Dilzara and Civan

A legendary love saga begins.
Two lovers cross paths through the ordeal of fate.
One is named Civan, the other Dilzara.
Civan becomes the prey of a merciless hunter named Dilzara,
He is stabbed in the heart with a pair of black eyes,
Civan, who did not know what love was, would soon know her with all his being.

Civan has a ring made.
Only one name is engraved on it: Dilzara.
Time after time,
He falls into the intoxication of love,
He stops eating and drinking.
Dilzara haunts him,
Everywhere he looks he sees her.
His heart can't bear it,
because Dilzara has burned him away.

One evening,
Civan's heart burns so much that
he throws himself into the Tigris.
But even the cool waters of the Tigris
cannot extinguish his love fire.
And at that moment,
A miracle happens...
The Tigris speaks,
It speaks as if the sound of its waters echoes in Civan's ear:

“Love...
It kills, then resurrects.
It kills not once, but many times.
It resurrects a thousand times.
Sometimes it's the dagger in the wound,
Sometimes it's the deepest ointment.
It's such a disease,
Sometimes it makes you tired,
But it's so sweet,
It can't make you give up.
Even my cool waters can't extinguish the fire of your love.
Because you need to burn, Civan...”

One day, he took his head and went up to Caferî Sadık
Hill. He started to shout while watching Cizre.
And the following words came out of his mouth:
"O Cizre!
You witnessed Mem û Zin three hundred years ago,
perhaps many unknown loves...
Know that I, Civan, love Dilzara..”

Dilzara's mind is also on Civan.
I wonder what he'll do now.
I couldn't talk much...
I wonder if he'll come after me.
Her eyes were shining,
Talking to me.
I wish I'd stayed there,
What am I going to do without him?
He talks to himself,
She misses Civan very much.

Dilzara's father, Mir, knocks on the door.
He wipes away his tears,
Mir asks:
‘Why are you upset, girl?’
Dilzara, slowly lifting her eyes,
‘I'm not bored, Dad,’ he says,
And he'll let the matter drop.

One day
Civan leaves Cizre.
Drunk with love, he hits the road.
A dengbêj on the roads of Diyarbakır,
He recites Mem û Zin klam to him.
And caravans enter through the Mardin Gate.
Nothing will be the same anymore.

He meets an uncle on the road.
The uncle asks:
‘Son, what are you doing in these hands?’
Civan answers:
‘I came out from the roads of Cizre,
I've reached the hands of Diyarbakir.
I come to be the prey of my hunter.
I have ninety-nine wounds in my heart.
Let him open the hundredth,
I still won't give him up.’

Uncle says:
‘Come, let's have a drink at the café.’
Civan shakes his head:
‘I won't come.
The path of love is calling me...’

Civan saw Dilzara in front of him,
Suddenly he collapses.
Love has hit him so hard,
When you open your eyes.
He finds himself in the palace of the Mirs of Diyarbakir.
He stays there until he recovers.

One day,
They meet in the Hevsel Gardens.
Dilzara, looking into his eyes, says:
‘Civan, I've made meftune for you...’
Civan responds with a smile:
‘Can't you see how I burn?
You've already made me a favourite.’

Dilzara says:
‘You think you're the only one who burns,
Don't I burn for this love?
You think I'm ungrateful?
Love is such a thing,
You can't say enough,
You can't be heard if you wail.
No matter what you do,
It's indescribable.’

Civan says with a sigh:
‘How long will I burn, loser?
When I first saw you in Cizre.
I was already burnt to ashes...’
‘You are the one sent to give me hope,
I'll wait for you with hope,
I ask for you with hope from the Almighty.
I ask for you in my prayers,
You are my constant prayer.’

‘I want you every moment,
I sleep with you and wake up with you.
You're always around me.
You're just you.
I wish at every step,
The one I never stop wishing for,
I wanted in prayer again and again,
I want to put my hands up and have my fill,
You are my love that I shed tears while wishing.’

But these conversations,
There is another heart that witnesses in the Hevsel Gardens: Delzin.
It turned out she had her heart set on Civan too.
‘Either it will be mine,
Or he'll die!’
And he runs and tells everything to Mir, Dilzara's father.

Mir calls Civan.
He asks:
‘Who are you, young man? What are you?’
Civan answers with his head held high:
‘Jizre is my home,
Noah is my ancestor.
I am the knowledge of Al-Jazari,
I am from the city of Mem û Zin.
I am the youth of Cizre.
I am the divan of Melayê Cizîrî,
I'm Mela's neighbour,
I am Seyda's love pen.’

Mir shakes his head, he's not angry.
Because he knows that love is null and void.
And he says:
‘He who put love in the heart has given the judgement,
You can't pass judgement on his judgement.
But I have one condition:
Since you're Mela's countryman,
You have to burn in the fire of love like Mela.
If you burn in the asylum for forty days,
Dilzara is yours.
Remember, bread is not baked without labour.
Love also requires burning...’

And Civan,
It burns in the fire of love.
The asylum is as hot as an oven.
Civan writes poems:

‘I'm in love, in love.
I'm in love with love.
I burn for love.
I drank the sherbet of martyrdom of love.
I am the one who fights for this disease.
I should be thrown into the fire like Abraham,
I'd be crucified like Jesus,
Still, I won't give up on my mate.
Let me sacrifice to my lover's locks... Sacrifice.’

Dilzara falls ill without Civan.
Lokman Hekim comes and takes care of her,
Civan is the cure for your troubles.
It comes out of Dilzara's mouth:

I burn with longing,
Like a melting candle,
I write poems longing for you,
I listen to the ballad of love.

I write folk songs with longing for my love,
Words are inadequate to express my longing,
It is very difficult to explain longing with longing,
There is a longing that overflows from within me.
My tears fall with longing,
My tears merge with the ink,
I remember my Civan with longing.’

And Delzin comes,
‘I hope you die with that longing,’ he says to Dilzara.
Dilzara sighs, says nothing.
Delzin leaves the city with envy.

Dilzara's brother says to Delzin: ‘Dear Lord, it's good that I didn't make you my destiny.
I was in love with you, but my love for you is dead.
It will never be resurrected again.
Your envy will eat your head one day.’

Delzin, the last time you go up to the walls of Diyarbakir,
He would look at his hometown and leave his hometown.
He sees the happiness of a couple,
And he gets jealous.
There's a storm,
Delzin loses his balance and falls from the walls,
And there he lost his life.

In the asylum,
A ney moans, a reed echoes.
This echo tells Civan's heart.
The pain he suffered and the lines he wrote echo on the wall.
Civan is between the ney and the reed,
He leaves his mind and thoughts with Dilzara.
And falls into a deep sleep.

Civan entered an office,
He realised there was no love around.
‘Something is missing here,’ he said.
They said, ‘Do you ask about love? There is no love in this station.’
He left that place,
He entered the street of the station of love.
Just as he was about to enter,
‘It is not your place to enter this office,’ they said.
He said, ‘I'm honoured,’ he said.
He leaned his back against the door of the office of love.
One dawn, love came to mercy.
They took him to the office.

Shivering Civan,
As soon as you step into the office of love
He felt a pleasant warmth in his heart.
He was ecstatic.
‘Who are you?’ they said.
‘I am of love.’
‘What is your purpose?’
‘It is love.’
‘Do you believe in monotheism?’
‘My religion, my faith is monotheism,’ he said.
‘That door is yours.
Never leave that door.’
‘I have become the guardian of the gate of love,’ he said at that moment.
He heard a voice:
‘You are not the guard, you are the owner.
Enter the door, it is now your home.’

Civan, burnt to ashes by love,
He meets his Dilzara.
Civan wears a shawl made of goat hair,
Dilzara is a white fistan from the Cizre region.
A wedding is held for forty days and forty nights.

Four years later Dilzara dies,
Civan sleeps at Dilzara's grave every night.
And one day Civan saw Dilzara in his dream,
Dilzara says: ‘Civan, isn't it time?’
Civan spends four years in worship,
At the end of four years, Civan dies too. He reaches Mevla.
Their love turns from metaphorical love to divine love.

Sidar Sevimli