bilig-16/ Winter  200
1

AN UNKNOWN IDIOM FROM OUR CLASSICAL POETRY:
SLEIGHT-OF-HAND

 

M. Fatih KÖKSAL
Cumhuriyet University, Faculty of Science and Arts


ABSTRACT

The way to understand the works, of poets of our classical poetry firstly depends on understanding the “text” properly. Generally, knowing the meanings of each word isn’t enough. The customs, religion and the tradition of a limited group’s thoughts in the limited time and place can occur as the reasons of this insufficiency. The limitation of customs, religion and traditions is also the subject of the words and idioms. Despite of looking up the dictionary for the words used in the past and unusable words in manner and the controversy of idioms can be possibly found but is not always possible to find them. If the meaning of the word or idiom cannot be known exactly, we can comment the text in the wrong way. In the frame of literature, for every word that can be said, depends on the “text”, the real problem is to understand the text in the viewpoint of evaluation of the work.

Between Divans and poetry journals -some of them were written on the idioms in Divan Poetry- it is possible to face the idioms which were not comprised by dictionary. One of these idioms is “sleight-of-hand” <el oyunu> that is the subject of our article.

In this article, it is tried to say about the meaning of the idiom of “sleight-of-hand” and the example of couplets used by our classical poets


Key Words : Sleight-of-hand, Idiom, Classical Literature, Divan Poetry, Dest-bâzî

 

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