A Syro-Turkic Poem on Divine Economy Ascribed to Khāmīs

Abstract

The text being discussed is found in many manuscripts of the Divan (collection of poems) of an East Syriac poet Khāmīs bar Qardāḥē (late 13th century). The edition demonstrates the discrepancies in rendering glosses in the Turkish stanzas, in contrast to a relative unity of readings in the Syriac ones. To explain these discrepancies, the following pages discuss the lack of consistency in the Turkic Garshuni tradition. In addition, the poem is one of the earliest texts of this group. It should be dated to the period close to the life of Khāmīs, but was not necessarily composed by this poet, since it is absent from the earliest surviving copies. All the Syriac stanzas use quatrains in a 7-7-8-8 meter. Each of them has its own internal rhyme that follows a constant scheme, i.e. in every first, second and and fourth lines of each verse (ааха). In the Turkic stanzas, the verses have an irregular meter that varies from eight to ten syllables. In the Turkic translation of the Syriac original, one finds many syriacisms, such as bar Maryam (the Son of Mary), a stable combination used in the texts. Such a broad use of borrowings, both in vocabulary and syntax, is common for translated religious texts, especially liturgical ones, in which the proximity to the original might have a great importance.