The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1885-10-02
SOME TURKISH PROVERBS.
Sayings of the Turk that Are Very Like Our


Sayings of the Turk that Are Very Like our
Own.
If the Turk has been qualified as
ssunspeakable," he is very far from
being inarticulate. Strange as it may
seem to those who have formed their.
opinion of him from hearsay, it is r .ot
the less true that he is common ~
good conversationalist, and CO a say
well and pointedly what he has. got to
saw, with wealth of ilIust ration in
anecdote, quotation, and prsyerb. The
latter form corlmends its elf especially
to the sententious Turki' sh mind. The
synthetic form of the language, too,
secure brevity and conciseness, and
opportunities are afforded for those
assonances, or rF.yming vowels, which
are SO dear to the Oriental. On look
ing over notebook containing sew
eral hnndred Turkish proverbs, taken
down in the course of reading and
conversation, or borrowed from col
lection made at the Oriental academy
at Vienna, the writer has amused him.
self by grouping them roughly under
certain heads, so as to illustrate some
aspects of the national character and
surroundings.
But first it may be interesting to re-
mark how many well-known English
and other European proverbs have
their exact counterpart in Turkish.
How far are these to be accounted for
by contact with or conquest of Indo-
European racesp Or has it been q
case of ''les beaux esprits Sc rem
contrent?" For instance, we find
~Xou shall not look a gift horse in the
mouth" in exactly the same words, as
well as ''He that is born to be hanged
will never be drowned" the Trukish
version having the advantage of being
expressed in two words. The change
of words is but slight in Troubled
waters suit the fisher" Zone flower
does not make summer" and ''The
robe does not make the dervish;"
while in Turkey it is not pot that says
| to kettle, but negro to negro, that his
face is black. We are disposed to pre-
fer s'The nail saved the shoe, the shoe
the horse, the horse the man, the man
the kingdom" to our somewhat lum-
bering "For want of a nail the shoe
was lost."' ''Wake not the sleep
ing dog" has as corollary tStep
not on the sleeping SERPENT" and we
are warned that there is ''No rose
without thorn, nor love without a
rival" One instance in which our
proverbial wisdom is opposed to the
| Turkish is to be found in the express
sion 'sTo kill two birds with one
stone" The attempt to do this is con-
demned by sundry proverbs, such as
"One arrow does not bring down two
BIRDS" and s'You can not knock down
nine walnuts with one stone"
Often we are reminded of scriptural
proverbs and aphorisms. Nothing
unheard of in the world sounds Solo
monian enough, while ssOut with the
eve that profits me not -s:The negro
does not whiten with washing" and
ssThat which thou sowest, that also
shalt thou reap" are strikingly like
New Testament teaching. Again
and again we find expressed in
other words lessons of charity, consid-
erateness, and Justice that would not
be unworthy of Christian teacher, as
1.-The strangers prayer is heard, :"
1.-The hearts testimony is stronger
than a thousand witnesses, tsAmong
the blind, close your eyes" +'In truth
Is right" ''Justice is half religion"
44Neighbor's right, Gods right
The heading under which, perhaps,
the largest number of proverbs can be
grouped is that of opportune speech
and silence. If the Turk, as has been
said, talks well, he also knows how to
hold his tongue. He looks down with
the greatest contempt on the idle chat
terer, and does not even think that
good manners require him to make
small-talk when he has nothing to say.
In fact, when on visit to a well-b bred
Eurk with whom you have no COM
mon subjects of interest to discuss,
after exhausting those suggested by
pGliteness- health, your own, that
of your family, the weather, and the
water Ga most interesting topic in the
east) you may safely fall back upon
that golden silence which their pro-
verb, like ours, rates above silver
speech. Here his comment on the
ehatterer: There is no ass but brays;"
s'The dog barks, the caravan Tpasses;'
HsFool is he who alone talks, and is his
only listener;'7 ''The fool wears his
heart on his tongue, the wise man
keeps his tongue in his hearf,7' and
'EMany words, an unsound sheart. -
He warns us of the mischief of evil
speaking: "TEe knife's wound heals,
the ltengue's never;'' @SThe stongue
| LINK UuC S~VlNS 1f1A uC
tongue is boneless, but 1T s.breaks
bones:" Again. he feels keenly the
DANGER of free speech under corrupt
and fdespotic rule, while he eNaols hon-
esty and good faith, and generals con-
demas'lyine. The latter is ,eendonea
in certain cases, for Some Lies are
better thar TRUTH and we may Lie,
but with measure The supressio
veri is even strongly recommended,
for is mot the t4truth-teller hanished
out of nine cities2'' while -AHe who
holds his tongue saves his head,~ and
<sThere is,1o better answer than this,
Il know net, saw not.
But to turn to something pleasanter.
we will quote a few sayings still fa-
miliar in eur Turks mouth, which
have survived the corruption of the
palace and official kings, and seem
still to breathe the hardy and indie.
pendent spirit OF the cid days, when
courage and enterprise were the only
passports to the highest places in a
cOnoUeripp empire. Then IT could he