Folk poet (b. 1772, Yeniçağa / Bolu –
d. 1846, Ankara). His original name was İbrahim Dertli. His childhood passed as
a shepherd in his village. He left his village when the feudal lord of the area
seized the land after his father’s death. He played the bağlama*, the
traditional stringed instrument, and read poems in İstanbul, Konya, Tokat,
Zile, Çankırı, Amasya under the name Lütfi and worked in various jobs. After he
solved a riddle in a coffee house where minstrels gathered in İstanbul, his popularity
spread. The Bolu Governor Hüsrev Paşa and Sultan Mahmut II became his patrons
due to the eulogy he wrote praising the fez. However, he was dismissed from his
post as the Senator of Çağa with the claim that he had embezzled taxes. He
tried to commit suicide with a razor in the town of Gölpazarı in Bilecik after
a period of depression (1840). After this incident, he started to use the pen
name Dertli (Sorrowful) instead of Lütfi. He lived under the patronage of
Alişan Bey in his later years.
Dertli, one of the greatest masters of
Turkish folk poetry, used syllabic and prosodic meters together as did many
poets of his era and wrote lyric poems and eulogies influenced by Fuzuli.
However, his true mastery can be seen in his minstrel music, poems on the
creation and the hymns he wrote as well as his elegies for the Kerbela Martyrs.
Rıza Tevfik Bölükbaşı is one of the many poets whose poetry is influenced by
Dertli.
KAYNAKÇA: A. Talât Onay / Âşık Dertli: Hayatı ve Divanı (1928), Sadettin Nüzhet Ergun / Halk Edebiyatı Antolojisi (1938), Fuad Köprülü / Türk Saz Şairleri (c. 3, 1940), Saime Çelikel / Âşık Dertli Divanı (1943), A. Talât Onay / Dertli ve Seyrânî Eseri Münasebetiyle (Türk Folklor Araştırmaları, sayı: 62, 1954), S. Nüzhet Ergun / Bektaşî Şairleri (1930), Sadettin Nüzhet Ergun / Halk Edebiyatı Antolojisi (1938), Fuad Köprülü / Türk Saz Şairleri (c. 3, 1940), İbnülemin Mahmud Kemal İnal / Son Asır Türk Şairleri II, Cahit Öztelli / Dertli-Seyrânî (Hayatı, Sanatı, Şiirleri, 1953), Cevdet Canpulat / Dertli ve Seyrânî (Türk Folklor Araştırmaları, Sayı: 61, 1954), H. Nezihi Okay / Bolulu Dertli: Divanı-Hayatı-Şiirleri (1954), Fuad Köprülü / Saz Şairleri (1962), Refik Ahmet Sevengil / Yüzyıllar Boyunca Halk Şiiri (1965), Şemsettin Kutlu / Şair Dertli (1979), Abdullah Uçman / Rıza Tevfik’in Tekke ve Halk Edebiyatı ile İlgili Makaleleri (1982), Behçet Necatigil / Edebiyatımızda İsimler Sözlüğü (1983), Turgut Karabey / Dertli İbrahim (TDE Ansiklopedisi, c. 2), Şükran Kurdakul / Şairler ve Yazarlar Sözlüğü (gen. 6. bas. 1999), İhsan Işık / Resimli ve Metin Örnekli Türkiye Edebiyatçılar ve Kültür Adamları Ansiklopedisi (2006, gen. 2. bas. 2007) - Ünlü Sanatçılar (Türkiye Ünlüleri Ansiklopedisi, C. 5, 2013) - Encyclopedia of Turkey’s Famous People (2013).
