Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilün

Vâ‘iz-i laklaka-gû kılmadı ikrâr kadeh
Bilmedi kârını kim eyledi inkâr kadeh
Sûfî bende-i mug u meye giriftâr eyler
Kılsa ger mest kerâmâtını izhâr kadeh
Dolanam başına ey mug bizi mahzûn itme
Zâhidin ragmına ihsân eyle ser-şâr kadeh
Hâce meyhâneme gel ‘ilmine magrûr olma
Ki ide cehl-i mürekkebliğin izhâr kadeh
Keşf olur ‘ukde-i esrâr-ı mu‘ammâ açılur
Âşkârâ ider elbette ne kim var kadeh
Bulmazam kendimi ammâ buluram tâze revân
Vakt kim gösterür ol ‘ârız-ı dildâr kadeh
Gezme bî-câ yere ey Mîr Nigârî zîrâ
Bendedir feth-i tılısmât u esrâr-ı kadeh

In English

1. The prattling preacher did not accept the cup; he who denied the cup did not know what work it does.

2. If the cup, grown drunk, were to show its miracles, it would make the Sufi a slave of the Magian (the tavern-keeper) and a captive of wine.

3. O Magian, let me circle round your head, do not grieve us; to spite the ascetic, bestow a brimming cup.

4. O master of learning, come to my tavern, do not be proud of your knowledge; let the cup bring to light your compound ignorance (the ignorance that does not know it does not know).

5. The knot of secrets is untied, the riddle is opened; the cup surely brings into the open whatever there is.

6. I cannot find myself, but I find a fresh soul when the cup shows (in its reflection) the beloved's cheek.

7. O Mîr Nigârî, do not wander in unfitting places; for the opening of talismans and the secrets of the cup are in me.

Literary and Historical Commentary

In the fourth couplet Nigârî borrows a term from the logic of the madrasa: "cehl-i mürekkeb". Books of logic divided ignorance in two. Cehl-i basît is the ignorance of one who knows he does not know; cehl-i mürekkeb, compound ignorance, is the state of one who does not even know that he does not know and takes the false for the true. The poet invites the scholar who trusts his learning to his tavern and says the cup will show him this state. A term of the madrasa is turned against a man of the madrasa, and the scholar is weighed by the measure of his own books. With "meyhânem", my tavern, the poet speaks as the owner of the tavern, that is, in Sufi language, in the place of the elder who guides.

The ghazal confronts in turn three figures who stand against the cup. The preacher refuses it because he deals in empty talk; the Sufi would become the Magian's slave if the cup showed its miracles; the scholar is proud of his learning. A keramet is the wonder worked by a saint, and attaching the word to the cup is a mockery: the miracle the Sufi waits for comes from the wine he opposes. In the third couplet the poet begs the Magian, the tavern-keeper, with "dolanam başına" and asks for a cup to spite the ascetic.

The fifth and sixth couplets describe the work of the cup. It opens secrets, solves riddles, brings out whatever there is; at last it shows the beloved's cheek on the surface of the wine within it. In that moment the lover loses himself, but finds a fresh soul in its place. The closing couplet is advice the poet gives himself: he has no need to wander elsewhere, for the power to open talismans and the secret of the cup are both within him.

The ghazal shares its refrain and rhyme with "Dolanam başına ey sâkî-i ser-şâr kadeh", a few pages earlier in the divan; the words "dolanam başına" and "ser-şâr kadeh" appear in both poems. In one the cupbearer is begged, in the other the Magian.

Bibliography

Online sources