Photo: Dosseman, CC BY-SA 4.0

Manzume 48 — Cihân bir köhne yir geçmege yoldur

Amasya05 Editorial Board • Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk • 01 October 2026 • Updated: 14 October 2026 • 3 min reading

Süleyman Paşa dies in a fall from his horse while hunting in 758 (1357), Orhan Gazi soon after; the transience of the world is the theme of the four couplets that follow.

Contents 4

1Original Ottoman Turkish Text
2In English
3Literary and Historical Commentary
4Bibliography

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Cihân bir köhne yir geçmege yoldur
'Ömür de tîz geçer sanki o yildür

Benem diyü bu yirde da'vî itme
Yalan söz söyleyen añla bu dildür

Öñi aglar soñı aglar nazar kıl
Bu aglamaga di ne kāl u kîldür

Süleymân u Dâvud geçdi kamular
Unıduldı işi ne-y-ile bildür

In English

1. The world is an old place, a road for passing through; life too passes quickly, like the wind.

2. Do not lay claim in this place saying "it is I"; understand that it is this tongue that speaks lies.

3. Its beginning weeps, its end weeps, look; say, what gossip (is needed) for this weeping.

4. Süleyman and Davud, all have passed; their deeds are forgotten, by what should they be known.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Hunt and Two Deaths

Konur goes to Hacı İlbegi in the forty-first chapter, and Gazi Evrenez joins him as companion; they are left free to raid Dimetoka and the other lands. Süleyman Paşa meanwhile plunders the lands of Hayrabolu and Çorlu and returns to Gallipoli. One day while hunting they shoot an animal with an arrow; the animal flees, Süleyman Paşa rides after it, his horse's foot goes into a hole, the horse falls and Süleyman Paşa dies. The author dates the event to 758 (1357) and compares two reports: according to some Orhan Gazi died in the same year, but "the soundest account" is that his son Süleyman Paşa died two months before him.

An Old Place

These two deaths, heavy for a dynasty, are met with a lesson on transience. The world is a "köhne", worn-out place, only a road for passing through. The second couplet forbids laying claim with "it is I"; the same counsel was given in the verse at the beginning of Orhan's reign. The third couplet defines the two ends of human life, birth and death, by weeping. In the final couplet the mention of Süleyman and Davud, the prophet Solomon and his father the prophet David, is a clear allusion to the deaths of Süleyman Paşa and his father Orhan: the prophet who bore the same name and his father also passed away. Yoldur, yildür, dildür, kîldür, bildür: before the refrain "-dür" the sounds "-ol/-il/-ıl" rhyme.