسلوبي هنرمندانه استفاده مي كند و به اين طريق مكتب خاصي ايجاد مي گردد. يونس امره در متون خود تركي را همراه كلمات فارسي و عربي مستعمل در زبان گفتاري مردم به كار مي گيرد. زيرا در اين دوران تركان با فرهنگ و زبان تصوفي آشنا گشته بودند. يونس امره را مي توان به عنوان نماينده ادبيات تصوفي از آسياي صغير معرفي كرد. ديوان اشعار تركي و يك مثنوي به زبان تركي دارد. در ديوانش 365 بيت وجود دارد كه 287 بيت آن به وزن هجايي و 69 بيت ديگر آن به وزن عروضي مي باشد

شاعر بزرگ ترك يونوس امره بى شك يكى از بزرگترين اومانيستهاى تاريخ بشرى است. ديوان يونوس امره٫ اؤيودنامه (رساله النصحيه) وى و اشعار ديگر او كه در آنها پرستش خدا٫ انسان٫ زيبايى و دوستى به زلالترين زبان و آهنگدارترين موسيقى ترنم میشوند٫ قرنهاست كه مانند خزينه اى پربها در تمام دنياى ترك زبان٫ در ميان توده مردم دوباره و دوباره خوانده میشوند

عشق يونوس امره مانند مولانا٫ تمام بشريت٫ از هر مليت و زبان و فرهنگ و دين را در برمیگیرد. اين٫ همان نگرش اسلام مردمى تركى است كه پس از قبول آيين اسلام از سوى تركان و با دميدن و غنى كردن آن با باورهاى باستانى انسانگرا٫ طبيعى و زيبايى دوست و مزج آزادگى و تساهل تركى در آن بوجود آمده است. بهترين تعريف از اين درك تركى 

اسلام را شايد از سروده زيرين يونس امره بتوان بدست آورد. يونس امره ميسرايد

بهشت و جهنم شما به چه درد من ميخورد؟
انجيل من هستم، منم نويسنده قرآن

در اينجا و آنجا به مسجد ميروم

قلبم در آنجا ميتپد و عبادت ميكند

و ديگر بار سوي كليسا پر ميكشد و

در آنجا كشيش ميشوم و انجيل ميخوانم

حرارت در آتش است٫ نه در ساج

درويشى نه با خرقه ميسر است نه با تاج

به دنبال هر چه هستى٫ آنرا در انسان جستجو كن
كه در قدس٫ در مكه و حج نتوانى بدست آوردش

وي در جايي ديگر ميگويد: تمام اديان براي ما راه راست است

گزیده اشعار ترکی یونس امره

عشق دورور دردين درماني
عشق يولوندا قويدوم جاني يونس امره
 ائيدور بونو بير دم عشقسيز اولماياييم





بيلمم نه ائده ييم
عشقين اليندن
قاندا گئده ييم
عشقين اليندن
مسكنيم داغلار
دورماز قان آغلار
گوز ياشيم چاغلار
عشقين اليندن
قديم ياي اولدو
ايشيم واي اولدو
باغريم ناي اولدو
عشقين اليندن
دينله زاريمي
وئرديم سيريمي
قودوم عاريمي
عشقين اليندن
واريم وئره ييم
عريان اولاييم
ذوقه اره ييم
عشقين اليندن
يونوسون سؤزو
قان آغلار گؤزو
دوغرودور اؤزو





عشقين اليندن

چيرپينيرام يانا، يانا،

عشق بويادي مني قانا
نه عاقلم، نه ديوانا،
بيرباخ مني عشق نئيله دي!
گاه اسه رم يئللر كيمي،
گاه توزلارام يوللار كيمي ،
گاه آخارام سئللر كيمي،
بير باخ مني عشق نئيله دي!
آخار سو كيمي چاغلارام ،
دردلي جيگه ريم داغلارام ،
شيخيمي آنييب آغلارام ،
بير باخ مني عشق نئيله دي!
دولاشيبان ائلدن- ائله ،
شيخيه سوردوم ديلدن- ديله
غربتده حاليم كيم بيله ،
بير باخ مني عشق نئيله دي !
يا الدن توت قالدير مني ،
يا وصلينه دالدير مني ،
چوخ آغلاتدين گولدور مني ،
بيرباخ مني عشق نئيله دي !
مجنون اولوب جان وئره رم ،‌
ياري رويا دا گؤره رم ،
اويانييب دالغين دورارام ،
بير باخ مني عشق نئيله دي !
مسكين يونوس بيچاره يم ،
باشدان آياغا يارايام ،‌
دوست اليندن آوارايام ،
بير باخ مني عشق نئيله دي !..