[Orijinal Türkçe metin için ekli dökümanlara bkz.]

Riza Tevfik in Libanon, between 1939-40 ( private archive of Nedret Ishli, Istanbul )

I have arrived from behind the mountains

Above the oceans

I have arrived to give you the greeting

Of the land of the saints.

***

I have reached a famous city,

with a present for the Friend,

I have come to pick roses

In the garden of the saints.

***

I was a troubled and greyish (water) stream

I have came to the land of love,

I have found happiness in boiling,

Filtered, i have reached limpidity.

***

I have came to prostrate my self

By respect, before the land of Yunus.

I have errased the rust of my heart,

I have cleaned my self and became pure.

***

I have overfilled, i am flowing.

I am infatuated, i cry.

I have spilled the secrets that spring from the soul,

And i went out.

***

Riza Tevfik, dont drift away

From Allah, the tekke;

As for me, i have liberated myself from evil,

I have bowed and went straight.

***

Original Turkish and French Translation by Thierry Zarcone:

***

Composed ‘ in the style of  Yunus’, by Riza Tevfik

after a visit in Bursa to his turbe (tomb)

in Thierry Zarcone’s

‘ Mystiques, Philosophes et Francs-Macons en Islam’

Jean Maisonneuve Editeur, Paris 1993.

Page 492/493/494.

More about Riza Tevkik