Proverbs and Their Usage Characteristics in Divân-ı Hikmet

Abstract

Proverbs are ready made word repertory for writers and poets and they have become stereotyped and anonymous mottos to transfer the experiences. This means of language which began with Old Turkish Language till today used in different stages of Turkish in many works. In this article, the poems in "Divan-i Hikmet" were analyzed and the usages of proverbs in poems of Khoja Ahmad Yasavi were highlighted. For instance, in this aphorism, "Better to die if you are not a man" proverb was told. O Khoja Ahmad, better to die if you are not a man Better for your pink face to pale under the black earth, Better is to be underground like the soil, My exalted mentor, I came and took refuge in you (Bice, Hik. 6, p. 15). Yusuf Azmun published "Divân-ı Hikmet"in 1994, in İstanbul. In this work, differently from other works, the aphorism in the manuscrip the used were translated into English. Those translations were used in abstract. In conclusion, in this article, the existence of the proverbs in the aphorism of Hodja Ahmat Yasavi (by taking into the consideration of the texts of Yusuf Azmun, Kemal Eraslan, Hayati Bice) were determined and their place were analyzed in the aphorisms.