Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Müfte‘ilün Fâ‘ilün Müfte‘ilün Fâ‘ilün

Bâde-i cândır güzel neş’e-i dîdâr şûh
Sâkî dürer-i bî-bedel dîde-i humâr şûh
Gamze-i hûn-rîzdir çeşme-i hayvân dahı
Şâfî-i emrâzdır dîde-i bîmâr şûh
Çâresidir yârımın hançer-i bürrânesi
Mâyesidir çâremin tîr-i sitem-kâr şûh
Gam yemezem ey gönül gerçi sitemgerdir ol
Lîk revân-bahşdır dîde-i hûn-hâr şûh
Olmadı Âdem o kim olmadı rüsvây-ı ‘aşk
Bulmadı sıhhat o kim çekmedi âzâr şûh
‘Aklım alup gönlümü atdı cenûb dağına
Kıldı beni kûh-ken-i ‘aşk-ı Şirîn-kâr şûh
Mîr Nigârî bugün bayram-ı ‘uşşâkdır
Al giyüp gezdürür kâse-i ser-şâr şûh

In English

1. Beauty is the wine of the soul; the coquette is the joy that seeing the face gives. The cupbearer is a pearl beyond price; the coquette is the languid eye. (The second line has been understood approximately.)

2. The blood-shedding glance is also the spring of the water of life; the sick eye, the coquette, is the healer of ailments.

3. My beloved's sharp dagger is the remedy of my pain; the cruel arrow of the coquette is the leaven of my remedy.

4. O heart, I do not grieve; though she is cruel, yet the blood-drinking eye of the coquette gives life.

5. He who was not disgraced by love did not become human (Âdem); he who did not suffer the coquette's torment did not find health.

6. The coquette took my mind and cast my heart onto the southern mountain; she made me the mountain-digger (Farhad) of a love for a Shirin. (What the "southern mountain" refers to is not clear.)

7. Mîr Nigârî, today is the feast of lovers; the coquette, dressed in red, carries the brimming bowl around.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The refrain "şûh" is the playful, flirtatious, teasing beauty, and the ghazal says that this beauty heals where she wounds. From the second couplet to the fourth every line joins a contradiction: the blood-shedding glance is the spring of the water of life, the sick eye heals ailments, the dagger is the remedy of pain, the cruel arrow is the leaven of the remedy, the blood-drinking eye gives life. In divan poetry the beloved's glance is thought of as an arrow, her lashes as spears, her brow as a bow, and they wound the lover; Nigârî counts every one of these weapons as a medicine. The lover's pain and its cure come from the same source.

The fifth couplet ties the thought to a ruling: he who was not disgraced by love did not become Âdem, he who did not suffer the coquette's hurt did not find health. "Âdem" here is both the name of the first man and the word for a human being; to be human is to accept the disgrace love brings. In the sixth couplet the lover is put in the place of Farhad, who cut through the mountain of Bisitun for Shirin. The edition does not explain which mountain is meant by "cenûb dağı", the southern mountain.

A festival scene is kept for the very end. Today is the feast of lovers, and the coquette, dressed in red, carries the full bowl around. The custom of wearing new and bright clothes at a religious feast is thought of together with red wine and the beloved's red cheek. In the ghazal with the refrain "sürh", red, which follows in the divan, the Feast of Sacrifice, red festival clothes and a beloved riding a red horse also appear.

With this ghazal the divan's second "Harfü'l-hâ" section begins. The edition gives both sections the same heading, but the second belongs to the dotted letter "hı" (خ); written in Arabic letters, "şûh" ends in this letter.

Bibliography

Online sources