Ottoman Texts - Letaif-i Hoca Nasreddin

[modus.irrealis]

I think so.

Thanks, and for the correction as well.

The next story is really short, but is there a pun that I'm missing or something?

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بر کون خواحه‌یه دیرلر که آی یکی اولدی اسکی آیی نیلرلر خواحه ایدر قررلر یلدز یاپارلر

Bir gün Hocaya derler ki "Ay yeni oldu, eski ayı n' eylerler?" Hoca eyder "Kırarlar, yıldız yaparlar".

[voron]

The next story is really short, but is there a pun that I'm missing or something?

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بر کون خواحه‌یه دیرلر که آی یکی اولدی اسکی آیی نیلرلر خواحه ایدر قررلر یلدز یاپارلر

Bir gün Hocaya derler ki "Ay yeni oldu, eski ayı n' eylerler?" Hoca eyder "Kırarlar, yıldız yaparlar".

The way I understand Hoca's reply is that the old (full) moon breaks into pieces which turn into stars.

Can anyone translate "eyder" for me please?

[Mert]

The next story is really short, but is there a pun that I'm missing or something?

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بر کون خواحه‌یه دیرلر که آی یکی اولدی اسکی آیی نیلرلر خواحه ایدر قررلر یلدز یاپارلر

Bir gün Hocaya derler ki "Ay yeni oldu, eski ayı n' eylerler?" Hoca eyder "Kırarlar, yıldız yaparlar".

The way I understand Hoca's reply is that the old (full) moon breaks into pieces which turn into stars.

Can anyone translate "eyder" for me please?

Eyder doesn't mean at all. I think it must be "eder". In old Turkish "eder" would be used as "ider". The "etmek" verb was called "itmek".

[modus.irrealis]

About "eyder", it's from a verb spelt ایتمک meaning "say", and I've seen it transcribed in different ways, including eytmek, eyitmek, etmek, etc., but it's a different verb from "etmek = do", and I've just adopted "eyder" in order to distinguish the two verbs.

The way I understand Hoca's reply is that the old (full) moon breaks into pieces which turn into stars.

I understood it pretty much the same way, or maybe more actively as "they (indefinite) break it and make it into stars". But I thought maybe there's some joke I'm missing that shows that Nasreddin is either really clever or the opposite.

[modus.irrealis]

Here's the next story.

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بر کون خواجه بر قافله ایله شهردن چیقوب کتمکه مراد ایلدی مکر بونن بر دوه‌سی وار ایمش کندی کندوی ایدر باری یایان کتمکدن ایسه شو دوه‌یه بنه‌یم صفا ایله کیده‌یم بعده دوه‌یه بنوب قافله ایله کیدرکن دوه کوکره‌یوب خواجه‌یی یره اوروب اوزرینه چوکوب خواجه فریاد ایدر قافله خاقی بونی قورتاررلر بر وقتدن صکره خواجه‌نک عقلی باشنه کلوب ای مسلمانلر کوردیکز می شول خاین دوه بکا نقدر جفا ایلدی لطف ایدک شول خاین دوه‌یی بکا طوتک بوغازلیم دیمش

Bir gün Hoca bir kafile ile şehirden çıkıp, gitmeğe murat eyledi, meğer bunun bir devesi var imiş, kendi kendiye eyder "Bari yayan gitmekten ise, şu deveye bineyim, sefa ile gideyim", bade deveye binip, kafile ile giderken, deve kükreyip, Hocayı yere vurup, üzerine çöküp, Hoca feryat eder, kafile halkı bunu kurtarırlar, bir vakitten sonra Hocanın aklı başına gelip, "Ey müslümanlar, gördünüz mü, şol hain deve bana ne kadar cefa eyledi? Lütfedin, şol hain deveyi bana tutun, boğazlayım" demiş.

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Just to double check, the book glosses "bari" here as "lord". Is that right? I'd have thought "bari yayan gitmekten ise, ..." would mean "at least, rather than go on foot, let me..."

[modus.irrealis]

Sometimes the shorter stories cause the most problems. Here's the next one, with a bunch of questions.

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بر کون یمورطه‌نک طوقسانی بر اقجه‌یه آلوب دیکر مکانه واروب اونن صتار ایمش خواجه‌یه نیچون طوقسان آلوب اونن صتارسن دیدکلرنده خواجه زیاده فائده‌دندر دوستلر بزی تک آلیش ویرشده کورسونلر دیمش

Bir gün yumurtanın doksanı bir akçeye alıp diğer mekâna varıp onun satar imiş, Hocaya "Niçin doksan alıp onun satarsın?" dediklerinde, Hoca "Ziyade faydadandır, dostlar bizi tek alış verişte görsünler" demiş.

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I've learned that when you have the possessive suffix, then the accusative can end in just -n rather than -ni, so "onun" here = "onunu" and means "ten of them (accusative)".

But about "yumurtanın doksanı", can this be understood as just "doksan yumurta"? At first I read it as "ninety of the eggs" but then what eggs are they talking about?

About how to say prices, does "bir akçeye" here mean a total price of one akçe, or a price of one akçe each? I think the dative means only the former, but I'd like to make sure.

What does "tek" mean here? The book glosses "bizi tek" as "us also", but is that right? I understand "biz" referring to one person, but I'm unsure about the "tek".

[Mert]

Sometimes the shorter stories cause the most problems. Here's the next one, with a bunch of questions.

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بر کون یمورطه‌نک طوقسانی بر اقجه‌یه آلوب دیکر مکانه واروب اونن صتار ایمش خواجه‌یه نیچون طوقسان آلوب اونن صتارسن دیدکلرنده خواجه زیاده فائده‌دندر دوستلر بزی تک آلیش ویرشده کورسونلر دیمش

Bir gün yumurtanın doksanı bir akçeye alıp diğer mekâna varıp onun satar imiş, Hocaya "Niçin doksan alıp onun satarsın?" dediklerinde, Hoca "Ziyade faydadandır, dostlar bizi tek alış verişte görsünler" demiş.

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I've learned that when you have the possessive suffix, then the accusative can end in just -n rather than -ni, so "onun" here = "onunu" and means "ten of them (accusative)".

But about "yumurtanın doksanı", can this be understood as just "doksan yumurta"? At first I read it as "ninety of the eggs" but then what eggs are they talking about?

About how to say prices, does "bir akçeye" here mean a total price of one akçe, or a price of one akçe each? I think the dative means only the former, but I'd like to make sure.

What does "tek" mean here? The book glosses "bizi tek" as "us also", but is that right? I understand "biz" referring to one person, but I'm unsure about the "tek".

Nasreddin Hoca lived in the 13th century. In that century Turkish was a bit different from the present:

Yumurtanın doksanı=doksan yumurta


Yumurtanın doksanı bir akçeye alıp diğer mekana varıp onun satar imiş:

That means in present Turkish: "Doksan yumurtayı bir akçeye alıp diğer mekana ona satarmış"


As seen ona (to ten) could be used as "onun" in those years.

Tek means in that sentence "only, just". Tek can be used as "only, just" in present Turkish as well.



"Bir akçeye satıldı" means "It was sold in 1 akçe" We use dative in order to say: "How lira was the car sold?= Araba kaç liraya satıldı?"

[modus.irrealis]

Teşekkürler.

"Bir akçeye satıldı" means "It was sold in 1 akçe" We use dative in order to say: "How lira was the car sold?= Araba kaç liraya satıldı?"

Let me also ask: if it said "bir akçeden satıldı", it would mean "they were sold for an akçe each", right?

[Mert]

Let me also ask: if it said "bir akçeden satıldı", it would mean "they were sold for an akçe each", right?

Yes, it's true. You could also use "-den, -dan".