All poets have unique areas, all these are-
monuments. However, none of them has the characteristics of the others. The point where most of them converge is to bow to the great figures of their time, to conform to their era and to speak “mutayyabât”.
But Mevlânâ… A superiority over Hafız’s rintlik; a much broader, boundless wisdom and human perspective than Sâdi’s, a heavier truth than a stone, a judgment more profound than Senâi’s, an unparalleled mastery, a straightforward ijtihâd and fixing this ijtihâd in poetry; a more widespread understanding of everything among the people than Attâr’s, expressing it in poetry, at the same time not separating from the world and living; a greater zühd and freedom than Ansâri’s, not by trying to create art by thinking in a poetic way, but by speaking from the soul; a philosophy of the Hukemâ, not by teaching like Nâsır, but by explaining openly, broadly, in a popular, human way, often based on events, often based on folk tales, but not one-sided, observing all views, examining and criticizing them during the process… Finally, even more special, original and unattainable discoveries than Sâib’s, than Hatif’s, than Kelim’s… All these can be said about Mevlânâ, and our own words testify to this; all of these are present in Mevlânâ, but Mevlânâ is not present in any of those we have mentioned. Every being is a part of the universe, every being has a manifestation, a form, a being separate from the universe; but no being contains the entire universe. However, the universe is the whole that encompasses all beings. Here is Mevlânâ, a universe; a material that will become the future, preparing the past and the future, constantly renewed, existing from the beginning to the end.
There is something else in his poems:
In classical Eastern literature, writings in the mesnevi style, except for stories, are dominated by couplets. Each couplet is a complete meaning, having almost no relation to the other couplet. In one couplet, the poet expresses rintlik, in another he thinks of the future, in another he leans on God, and then in the next couplet he asks for wine from the grape. Then the gazel is not less than this number of couplets, it does not exceed this number of couplets. However, every poem of Mevlânâ is a whole; whatever idea he takes up in the first couplet, he follows it through to the end, not turning to another place, the number of couplets is as desired. Some of his gazels are long and continue to be long, some end in four couplets. We are sure of this; those who consider the Mesnevi as the essence of the Quran, who regard every word as inspired, have paid attention to this-
just as the verses have “nuzul sebepleri” (reasons for revelation), and the hadiths have “vürüd sebepleri” (reasons for transmission), every poem of Mevlânâ is also based on an event, follows a thought, defends a thesis; this is the kind of person, this is humanity, this is life, this is the soul; for those who are in the present and those who are in the past, he is the purpose; for those who criticize, he is the subject; for those who love, he is the soul; for friends, he is the essence; for tongues, he is the word; Mevlânâ is everything.
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This great figure, whose thoughts are inseparable from his way of life, whose essence is in his words, his Mesnevi has been translated into many languages, many commentaries have been written on this work, and many anthologies have been made from this work (Our translation of the Mesnevi, Istanbul, 1942-1946, pages A-S). As for the Divân-ı Kebir; this very important, very high work, somehow has not been treated as it should be. The late Reynold A. Nicholson printed the text and translation of forty-eight poems from the Divân (Selected poems From the Divân-i Shams-i Tabrizi of Jalalluddin Rumi, Cambridge University Press, 1898), and some of his prose translations of the Mesnevi and the Divân, as well as his prose translation of Fihi mâ-fib’t, were published under the title Rumi: Poet and Mystic by A. J. Arberry with a foreword, in which only six poems from the Divân-ı Kebir are present. Rızâkulı Han Hidayet has compiled an anthology under the title Divân-ı Semsa’l-Hakaayik, which is known to contain many errors, and also includes poems that are not by Mevlânâ.
— Among the anthologies made from the Divân-ı Kebir, we were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to publish the one that includes the most poems from this work. This selected bouquet of flowers, which we have named Gül-deste, has brought two hundred and eighty poems from the Divân-ı Kebir to the lips of the lovers, has impressed the hearts in turmoil, has presented them to the eyes that watch, has offered them as a gift of life, as a thrill of union, as a source of joy to those who long. In this work, we have found one title for each of the phrases that appear in the gazels of the Pir, divided the gazels into sections, and in this division, we have tried to keep the subject and the chronological basis in mind. Perhaps, in order for the curious to compare the translation with the original, we have written the first couplet of each gazel on top of the translation.
Almost all those who have smelled this bouquet of roses said, “Why don’t you give us the real rose garden?” and requested the text of the Divân-ı Kebir. Whereas we had intended to present the entire work by dividing it into sections, based on the same foundation. We realized that there is a thought above our thought, a desire above our desire, and that this thought, this desire, is the very truth itself. Indeed, should we always take the original texts from the hands of the people, and always look at the treasures of our country in the hands of others?
We went to Konya, we faced the Gümüş Esik, we had a photograph taken of the Divân; it is a duty to express our gratitude and appreciation to the Maârif Vekilliği, the Müzeler Umum Müdürlüğü, and the Director of the Konya Museum, who gave us their permission. We wanted each volume of the Divân-ı Kebir, which cannot fit into a single volume, to embrace the exact reprint of the texts that are translated in that volume. Even with this desire, we had also had written on the back of the Divân’s cover, in Persian, “Divân-ı Kebir”.
However, various technical impossibilities have limited our desire-