Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün

Belâ-yı ‘aşkıla kılgil vücûdum mübtelâ Mevlâ
Degül bir bir kerem kılgil dem-â-dem bin belâ Mevlâ
Ser ü pâ ney gibi sûrâh sûrâh it vücûdumı
Hevâ-yı mihr ile kıl bend bend her dem melâ Mevlâ
Pey-â-pey derdim artur dem-be-dem lutf eylegil tâkat
Ki senden özge bir kes olmasun derdim illâ Mevlâ
Kerem kıl ol cefâlardan ki ‘âşıklar safâ eyler
‘Atâ kıl ol belâlardan ki bulmuşlar velâ Mevlâ
Surâhî tek revân teslîm idem mestâne hândâne
Cenâzem çün kamu rindâne söyle es-salâ Mevlâ
Salâ it gelsün ashâb-ı şehâdet hep namâz içün
Husûsâ Hazret-i Hamzâ Hüseyn-i Kerbelâ Mevlâ
Diler Mîr Nigârî hâsıl it kim kalmasun agyâr
Saray-ı hâtırında olmasun illâ vü lâ Mevlâ

In English

1. O Lord, afflict my being with the calamity of your love; not one by one, but grant me a thousand calamities at every moment.

2. O Lord, pierce my being from head to foot with holes like a reed flute (ney); fill it at every moment, joint by joint, with the breath of love.

3. O Lord, increase my pain one after another, and at every moment grant me strength to bear it; so that my pain may be none other than you.

4. O Lord, grant me too of those cruelties in which the lovers find delight; bestow on me those calamities through which (your friends) attained your friendship.

5. Let me surrender my soul flowing like a flask, drunk and smiling; O Lord, have the funeral call (salâ) for me announced to all the rinds.

6. O Lord, sound the call so that the company of martyrs may all come to the funeral prayer; above all Hazrat Hamza and Husayn, the martyr of Karbala.

7. Mîr Nigârî wishes: bring it about that no strangers (none but the beloved) remain; O Lord, in the palace of his heart let there be not even "illâ" and "lâ". (The line can also be understood as "in the palace of his heart let there be none but the Lord".)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Two martyrs are named in the sixth couplet: Hamza, the Prophet's uncle, who fell at Uhud and is called "seyyidü'ş-şühedâ" (lord of the martyrs), and Husayn, killed at Karbala. If one recalls that the poet's own name was Hamza, his wish that these two martyrs in particular should come to his funeral prayer takes on a personal meaning: he places the martyr whose name he bears and the greatest martyr of the Prophet's family in the same row. The mention of Husayn also fits Nigârî's love for the Prophet's household.

The ghazal is a prayer in which calamity is asked for as a favour, and the refrain "Mevlâ" (O Lord) renews the prayer at the end of every couplet. The poet does not ask for the calamity of love to be lessened but multiplied: not one but a thousand calamities, pain growing at every moment. All he asks in return is the strength to endure. In couplet four cruelty (cefâ) and joy (safâ), calamity (belâ) and "velâ" (friendship, nearness) are brought side by side; the torment the lover suffers is counted as the door to nearness with the beloved.

The reed-flute image of the second couplet is the most elaborately worked image of the ghazal. The ney gives voice through its holes and its joints (bend); the poet asks that his body too be pierced with holes like a ney and filled joint by joint with "hevâ-yı mihr". The word "hevâ" here means both breath, air, and desire, passion: the breath that plays the flute merges with the desire of love. Since Mevlevi poetry the plaintive voice of the ney has been the symbol of the pain of separation. Nigârî has other couplets in which the Mevlevi ney voices the incurable pain of a burning soul, and Bilgin points them out as well.

The death scene in the fifth couplet is set in the atmosphere of a drinking gathering. "Surâhî tek revân" means flowing like a flask, but "revân" also means soul; the poet wishes to surrender his soul as easily as the flask pours out wine. The salâ, the announcement of a death, is recited to the rinds. The "illâ vü lâ" of the last couplet points to the two parts of the formula of God's unity, "lâ ilâhe illallah": "lâ" negates, "illâ" affirms. The wish that even these two steps, known in Naqshbandi zikr as "nefy ü isbât" (negation and affirmation), should not remain in the heart, and only God should remain, may describe the furthest state of self-annihilation (fenâ); but this reading of the couplet is ours, and the poet offers no explanation. Imitating the structure of the formula of unity, the line can also be read as "let there be none but the Lord"; both readings arrive at the same point, that no stranger should remain in the heart.

Bibliography

Online sources