Münîrî, Muamma 4: The Name Said

Muamma 4 (name riddle) — Ġāyet-i mihr ile ‘ahdüñde göñül

Amasya05 Editorial Board • Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk • 01 October 2026 • Updated: 07 October 2026 • 3 min reading

Münîrî's fourth muamma describes a heart that has not come to itself even once in the beloved's reign; the edition gives its solution as "Said".

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Ġāyet-i mihr ile ‘ahdüñde göñül
Bir iki kez kendüye gelmiş degül

In English

1. With the utmost love, the heart has not come to itself even once or twice in your reign (or: in its pledge to you). ("‘Ahd" means both time, reign and promise, pledge; the couplet can be read in two ways.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Fourth in the edition, this muamma (name riddle) is a single couplet in the metre "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün"; the lines rhyme on "göñül" and "degül". The muammas are found in all three manuscripts of the divan (VT 179b-180b, VY 151a-152b, Ü 63b-65b) in the same order; only in Ü are the 10th and 11th muammas transposed, and the 12th muamma and those after it are missing from Ü.

The edition's heading gives the solution as "Sa‘īd"; Ersoy cites the name in his introduction as "Saîd". Who this Said was does not appear in the sources.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

On its surface the couplet says that love has carried the lover beyond himself: in the beloved's time the heart has not once been able to come to its senses. The Kubbealtı Lugatı gives the word "mihr" the meanings sun and love; here the meaning love comes to the fore, but the sense of sun remains in the background of the poem. The word "‘ahd" is also open in two directions: the time in which the beloved reigns, or the pledge the heart has given. The phrase "once or twice" is close to everyday speech and gives the couplet a plain voice.

The edition does not show the letter calculation of the riddle. According to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, numbers, the abjad values of letters and words used to point to particular letters can be keys to the solution of a muamma; we cannot show whether the numbers "one, two" in the couplet have such a function, nor how the letters of the name Sa‘īd are obtained.