ON POETICS OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS RELATED RELIGION AND STATEHOOD IN “QUTADGU BILIG

Résumé

This paper examines the poetics of phraseological units (stable figurative expressions and formulaic patterns) in Yusuf Khass Hajib’s “Kutadgu Bilig”, a Turko‑Islamic didactic poem often described as a “mirror for princes” completed in Kashgar in 1069–1070. The study argues that phraseology in the poem functions as a meaning‑making technology: it condenses theology (Tawhid), ethical norms, speech etiquette, and statecraft into memorable semantic models. Using a functional‑semantic approach, we group representative units into core clusters (Tawhid/faith, time and nature, power and governance, knowledge and wisdom, speech culture, transience, and social danger) and discuss why these units create challenges in translation. The results show that translators must balance semantic accuracy with the rhetorical force of formulaic imagery, often choosing between calque, functional/idiomatic substitution, explicitation, and compensation.