Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün

Hâr-ı pestin hâr saklar cânını
Nermlik döker semûrun kânını
Fırsatında düşmene viren emân
Kayd-ı nâ gibi olıser bî-gümân

In English

1. The hedgehog's spines guard its life; the sable's softness spills its blood. (The phrase "hâr-ı pestin" should most probably be read "hâr-püştün", that is, of the hedgehog; this reading is ours.)

2. Whoever grants quarter to the enemy when the chance is in his hands will, without a doubt, become like ... (What the phrase "kayd-ı nâ" refers to could not be resolved; the text may have been corrupted in transmission.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This two-couplet passage is in the mesnevi form, each couplet rhyming within itself (cânını/kânını, emân/bî-gümân). Hüseyin Hüsameddin Yasar gives the passage in his Amasya Tarihi with the words "also from it", after a couplet that Mecdî Mehmed Efendi quotes from Ahmedî's İskendernâme. The source does not give the metre; the lines fit the aruz pattern "fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün", a scansion that is ours. Whether the two couplets follow each other in the work or were chosen by Mecdî from different places is not known. Hüsameddin's text is given as it stands. In the translation of the entry in the encyclopedia section, no prose rendering was given for these lines because of their archaic words and corruptions; the explanation below proposes a reading for the first couplet and leaves the last line of the second open.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first couplet draws a lesson for life from two examples taken from the animal world. In Persian "hâr-püşt" (spiny-backed) is the name of the hedgehog; the hedgehog saves its life by showing its spines to its enemy. The sable, on the other hand, is hunted for its soft and precious fur; its "nermlik", its softness, leads to the shedding of its own blood. A plain contrast is set up between the two lines, between hard and soft, between the life that is saved and the blood that is spilled; the similarity of sound between "cânını" (its life) and "kânını" (its blood) reinforces the contrast. The couplet belongs to the type called irsâl-i mesel, in which a maxim is supported by a concrete example.

The second couplet carries this lesson into politics: whoever spares his enemy when the chance is in his hands will in the end come to harm, like the sable that pays the price of its softness. Since the comparison at the end of the line cannot be understood from the text, this interpretation is drawn from the flow of the first couplet. Such counsel fits the general character of the İskendernâme, which, around the conquests of Alexander the Great, offers knowledge on the ethics of kingship and the government of the state. The TEİS entry notes that in this work Ahmedî, on various occasions arising from Alexander's deeds, offers religious, moral and practical teaching. That these couplets appear in a work presented to princes engaged in a struggle for the throne, such as Emîr Süleyman and Çelebi Mehmed, suggests that the counsel may also be read in connection with the political climate of the time; this is our interpretation.

Bibliography

Online sources