Münîrî, Müfred 2: Forgiven in One's Own Craft

Müfred 2 (single couplet) — Ḳoma elden ölince ‘ışḳı Münīr

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

Münîrî's second müfred advises holding on to love until death, since everyone is forgiven in his own craft; it ends on the old verb "yarlıgamak".

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün

Ḳoma elden ölince ‘ışḳı Münīr
Her kişi ṣan‘atında yarlıġanur

In English

1. Münîr, do not let go of love until you die; everyone is forgiven (by God) within his own craft (work, calling).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The second müfred of the edition is a single couplet in the metre "fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün"; in the edition the metre is printed "Feilün", a typesetting error. The lines end on "Münīr" and "yarlıġanur" and do not rhyme; this is the unrhymed single couplet of the Kubbealtı Lugatı's definition of the müfred. Ersoy writes in his introduction that the nine müfreds are found only in the Vatican manuscript and that all of them are in Turkish. For whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet rests on a thought that treats love like a trade or craft: if everyone is to be forgiven in his own work, the lover's place of forgiveness is love. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains the verb "yarlıgamak" as God's pardoning someone's sin, granting forgiveness. This verb of Old Turkish origin is an example of the archaic vocabulary noticeable in Münîrî's poems; the TDV also notes that many archaic words are found in the poet's verse.

The second line has the ring of a proverb. The TDV records that Münîrî was successful in the tradition of setting proverbs and idioms into poetry; but we have not been able to verify whether "everyone is forgiven in his own craft" is an established proverb. Addressing himself by his pen name (mahlas), the poet grounds his advice in a short sentence of judgement.