Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Ma‘rifet gerçi ki beyzâdelere lâyıkdır
Okuyub yazmaz ise yine bey oğlu beydir
Ehl-i ‘ilm oğlu olub hânekah-ı âlemde
Câhil olmakdan ise doğmadan ölmek yeğdir

In English

1. Learning and accomplishment, it is true, become the sons of beys; but even if he cannot read or write, a bey's son is still a bey.

2. Rather than be a scholar's son and remain ignorant in this lodge of the world, it is better to die before being born. (A hânekah is a dervish lodge where travellers stay; the world is likened to a lodging where man stays for a while and then departs.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

In this two-couplet Turkish piece only the second and fourth lines rhyme with each other ("beydir, yeğdir"); this is the arrangement of the kıt‘a form. The rhyme is not perfect; the words "bey" and "yeğ" are matched only by similar sounds. The metre is not stated in the source; although the lines have a movement close to the remel pattern of aruz (quantitative metre), as transmitted they do not fit a single pattern cleanly, so no metre is given here. Hüsameddin quotes the piece in two places. The text followed here is the one given in the short entry of the eleventh volume of the Amasya Tarihi (History of Amasya) with the words "these two couplets of the late scholar are famous". In the long entry of the sixth volume, in a footnote, the same couplets appear with the spellings "Mârifet", "lâyıktır" and "Okuyup", and with the third line in the form "Ehl-i ilm oğlu olup hângâh-ı dünyada".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The piece sets two types of person against each other: the son of a bey and the son of a scholar. The first couplet describes the familiar order of the world: learning adorns the sons of beys, but a bey's son's rank does not depend on his learning; even if he cannot read or write, the position he inherits protects him. The second couplet sets a different measure for one who comes from a family of scholars: his only inheritance is learning, and if he remains ignorant nothing is left to him; rather than live so, it is better never to have been born. The phrase "to die before being born" is a hyperbole (mübalağa) that carries the thought to its extreme by stating an impossibility. Calling the world a "hânekah", a lodge or hostel, is likewise a metaphor (istiare) reminding us that man is a passing guest in the world; the reading "hângâh-ı dünya" in the sixth volume carries the same image. The contrasts drawn in the couplets between "bey" and "ehl-i ilm" (the learned), between "reading and writing" and "being ignorant", and between "being born" and "dying" sharpen the thought through the figure of tezat (antithesis).

Historical Context

Hüsameddin gives these couplets beside the famous story of how Kemalpaşazâde entered the path of learning. According to the account transmitted by Taşköprizâde, the young Kemalpaşazâde, on a campaign he joined as a sipahi (cavalryman), saw in the assembly of Çandarlı İbrâhim Paşa that Molla Lütfî, a teacher on thirty akçes a day, sat above the famous raider commander Evrenosoğlu Ahmed Bey, and turned to the learned career saying, "I cannot reach Ahmed Bey's rank, but I can reach this teacher's station by hard work." Hüsameddin does not believe this story: he says that a vizier's descendant could not have been so naive as not to know the difference between learning and the rank of a bey, and quotes this piece in a footnote with the words "Kemal Paşazâde spoke these couplets on this matter". In Hüsameddin's eyes, therefore, the couplets are a document reflecting Kemalpaşazâde's own view of learning and lineage. To whom and when they were spoken is not known.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

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