Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Hâk-ı derin ey hasûdı Cemşîd
Reşk-âver-i şeh-nişîn-i Hûrşîd
Derd-keşi hâk-ı makdeminden
Ey server-i nâziş itme nevmîd
Mâide-i ma‘nîden habersiz
Ey zâhid-i hoş yem ey ‘alef-çîd
Evhâm u kemâlâta müntesibsin
Ey bî-haber ey esîr-i taklîd
Nakş-i kadehim ve in yekâd devâ
Ey bed-nazar ey hasûd-ı bed-dîd
Mecnûn-ı şehinşeh-i cünûna
Ta‘lîm iderem rüsûm-ı tecrîd
Eş‘ârım ile bu şâm-ı felek
Raks eyledi çaldı çeng ü nâhîd
Cilve-i nigâr-ı nâzenînem
İş‘âr ider nevây-ı ümîd
Kûyunda makãm kıl muhalled
Ey Mîr Nigârî mihri câvîd

In English

1. O you, the dust of whose door Jamshid envies, whom even the throne of the Sun begrudges.

2. O chief of the proud beauties, do not leave hopeless the one who suffers for the dust your foot has touched. (The sense of the couplet is uncertain.)

3. O ascetic who eats well, O picker of fodder, you know nothing of the table of meaning.

4. O unknowing one, O captive of imitation, you are bound to illusions and (so-called) perfections.

5. O evil-eyed one, O envious one of ill sight, the design on my cup is "ve in yekâd", a remedy (against the evil eye).

6. To Majnun, emperor of the land of madness, I teach the ways of detachment.

7. With my poems, in this evening of the sphere, Venus danced and played the harp.

8. The coquetry of my delicate beloved announces the melody of hope.

9. O Mîr Nigârî, take an everlasting station in her street; O you whose love is eternal. (This rendering of the couplet is tentative.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

In the fifth couplet the poet names the design on his cup: "ve in yekâd". These are the first words of verse 51 of the sura al-Qalam: "Ve in yekâdü'llezîne keferû le yüzlikûneke bi-ebsârihim", the unbelievers would almost overthrow you with their eyes. Among the people the verse was recited against the evil eye and written on plaques, amulets and charms. Nigârî imagines it engraved on his cup and uses it as a shield against the envious, evil-eyed ascetic. The tavern's cup is protected by a verse of the Quran; the ascetic's ill look has no power over it.

The words aimed at the ascetic fill the three couplets in the middle of the ghazal and grow harsher as they go. First he is called "hoş yem", one who eats well; then "‘alef-çîd", picker of fodder, that is, one who grazes like a beast. He knows nothing of the table of meaning, is bound to illusions and to perfections he imagines, a captive of imitation. Taklîd in Sufism is acquiring knowledge by hearsay rather than by one's own experience, the opposite of true knowledge, "tahkîk".

The sixth and seventh couplets are a boast. The poet teaches Majnun, king of the mad, the way of detachment; when his poems are recited Venus dances in the sky and plays the harp. "Nâhîd" is the Persian name of the planet Venus; in the old picture of the heavens she was imagined seated in the third sphere as a player and singer. By the power of poetry the musician of the sky dances. "Nevâ" in the eighth couplet means both melody and the name of a musical mode.

The rhyme is a long "î", and most of the words are Persian: Cemşîd, Hûrşîd, nevmîd, ‘alef-çîd, taklîd, bed-dîd, tecrîd, nâhîd, ümîd, câvîd. The edition does not give the metre of this ghazal.

Bibliography

Online sources