Münîrî, Tuyugh 21: The Fortune of the Carefree

Tuyugh 21 — Düşmeyen fikr-i cihān ḳayġusına

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

Münîrî's last tuyugh speaks a piece of wisdom: one who does not worry over the world is free of grief, and fortunate is he whose glass of honour is struck by the stone of zeal.

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Düşmeyen fikr-i cihān ḳayġusına
Ġamdan āzād oldı bes ḳayġusı ne
Devlet anuñ kim yetişür dem-be-dem
Seng-i ġayret şīşe-i nāmūsına

In English

1. He who does not fall into the worry of thinking about the world has been freed from grief; what worry can he have now? Fortunate is he whose glass of honour is reached every moment by the stone of zeal. (The last two lines can be understood in two ways; see the commentary.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a four-line tuyugh; in the edition it is the twenty-first and last of the tuyughs (tyğ 21). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The rhyme words are "ḳayġusına", "ḳayġusı ne" and "nāmūsına"; the third line ("dem-be-dem") is unrhymed. The quatrain is found in only two manuscripts (VT 179a, VY 150b). It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The pun of the tuyugh is at the end of the first two lines: the first line ends "ḳayġusına" (into the worry of), the second "ḳayġusı ne" (what worry has he). The same sounds are read as one word in the one and as two words in the other; this is a fine example of the punning rhyme that the TDV notes for the tuyugh. While the other tuyughs take the beloved and love as their subject, this last quatrain speaks a piece of wisdom. The TDV states that the tuyugh is a form suited to didactic and lyric subjects and that poets chose it when they wished to express a thought briefly; this quatrain fits that description.

To open the last two lines we have turned to the meanings given by the Kubbealtı: "seng" means stone, "şişe" a glass vessel, "nâmus" honour, chastity and modesty; "gayret", besides effort, carries the senses of being unable to bear another laying hands on something one holds sacred, and of jealousy. A stone reaching a glass breaks it. The couplet can be understood in two ways. In the first reading the stone of zeal breaks the glass of honour, and the person is freed from concern for name and fame; this fits the person freed from worldly worry in the first two lines. In the second reading the stone of zeal that reaches the glass of honour is a zeal that constantly tests one's honour and keeps it alert. We find the first reading more in keeping with the flow of the text (our reading).