Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilün

Ol ne ra‘nâlıḳ güzel aḥsen edip mevlâ saña
Beñzemez ḥûrî melek ḫûbluḳda bir zîbâ saña
Gelmemiş misliñ ḫalâyıḳ içre sen tek bir güzel
Eylemiş iẓhâr-ı ‘acziyet ḳamu ḥüsnâ saña
Ḫilḳati ẕâtıñ olup aḳdem muḳaddem cümleden
Geldi tebşîriñ için hem Âdem u Ḥavvâ saña
Sen ne ẕât-ı muḫteremsiñ ḳadr-i ‘âlî bir nebî
İnḳīyâd etmiş cemi‘ peygamberân Mûsâ saña
Nur-ı ẕât kibriyâsıñ hem imâm enbiyâ
Bir nebî zîşân iken tâbi‘ olup ‘İsâ saña
Yâ nebî luṭf et ḳuluñ Mir’ât-nümâ ġāyet faḳīr
Yalvarır bâbıñda bir ‘amâ gedâ ednâ saña

In English

1. What grace, what beauty the Lord has given you, making you the finest; neither houri nor angel resembles you in beauty.

2. No equal of yours has come among creatures, you are a beauty unique; all the beautiful have shown you their helplessness.

3. The creation of your essence is before and ahead of all; Adam and Eve too came to give tidings of you.

4. What an honoured being you are, a prophet of lofty worth; all the prophets, Moses among them, have submitted to you.

5. You are the light of the Majestic essence and the imam of the prophets; though a glorious prophet himself, Jesus too has followed you.

6. O Prophet, be gracious; your servant Mir'ât-nümâ is very poor; at your door, a blind beggar, the lowliest, he implores you.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Ninth Na't

A chain of prophets is the centre of gravity of the book's last na't. It shares the refrain “saña”, to you, with the third na't, where gratitude and festive joy came to the fore; its six couplets are in the four-foot “Fâilâtün” pattern of the remel. Adam and Eve are mentioned in the third couplet, Moses in the fourth and Jesus in the fifth, and all are said to have heralded or followed the Prophet. This sequence places within a short ghazal the idea told in the section on the Creation of Muhammad at the beginning of the work: that the Prophet was first in creation and last in being sent.

The pair “aḳdem muḳaddem” in the third couplet recalls the opening of the first na't. Such small echoes among the book's nine na'ts show that the poet reworked the same ideas in different metres and refrains; the na'ts can be read as a series that completes itself.

Beside his pen name the poet belittles himself three times, as “ġāyet faḳīr”, “‘amâ gedâ” and “ednâ”, very poor, a blind beggar, the lowliest. The image of the blind beggar is especially meaningful at the end of a poem praising the Prophet's beauty: one who has no power to see that beauty stands imploring at the door.

Bibliography

Online sources