Münîrî, Tuyugh 16: The Archer Who Never Misses

Tuyugh 16 — Kirpigüñdür reh-ber-i tīr-i ḳaẓā

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

In Münîrî's tuyugh of the eyelash and the arrow, the beloved's eyelash guides the arrow of fate, and the poet praises her as an archer who never misses when she shoots.

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Kirpigüñdür reh-ber-i tīr-i ḳaẓā
K’eyledi ‘uşşāḳı derde mübtelā
Görmedüm ben böyle tīr-endāz hīc
Hergiz itmez atduġında bir ḫaṭā

In English

1. Your eyelash is the guide of the arrow of fate; it has made the lovers captive to pain. I have never seen such an archer; when he shoots, he never makes an error (he never misses his mark).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a four-line tuyugh; in the edition it is the sixteenth of the tuyughs (tyğ 16). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The rhyme is the sound "-ā": ḳaẓā, mübtelā, ḫaṭā; the third line ("hīc") is unrhymed. The quatrain has no redif. It is found in all three manuscripts (VT 178b, VY 150a, Ü 63a). It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The quatrain rests on the familiar likening of the eyelash to an arrow. The beloved's eyelash is the guide of "tīr-i ḳaẓā", the arrow of fate and destiny: wherever the eyelash points the arrow goes, and the lover cannot escape it. The Kubbealtı gives "mübtelâ" the sense of one seized by or addicted to something; the lovers have been seized by pain through this arrow.

The last two lines draw a conclusion from the first two and praise the beloved as an archer who never misses. The Kubbealtı explains "hatâ" as something not right, a mistake, and a fault committed unintentionally; for an archer an error is the arrow missing its mark. The meeting of the words fate (ḳaẓā) and error (ḫaṭā) in the rhyme produces a clash of meanings: the arrow of fate never goes to the wrong place (our reading). As the TDV notes, the verdict of the tuyugh is stated in a short sentence in the last line.