Poetry
Би Темірге айтқан бірінші толғауы
Not translated into English
Shalkiiz Tilenshiuly · 1550
Synopsis
A tolgau of eleven stanzas, composed when Bi Temir, a Nogai ruler, set the poet aside at the instigation of courtiers. The jyrau first presents himself humbly, through allusions and images of nature, as one of Temir's many servants; then the tone becomes frank, almost insolent: he complains of having been placed after others and speaks to his lord as an equal. Advice follows: know one's measure, gather the noble and not the base, beware of the unworthy, before a return to loyalty.
Context
The poem is the first of several pieces that the jyrau addressed to Temir; in another, he tries to turn him from the pilgrimage to Mecca, representing to him that a just ruler is worth more than a journey to the Kaaba. Like this whole repertoire, it was transmitted orally: the text appeared in 1875 in the Zapiski of the Orenburg section of the Geographical Society, then in the anthologies Aldaspan, in 1970, and Bes ghasyr jyrlaïdy, in 1989. The date of the poem is an estimate. The critic Seït Kaskabassov sees in it a eulogy of the ruler that also elevates the poet.
Who it is for
A frank and sententious court poem, to be read to discover the speech of the jyraus, advisers to the princes of the steppe.
Prizes and reception
The poem is studied in the eighth year in the schools of Kazakhstan, in a chapter devoted to the words of the wise.
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