Münîrî, Tuyugh 8: Hızır in the Flood of Love

Tuyugh 8 — Dil düşelden şöyle ser-gerdān-ı ‘ışḳ

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

In Münîrî's tuyugh with the refrain "‘ışḳ", the dizzy lover is left headless and disordered, until the beloved's green down comes like Hızır before love's flood rises over him.

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Dil düşelden şöyle ser-gerdān-ı ‘ışḳ
Olmışamdur bī-ser ü sāmān-ı ‘ışḳ
Ḥıżr yetişdi ḫaṭ-ı jengār-ı yār
Başdan iñen aşmadan ṭūfān-ı ‘ışḳ

In English

1. Ever since the heart fell thus, a dizzy bewildered one of love, I have become a headless, disordered, ruined one of love. The beloved's verdigris-green down came to the rescue like Hızır, before the flood of love rose well over my head. (We have understood the word "iñen" in the last line, from the context, as "very, well".)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a four-line tuyugh; in the edition it is the eighth of the tuyughs (tyğ 8). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The redif is "‘ışḳ" (love) and the rhyme is the sound "-ān": ser-gerdān, sāmān, ṭūfān; the third line ("yār") is unrhymed. The quatrain is found in all three manuscripts (VT 177b, VY 149a, Ü 62a). It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first two lines play on the word "ser", head. The Kubbealtı explains "sergerdan" as one whose head spins, bewildered, distraught, and "sâman" as wealth, ease, peace and order. The lover first becomes "ser-gerdān", dizzy-headed, and then is left "bī-ser ü sāmān", headless and without order. The use of the same word in two phrases one after the other shows love scattering the lover step by step.

The last two lines set up a scene of rescue. The Kubbealtı gives "jengâr" the senses rust and copper green (verdigris), and "hat" the sense of the beard and moustache newly appearing on the young; here the down appearing on the beloved's face is meant. The same dictionary presents Hızır as the figure believed to come to a person's aid in distress, and relates a tradition that his name comes from his making a dry plant turn green when he sat on it. The colour green links the down with Hızır; the flood, too, prepares the ground for Hızır as rescuer. The appearance of the down is shown as a rescuer who halts the flood of love; this can be connected with the idea that once down grows on the beloved's face, beauty loses its former power (our reading).