Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Sâkî-i gül-renge bak elde gezer câm-ı sürh
‘Ârız-ı gül la‘li mül bâde-i hoş-nâm-ı sürh
Âteş urup cânıma sîneme daglar çeken
‘Aks-i ruhı lâle-veş eylemiş ihrâm sürh
Bağrımı hûn eylemiş eşkimi gül-gûn dahı
Hasret-i la‘l-i leb ü çehre-i gül-fâm sürh
Bayram-ı udhiyye mi ‘âşık-ı serbâzını
Katl kılupdur meger hançer ü samsâm sürh
Mest çıkup her yana cilveli cevlân ider
Al binüp al ruh câme-i bayram sürh
Bâde-i gül-fâmdır mâh-ı gül-endâmdır
Yâr bana tâli‘im eylemiş ikrâm sürh
Mîr Nigârî kalem aldım ele subh-dem
Âh gözüm dökdi nem eyledi bî-fâm sürh

In English

1. Look at the rose-coloured cupbearer, the red cup goes round in her hand; her cheek is a rose, her lip is wine, the wine of good name is red.

2. The reflection of (the beloved's) cheek, which sets my soul on fire and opens wounds in my breast, has made (my) pilgrim's robe red like a tulip. (The sense of the second line is uncertain.)

3. Longing for the ruby lip and the rose-coloured face has dyed my breast with blood and my tears rose-coloured, red.

4. Is it the Feast of Sacrifice, that her dagger and sword, having slain her lover who staked his head, have turned red?

5. Coming out drunk, she gallops coquettishly in every direction; she rides a red horse, her cheek is red, her festival garment red.

6. Rose-coloured wine, a rose-bodied moon (beauty): these are my fortune's gift to me, red. (This rendering of the second line is tentative.)

7. Mîr Nigârî, at dawn I took up a pen; ah, my eye shed moisture and made the colourless (writing) red.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Every couplet of the ghazal ends in the Persian word "sürh", red, and the poet brushes the same colour each time onto something else: the cup in the cupbearer's hand, her cheek and her wine, the lover's pilgrim robe, his bloody breast and tears, the beloved's dagger, the festival garment, and at last the lines the poet writes. In the fifth couplet the Persian "sürh" and the Turkish "al" stand side by side: the beloved rides an "al" horse, her cheek is "al", her festival garment "sürh". "Al" is the name both of the colour red and of a horse of that colour, a bay or chestnut.

The fourth couplet holds the harshest image of the ghazal. "Bayram-ı udhiyye" is the Feast of Sacrifice; the poet ties the reddening of the beloved's dagger and sword to the animals slaughtered at this feast. The lover who stakes his head is the victim sacrificed on the beloved's feast day. The "ihrâm" of the second couplet comes from the same circle: the white, seamless garment of the pilgrims has blushed like a tulip in the reflection of the beloved's cheek. Pilgrimage and sacrifice are both rites of the Feast of Sacrifice.

By the closing couplet the red has passed into writing. The poet took up his pen at dawn, but the moisture running from his eye dyed red what had no colour. Tears of blood are in divan poetry the best-known sign of the lover's pain; here they fall onto the writing and stain the poem with blood. The red cup passing from hand to hand at the start of the ghazal has reached the paper through the poet's pen by the end.

The ghazal's section is decided by "sürh", which ends in "hı" (خ) in Arabic script. The ghazal with the refrain "şûh" that precedes it in the divan also had the lovers' feast day and a beloved dressed in red; the two ghazals share the red of a festival morning.

Bibliography

Online sources