O brave, this world is like a shadow; if you follow him, he runs away; If you run, he runs to you.
1409. beyit
Yûsuf Has Hâcib, one of the 11th century Karahanli Turks, was born in a noble family in Balasagun. He wrote his work in Balasagun in a year and a half and completed it in Kashgar (6645th couplet) and presented to Tavgaç Uluğ Buğra Han, the son of Süleyman Arslan Hakan, the head of the Karahanites. The work was written in the Hakaniye dialect, also called Karahanlıca. We have three copies of Kutadgu Bilig known to date, one in Uighur and two in Arabic letters.
Kutadgu Bilig (kut + ad-gu bil-ig “knowledge of being happy”) is a work written in order to show people the path to be followed in both worlds, not a dry book of advice, as it is alleged, but a human teaching book. It is a system of life philosophy that determines the meaning of his life and determines his duties in society and therefore in the state. Yûsuf Has Hâcib has artfully focused on what is the mentality, knowledge and virtues that are essential for the ideal organization of society and state life, which are closely connected to each other, how to obtain and use them.
Kutadgu Bilig is organized on four principles, and the correct law is represented by Kün-Toğdı (hakan), saadet (kut) Ay-Toldı (vizier), wise Ögdülmiş (vizier's son), end of life (vengeance) Odgurmış (zâhid). Therefore, it would be absolutely correct to say that Kutadgu Bilig is an allegorical work.
We leave you alone with a few excerpts of this immortal work, which has managed to maintain its current and value for nearly a thousand years, appealing to everyone and touching human life.
No matter how much world goods are collected, they are exhausted, one day is over; If the word is written, it remains, travels the world.
114. couplet
The ignorant person is always sick; If the disease cannot be cured, the person dies quickly.
157. couplet
Youth escapes and life flies; You quickly emigrate from this dreamy world.
231. couplet
No matter how good and close a person is, think, can someone else be more cordial than him?
517. couplet
Whoever loves man, his defect becomes virtuous; who does not like, his virtue is flawed.
534. couplet
Everyone born is doomed to die, and everything that rises to fall.
1086. couplet
Every slope has a descent, every hill has a pit, a sorrow of every joy, and a taste for every pain.
1087. couplet
Whatever is planted on the ground, it ends again; whatever is given, the same thing is taken in return.
1394. couplet
O brave, this world is like a shadow; if you follow him, he runs away; If you run, he runs to you.
1409. couplet
Black earth and blue sky, even for revenge, cannot be prevented by God.
1800. couplet
Source:
Yusuf Has Hacip, Kutadgu Bilig, Çev: Ord. Prof Dr. Reşid Rahmeti Arat, Kabalcı Yayınları, İstanbul, 2018
Reşid Rahmeti Arat, Kutadgu Bilig, Türk Dil Kurumu Yayınları, Ankara, 1999
www.islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kutadgu-bilig