Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Bulunmaz ger gözün tek dilrübâ gamzen gibi üstâd
Yine ‘âşıklığa elbet gerek tâlibde isti‘dâd
Mücerred muktezâyı kãbiliyyetdir kılup tecrîd
Tutup sahrâyı Mecnûn kûhı mesken eylemiş Ferhâd
Sürûr eyler gönül pâ-mâl kıl pâ-mâl kıldıkca
Safâsından dimez âyâ bu ne zulüm bu ne bî-dâd
Açılmış gonçe-i bahtım ki zevk-ıla geçer vaktim
Benim gülzârı şâdâb ey leb-i şîrîn benim dil-şâd
Hücûm-ı seg rakîblerden ne gam zîrâ penâhımdır
Seg-i ser-menzil-i Leylâ beni sanman ki bî-üstâd
Leb-i şîrîn temennâsında varım târ-mâr olmuş
Zebûn-ender-zebûnem el-meded ey Hüsrev-i evtâd
Nigârî öyle bir şeydâ-yı ‘âlem ol ki ‘âlemde
Senin vasfınla demsâz olsun âdem ile bir hoş ad

In English

1. Even if none is found to steal the heart like your eye, no master like your glance, the seeker surely needs an aptitude for love.

2. Merely as the requirement of capacity, stripping himself of all, Majnun took to the desert and Farhad made the mountain his home. (The sense of the first line is uncertain.)

3. The more you trample the heart underfoot, the more it rejoices; from its delight it does not say, "What cruelty is this, what injustice?"

4. The bud of my fortune has opened, for my time passes in pleasure; O sweet lip, my rose garden is fresh, my heart is glad.

5. What do I care for the assault of the dog-like rivals, for my refuge is the dog at the head of Leylâ's dwelling; do not think me without a master.

6. In longing for the sweet lip my being has been scattered; I am weak within weakness; help, O Khusraw of the evtâd.

7. Nigârî, be such a madman of the world that in the world a good name may be man's companion through your description. (The edition gives no gloss; the sense is approximate.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

The first two couplets of the ghazal think of love as a matter of aptitude and say so in the words of philosophy. "İsti‘dâd" is a thing's disposition to receive a state; "kâbiliyyet" the capacity to receive; "muktezâ" what a thing requires; "tecrîd" in Sufism is a person's stripping himself of the world and its ties and becoming solitary. The poet says that however masterly the beloved's eye and glance may be, the one who is to love must have a disposition for it. Majnun's withdrawal to the desert and Farhad's to the mountain are the outcome of this disposition. Love begins with a touch from outside, but it does not take hold in every heart.

The fifth couplet points to a well-known scene of the Majnun story. Majnun loved even the dog of Leylâ's quarter, stroking it and falling at its feet; in divan poetry the dog at the beloved's door is a creature the lover either envies or befriends. Nigârî likens the rivals to dogs but does not count himself defenceless: his refuge is the dog at Leylâ's door. With the words at the end of the line, "do not think me without a master", that dog becomes a protector, even a master.

The call "Hüsrev-i evtâd" in the sixth couplet also appears in "Benem Mecnûn-ı bî-pervâ", a page earlier in the divan. The two ghazals share metre and the "-âd" rhyme; in both Majnun and Farhad are named together and the lover speaks of his need for a master. The Turkish word "ad", name, enters the rhyme in the closing couplet: Nigârî counsels himself to be a madman whose name will be spoken well in the world.

Bibliography

Online sources