Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlün Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlün

Eflâke düşer lerze o vakt kim ey hoş-hand
Cânım yanar evsâfın söyler dilim âteş-mend
Eflâkden evveldir bu mihr-i ciger-sûzum
Ol var idi ammâ yok bu dâire-i pür-fend
Sevdâ-yı ser-i zülfün zencîr-i cenânımdır
Zîrâ ki cünûndur ol mecnûna gerekdir bend
Ma‘zûrdur ol zâhid çekmedi eger bâde
Yok ‘aşka isti‘dâdı teklîf eyledim her çend
Bî-dâg-ı lebindir kim vâ‘izde harâret yok
Bezm ehline virmez teb her çend ki eyler pend
Ol vakt ki ayıldım açdım gözümü gördüm
Gönlüm teline bağlu çeşmim kaşına pey-vend
Müştâk-ı cemâlindir bu Mîr Nigârîye
Dîdârını ‘arz eyle ey dilber-i bî-mânend

In English

1. O sweetly laughing one, a tremor falls upon the heavens when my soul burns and my fiery tongue tells your qualities.

2. This liver-burning love of mine is older than the heavens; it existed, but this circle full of tricks (the sphere) did not.

3. The passion for the tip of your tress is the chain of my heart; for it is madness, and a madman needs a bond.

4. That ascetic is excused if he did not drink wine; however often I offered it, he has no aptitude for love.

5. The preacher lacks heat because he bears no wound from your lip; however much he admonishes, he gives no fever (fervour) to the people of the gathering.

6. When I came to and opened my eyes, I saw my heart tied to a strand of your hair, my eye grafted onto your brow.

7. This Mîr Nigârî longs for your beauty; O peerless beauty, show your face.

Literary and Historical Commentary

In the second couplet the lover counts his love older than the heavens. His liver-burning love existed before the spheres; at that time this "dâire-i pür-fend", the circle full of tricks, that is, the turning sky that changes man's fortune, had not yet been created. In divan poetry most of the lover's pain comes from the sphere; Nigârî diminishes the sphere into something that came after love. Love is pre-eternal, the sphere created. The tremor that falls on the heavens in the first couplet gains its meaning from this: the language of love shakes the sphere because it is older than it.

The fourth and fifth couplets take up the ascetic and the preacher in turn, but without harsh words. The ascetic is excused if he did not drink; he has no aptitude for love, and however often it is offered it does not take hold. The preacher's fault comes from the same place: since he bears no wound from the beloved's lip, there is no heat in his words. "Harâret" is both fire and fervour; "teb" is the fever of an ague. However much the preacher admonishes, he cannot warm his listeners. The lover's tongue, in the first couplet, is "âteş-mend", fiery.

In the third couplet the word "bend", bond, is thought of together with madness. The insane were once put in chains; in divan poetry too the beloved's tress is the madman's chain. In the sixth couplet the lover comes to himself, opens his eyes and finds himself bound: his heart is tied to a strand of hair, his eye grafted onto the brow. "Pey-vend" means joining, a graft; eye and brow are like two pieces joined on the same face. The rhyme words, from hoş-hand to bî-mânend, are all written with a final dâl.

Bibliography

Online sources