Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Köşk-i Nigârı gönül eyle penâh
Eyleye hıdmet sana sultân u şâh
Gûşe-nigâram uca dûr eyle kim
Küngüre-i ‘arş ayağındadır

In English

1. O heart, make the pavilion of Nigâr your refuge; let sultan and shah alike serve you.

2. Keep my (Nigâr's) corner lofty and far off; for the battlements of the Throne of God lie at its foot. (The reading and meaning of the third line are uncertain; see the commentary.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

It is a four-line piece Hüsameddin gives with the word "and". The first two lines rhyme on "penâh / şâh" ("refuge / shah"); the third and fourth end with "kim" and "ayağındadır" and do not rhyme with the first couplet. Whether the piece consists of two separate couplets taken from a mesnevi or a kıt‘a, or of consecutive couplets, could not be determined. Hüsameddin does not state the metre.

The phrase "Gûşe-nigâram uca dûr eyle kim" in the third line stands thus in the text and yields no clear meaning. If it is read as "gûşe-i Nigâr" (the corner of Nigâr), a link is made with "köşk-i Nigâr" in the first couplet; "uca" means "lofty" in Azerbaijani Turkish. The rendering here rests on this reading and is conjectural.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The piece likens the station of the beloved, or of a spiritual being, to a pavilion. "Köşk-i Nigâr" can be understood both as the pavilion of a beloved named Nigâr and, through the poet's pen name, as the house of his own heart; in Nigârî's poetry the name Nigâr calls up the beloved, beauty and the poet himself together. It is said that sultans and shahs will serve the heart that takes refuge in that pavilion: worldly power stands as a servant before spiritual rank. The second couplet raises this station still higher: the "küngüre", the crenellated battlements, of God's Throne lie at its foot.

There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) around buildings among the words "köşk" (pavilion), "gûşe" (corner) and "küngüre" (battlement). An idea of height and sovereignty is built between "sultân u şâh" and "‘arş" (the Throne). The immoderation of the utterance is in line with the Sufi boasting Hüsameddin ascribes to Nigârî; but to whom and to which station the couplet is addressed is not explained in the source.

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