Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Ḳaġan aslanlar eger añrar-ısa
Añlaya her kim aña uġrar-ısa
Ḳanda egri var-ısa ṭutmaġıl daḳ
Ṣāʿiḳa ḳoç ḳılıcı ṭoġrar-ısa

In English

1. If raging lions roar, let whoever comes upon them understand (what that sound means).

2. Wherever there is something crooked, do not hold "daḳ" to it; if the thunderbolt cuts the double sword. (The meaning of the word "daḳ" in the third line is not explained in the source; the line may be understood as "wherever there is something crooked, do not touch it, do not meddle with it"; this reading and sense are our own. The fourth line can be read in two ways, as the source understands it, "if the thunderbolt cuts the double sword", or as "if the double sword cuts like a thunderbolt"; the second reading is our own.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a tuyugh (tuyuğ) of four lines. The first, second and fourth lines rhyme in the words "añrar-ısa", "uġrar-ısa" and "ṭoġrar-ısa"; the rhyme is the sound "-rar" and the redif (refrain) is the suffix "-ısa". The third line stays free with "daḳ". The text is taken from Ahmet Kavaklıyazı's article; Kavaklıyazı cites the tuyugh by its number 1145 in Muharrem Ergin's edition and by folio 304v in the TDK facsimile of 2020. According to Hatice Özdil's facsimile, the tuyughs lie between folios 294a and 305a of the manuscript; this tuyugh falls near the end of that section. The source does not give the metre. The poet's divan, its editions and his other poems are discussed in Kadı Burhaneddin: Literary Persona, Divan and Poems.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Kavaklıyazı quotes the tuyugh for two old expressions. "Ḳaġan aslan" means an angry, roaring, very furious lion; from the citations in the Tarama Sözlüğü it is clear that the expression also occurs in the Book of Dede Korkut, while the Lugat-i Ni'metullah gives it as the equivalent of the Persian phrase "şîr-i jiyân" (raging lion). Kavaklıyazı thinks the word must derive from the verb "kakımak" (to grow angry); with reference to Orhan Şaik Gökyay the sense "a lion that roams alone, apart from the herd, answerable to none" has also been given. The expression also occurs in the divan of the fifteenth-century poet Tâli'î.

"Ḳoç ḳılıç" is the koş kılıç, the double sword. Emel Esin reports that this expression is found in Mahmud of Kashgar and in Uyghur texts; it also appears in the proverb "Koş kılıç kınka sığmas" (a double sword does not fit in one scabbard) in the Dîvânu Lugâti't-Türk. With its forked blade it recalls Ali's sword Zulfiqar. According to Kavaklıyazı, this expression occurs in the divan only in this tuyugh, and the mention of the double sword being cut by the thunderbolt suggests that such swords were thought to draw lightning. Opening with the sound of roaring lions and closing with the image of thunderbolt and sword, the tuyugh carries an air of power and menace from beginning to end; the harshly repeated sound of the words "añrar", "uġrar" and "ṭoġrar" supports this air. This last assessment is our own.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Ahmet Kavaklıyazı, "Kadı Burhaneddin'i Anlamak: Divanındaki Bazı Tabirlerin Çözümlenmesi", Selçuk Türkiyat, 56, 2022, p. 317, tuyuğ no. 1145 (Ergin 1980), TDK 2020 facsimile fol. 304v. https://acikerisim.selcuk.edu.tr/items/5207c1f3-aca0-43f1-9c9e-fef3350cf7bc
  • Muharrem Ergin (ed.), Kadı Burhanettin Divanı, İstanbul: İstanbul Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Yayınları, 1980 (not consulted directly; text cited through Kavaklıyazı 2022).

Academic studies

Online sources