Münîrî, Tuyugh 17: The Festival Moon and the Brow

Tuyugh 17 — Hey diseydi ġamze-i cādūsına

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

In Münîrî's tuyugh rhyming on "-ūsına", the sorcerous glance keeps the lover from the beloved's locks, and the festival crescent in heaven's arch cannot reach her crescent brow.

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Hey diseydi ġamze-i cādūsına
El ṣunardum sünbül-i gīsūsına
Her ne deñlü ṭāḳ-ı çarḫ ise yiri
Māh-ı ‘īd irmez hilāl ebrūsına

In English

1. If (the beloved) had said "hey" to her sorcerous glance (if she had held it back), I would have stretched out my hand to her hyacinth-like locks. However high the arch of heaven may be as its place, the festival new moon cannot reach her crescent eyebrow. (For the first line see the commentary.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a four-line tuyugh; in the edition it is the seventeenth of the tuyughs (tyğ 17). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The rhyme is the sound "-ūsına": cādūsına, gīsūsına, ebrūsına; the third line ("yiri") is unrhymed. The quatrain 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 Kubbealtı gives "câdû" the senses witch and very beautiful, large eye, and lists examples for the phrase "gamze-i câdû" (sorcerous glance). "Gîsû" in the same dictionary is long hair falling to the shoulders. The first two lines form a conditional sentence: had the beloved said "hey" to her sorcerous glance, the lover could have stretched his hand to her locks. We have understood "hey dimek" as checking the glance, rebuking it; exactly what the interjection means here is not certain. Because the glance bewitches the lover and holds him in place, he cannot reach for the hair (our reading).

The last two lines set up a comparison between the sky and the eyebrow. The Kubbealtı gives "tak" the senses arch and dome, and "çarh" the senses sky and the celestial sphere; "hilâl-i îd" is the moon seen at the festival. "Ebrû" means eyebrow. The arch of heaven, the crescent and the eyebrow are linked by their arched shapes; this is a congruence of images (tenasüp). Even if the festival crescent stands at the highest point of the sky, it cannot reach the beloved's crescent brow; the crescent that people watch for comes second beside the beloved's eyebrow.