Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Sende eger gamze var bende gözüm yâre çoh
Sende eger nîze var bende ciger-pâre çoh
Sen gibi yokdur bana Hind-i ciger-hâreler
‘Arsa-i ‘âlemde ger Hind-i ciger-hâre çoh
Ben gibi rüsvây-ı ‘aşk yokdu velâkin eger
Bâdiye-i mihrde Kays tek âvâre çoh
Bî-ser ü pâ çerh-zen ben gibi yokdur velî
Dâire-i çerhde gerçi ki devvâre çoh
Ah şifâ-hâne-i hikmete vardım tabîb
Söyledi yokdur sana çâre eger çâre çoh
Nâz yeter intizâr virme nikãb at yüzün
Keşf kıl ey mâh-ı men seyrine nezzâre çoh
Sâye-i zülfünde yok Mîr Nigârî gibi
Kara güni gerçi var anda güni kara çoh

In English

1. If you have a glance, I have many wounds in my eye; if you have a spear, I have many pieces of liver.

2. For me there is no liver-eating Hind like you, though in the field of the world there are many liver-eating Hinds.

3. There was none disgraced by love like me, but in the desert of love there are many wanderers like Kays (Majnun).

4. There is none like me who whirls without head or foot (beside himself), though in the circle of the sphere there are many who turn.

5. Ah, I went to the hospital of wisdom; the physician said, "Though there are many cures, there is no cure for you."

6. Enough of airs, do not keep me waiting, throw the veil from your face; O my moon, uncover it, there are many who will gaze at it.

7. In the shade of your tress there is none whose day is as black as Mîr Nigârî's, though many there have black days.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The ghazal is the counterpart of the one with the refrain "yoh" that comes just before it in the divan. The metre is the same and the rhyme rests on the same "-âre", but the refrain this time is "çoh", Azerbaijani for "çok", many. Nigârî sets "none" against "many" in every couplet: there are many wanderers in the world like Majnun but none disgraced like me; there are many who turn in the circle of the sphere but none who whirls headless and footless like me; there are many cures but no cure for me; there are many with black days in the shade of the tress but none like Nigârî. The count of absences in the previous ghazal turns here into a claim to be unique within a crowd.

The word "yâre" in the first couplet is again the Azerbaijani pronunciation, this time of "yara", wound, and read with "çok" it gives "I have many wounds in my eye". Against the beloved's glance and spear the lover holds the wounds in his eye and the pieces of his liver.

"Hind-i ciger-hâre", the liver-eating Hind, of the second couplet points to an event known from Islamic history. Hind bint Utba, wife of Abu Sufyan and mother of Muawiya, is reported to have chewed the liver of Hamza, the Prophet's uncle, who fell as a martyr at the battle of Uhud. In divan poetry the word "Hindû" is also used for a black mole or dark hair, so at first sight the couplet seems to speak of dark beauties who burn the liver. But when one recalls that the poet's name was Hamza, the couplet gains another meaning: the beloved is likened to the Hind who ate Hamza's liver. The edition does not explain the link; since Nigârî's stance against the Umayyad line is known, the allusion may well be deliberate.

In the fifth couplet the lover goes to the "şifâ-hâne-i hikmet", the hospital of wisdom, and hears from the physician that although there are many cures there is none for him. The ghazal does not turn this verdict into fate; in the sixth couplet he asks the beloved to throw off her veil and uncover her face, for there are many who want to gaze.

Bibliography

Online sources