Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Dûzahu'l-‘uşşâk firkat-hânede
Fikr-i vaslınla gönül eyler tarab

In English

1. In the house of separation, which is the hell of lovers, the heart rejoices at the thought of union with you.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

It is quoted as a single couplet; Hüsameddin gives it with the word "velehu" ("and this is also his"). The lines end with "firkat-hânede" and "tarab"; the couplet may be part of a ghazal or a mesnevi. Hüsameddin does not state the metre.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet is built on a contrast: separation is the hell of lovers, yet even in that hell the heart rejoices at the thought of union. The phrase "Dûzahu'l-‘uşşâk" (the hell of lovers) is an Arabic construction and gives the first half of the couplet a heavy, bookish air; the second line softens this weight with a Turkish sentence. There are two separate contrasts: between "firkat" (separation) and "vasl" (union), and between "dûzah" (hell) and "tarab" (joy).

In divan poetry separation is commonly described in terms of fire and hell; Nigârî completes this likening with an emphasis on the power of thought: not union itself, but even the thought of it turns hell into joy. The juxtaposition of an Arabic construction and a Turkish sentence in one couplet may be one of the unusual features Hüsameddin saw in Nigârî's language; but Hüsameddin does not say so.

Historical Context

Hüsameddin writes that Nigârî's divan contains fine naats (poems in praise of the Prophet), lofty ghazals and kıt‘as voicing burning, inward griefs, but that among them there are also poetic flaws and literary oddities that do not conform to the rules of the language, which should be counted as expressions peculiar to the poet; he then lists nine pieces in a row, introducing them with "for example". He does not distinguish which couplet is given as an example of beauty and which of a flaw. For the poet's literary personality see Nigârî: Poet and Works.

Bibliography

Online sources