Dear all,

I need a help in translating the following 6-line poem by Ercişli Emrah into English:
"Ben bir seyyah garip olsam giysem karayı karayı
Yitirdim nazlı yarimi bulsam arayı arayı

Yari düşürsem ardıma bir ateş düşse yurduna
Şu benim garip derdime bulsa çareyi çareyi

Uzak yollar yakın olsa her güzelde hakkım olsa
Yarim lokman hekim olsa sarsa yarayı yarayı"

Thanks!

Scott88,  check the following link, there is whole translation of those lyrics 

http://lyricstranslate.com/en/seyyah-traveler.html

I already read it, but I don´t believe it´s accurate.

These lyrics are from a poem of  Ercişli /Erzurumlu Emrah who lived in around 17^th century in eastern Anatolia.[ Ercis –a town of Van, /according to other researchers Erzurum] 

This is a love story , According to one of the story,  during Ottoman-Iran wars, Emrah’s lover Selvihan is captured by Iranian soldiers, and she is taken Iran as a captive. Emrah goes after her for years and years and he had suffered bitterly while looking for her. Since then, in that region and in other regions , many stories and poems were told reffering his sufferings of  love and pain while he was looking for her.

So, if we look at this lyrics in the light of the story above, we will see the pain and sufferings of him.

I would translate it as follows:

If only I was a poor traveler wearing black,

I lost my delicate lover,

if only I could find her searching ..and searching

I wish I could fetch my love,

leaving her land in flame,

If only this piteous sorrow of mine

would find a cure…a cure..

If only  the distances were  close

and in all women had I right

If only my love were Lokman Hekim

healing the  [my] wounds…the [my] wounds

* Lokman Hekim is a mytich person in history, he was believed to have power to cure all ilnesses.

According to some strories, he found the formula of immortality. But while he was passing a bridge , unluckly he lost it by dropping that bottle of immortality from the bridge.

Thank you for the full explanation, dear Tunci. The lyrics got even more meaningful after you illustrated the impressive story behind it.