AHMED YESEVI and YUNUS EMRE - the FIRST TWO GREAT TURKISH SUFI MASTER POETS - Selected Poems

AHMED YESEVI & YUNUS EMRE THE FIRST TWO GREAT TURKISH SUFI MASTER POETS Selected Poems: Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Ahmed Yesevi was born in Sayram in 1093 and died in 1166 in Hazrat-e Turkestan, (both cities now in Kazakhstan). He was a Turkish poet and Sufi or Dervish who exerted a powerful influence on the development of mystical orders throughout the Turkish-speaking world. Yesevi is the earliest known Turkish poet who composed poetry in an early Turkish dialect,...
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AHMED YESEVI & YUNUS EMRE THE FIRST TWO GREAT TURKISH SUFI MASTER POETS Selected Poems: Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Ahmed Yesevi was born in Sayram in 1093 and died in 1166 in Hazrat-e Turkestan, (both cities now in Kazakhstan). He was a Turkish poet and Sufi or Dervish who exerted a powerful influence on the development of mystical orders throughout the Turkish-speaking world. Yesevi is the earliest known Turkish poet who composed poetry in an early Turkish dialect, Chagatai. He was a pioneer of popular mysticism, founded the first Turkish order, (the Yeseviye), that quickly spread over the Turkish-speaking areas. Yesevi had numerous students/followers in the region. His poems created a new genre of mystical folk poetry in Central Asia and influenced many Sufi/Dervish poets including Rumi, Hafiz (who both knew Turkish) and Yunus Emre. The book of his poems, the Divan-e Hikmet (Book of Wisdom), consists mainly of gazels and murabbas (foursomes) and kosmos (combined roba'is) and munajat (prayers). All are generously represented in this translation in the correct forms for the first time. Yunus Emre (d. 1320) is considered one of the most important Turkish poets having a great influence on Turkish literature from his own time until today. His poems concern divine love as well as human love of the Divine as God and the Perfect Master, Beloved, Friend and human destiny and weakness. Little is known of his life other than he became a Sufi dervish Perfect Master (Qutub). A contemporary of Rumi, it is told the two great souls met: Rumi asked Yunus what he thought of his huge work, the Mesnevi. Yunus said, "Excellent! But I would have done it differently." Surprised, Rumi asked how. Yunus replied, "I'd have written, 'I came from the eternal, clothed myself in flesh, took the name Yunus.'" Here is the largest selection of his poems translated into English mainly in the form of the gazel that he often used. The correct rhyme-structure has been kept as well as the beauty and meaning of these powerful, mystical poems. Included... Introductions on their Life & Times and the Form and History & Function of the gazel and mesnevi, a chapter on Sufism & Poetry, Turkish Poetry and the Turkish Language, Selected Bibliographies. Large Format Paperback 7" x 10" Pages 618 Paul Smith (b. 1945) is a poet, author and translator of many books of Sufi poets from the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages... including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, 'Attar, Sana'i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Rudaki, Yunus Emre, Shah Latif, Bulleh Shah, Mahsati, Lalla Ded, Rahman Baba, Iqbal, Jigar, Ghalib, Makhfi, Ibn al-Farid, Abu Nuwas and many others, and poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, children's books and a dozen screenplays. amazon.com/author/smithpa