Münîrî, Tuyugh 20: The Stature That Raises Doomsday

Tuyugh 20 — Gül-şen-i cānda çeker bālā ḳadüñ

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

In Münîrî's tuyugh with the refrain "ḳadüñ", the beloved's lofty stature rises in the soul's rose garden, raises a doomsday and stands without equal in the world.

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Gül-şen-i cānda çeker bālā ḳadüñ
Ne ḳıyāmetdür ‘aceb bālā ḳadüñ
Rāstı gül-zār-ı dehr içre bugün
Düşdi bī-mānend ü bī-hemtā ḳadüñ

In English

1. In the rose garden of the soul your lofty stature reaches upward; what an astonishing doomsday (kıyamet) is that lofty stature. In truth, in the rose garden of the world today your stature has appeared without peer and without equal.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a four-line tuyugh; in the edition it is the twentieth of the tuyughs (tyğ 20). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The redif is "ḳadüñ" (your stature) and the rhyme words are "bālā", "bālā" and "hemtā"; the third line ("rāstı") is unrhymed. The first and second lines end with the same phrase, "bālā ḳadüñ". According to the edition's manuscript footnote the quatrain is found in only two manuscripts (VT 179a, VY 150b); the apparatus, however, records that the word "dehr" in the third line is missing in the Ü manuscript. The contradiction between these two pieces of information is not explained in the edition. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

That the first two lines end with the same phrase produces a repetition close to punning rhyme. The Kubbealtı gives "bâlâ" the senses up, above; high, lofty; and stature, height, and explains the phrase "bâlâ-keşîde" as having grown tall. In the first line "çeker bālā" describes the stature reaching upward; in the second "bālā ḳadüñ" describes the lofty stature. That the word is written the same in the two lines yet can be read with different functions suits the tuyugh's fondness for punning (our reading).

"Ne ḳıyāmetdür" is an exclamation of wonder. Besides the great event that ends the world, the Kubbealtı also gives "kıyâmet" the sense of noisy confusion, uproar. When the beloved's stature rises, doomsday breaks out; the link between stature and kıyamet brings to mind at once the act of rising and the world being turned upside down (our reading). According to the Kubbealtı, the root of "rāstı" (in truth) in the third line means right, straight, not crooked; this closeness between the straight stature and the true word adds a second sense to the word. In the last line the stature is declared without peer and without equal in the garden of the world.