Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilün

Sıfatın ey kamer-i leyle-i İsrây İsrâ
Harem evvel kademin iknici Aksây Aksâ
Görmedi hâk-i peyün tâir-i Kudsî Kudsî
Ne kadar uçdı bülend ey kadi bâlâ bâlâ
Şeb-i mi‘râc melekler didi Allâh Allâh
Bu ne dilber bu ne server bu ne Mevlâ Mevlâ
Savt-ı la‘linle sürûr eyledi ervâh ervâh
Raksdur çerh-i berîn eyledi ‘Îsâ ‘Îsâ
Raksdur dest-i ‘inân eyledi Cibrîl Cibrîl
Zühre çeng urdı felek oynadı bî-pâ bî-pâ
Bu ne ra‘nâ bu [ne] hüsnâ bu ne sûret sûret
Bu ne şekl ü ne şemâil bu ne zîbâ zîbâ
Ne güzel adı güzel vasfı ne Yâsîn Yâsîn
Ne güzel na‘tı güzel nâmı ne Tâhâ Tâhâ
Bu ne şevket vü ne rütbet vü ne kurbet kurbet
Kãbe kavseyn bu ne ... bu ne ev ednâ ednâ
Sebeb-i tantana-i arz-ı ber-eflâk eflâk
Bu ne şândur bu ne şevket bu ne levlâ levlâ
Ey sözi mâye-i cân ey lebi şîrîn şîrîn
Olmaz ‘âlemde güzel sen gibi ahlâ ahlâ
Nice vasf eyleyem ey mâye-i ‘âlem ‘âlem
Gãyet-i hilkatısın ey meh-i a‘lâ a‘lâ
Bâ‘is-i debdebe-i zümre-i âdem âdem
Sana mahsûs kamu rütbe-i ‘ulyâ ‘ulyâ
Sıfatın Mîr Nigârî ider efşân efşân
‘Âkıbet câna yeter vasfını gûyâ gûyâ
Söyler ol şâm u seher vasfını tekrâr tekrâr
Gãlibâ kand-ı mükerrerdi bu inşâ inşâ

In English

1. O moon of the night of the Isrâ, your attribute is Isrâ, Isrâ; your first step is the Haram (the Sacred Mosque), your second is Aqsâ, Aqsâ.

2. O you of lofty stature, however high, high the bird of the holy realm flew, it could not see even the dust of your feet.

3. On the night of the Ascension the angels said "Allah, Allah": what a beloved, what a leader, what a master, a master.

4. At the sound of your lips spirits upon spirits were overcome with joy; the highest heaven dances, and Jesus too was seized with rapture. (The sense of the second line is unclear; "eyledi ‘Îsâ ‘Îsâ" has been taken to mean that Jesus, believed to dwell in heaven, also joined in this joy.)

5. Gabriel dances holding the rein; Venus played the harp, the sphere danced beside itself.

6. What beauty, what goodness, what a form, a form; what a figure, what a bearing, what an adornment, an adornment.

7. How fine his name, how fine his description: Yâsîn, Yâsîn; how fine his praise, how fine his name: Tâhâ, Tâhâ.

8. What majesty, what rank, what nearness, nearness; "kâbe kavseyn" (the distance of two bows), what ..., what "ev ednâ" (or nearer), nearer. (A word could not be read in the edition and is marked "...".)

9. The cause of the earth's splendour reaching up to the heavens; what glory, what majesty, what a "levlâ", "levlâ" (were it not for you).

10. O you whose speech is the leaven of the soul, whose lips are sweet, sweet; there is none in the world as beautiful as you, as sweet as you.

11. O leaven of the world, how shall I describe you; O loftiest moon, you are the purpose of creation.

12. (You are) the cause of the splendour of the race of Adam; all lofty ranks belong to you alone.

13. Mîr Nigârî tells your attributes scattering them abroad; in the end your praise seems to reach the soul.

14. Morning and evening he tells your praise over and over; this speech, it seems, is twice-refined (mükerrer) sugar.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Every line of this fourteen-couplet naat ends with a repeated word: İsrâ İsrâ, Aksâ Aksâ, Kudsî Kudsî, bâlâ bâlâ, Allâh Allâh, Mevlâ Mevlâ. Rhyme and refrain are lodged within these repetitions. Read aloud, the poem comes close to the voice of a chorus in a circle of zikr saying the same word twice. The last couplet names this form itself: the poet tells the Prophet's praise "tekrâr tekrâr", over and over, and likens his speech to "kand-ı mükerrer". Kand-ı mükerrer is sugar boiled and refined twice; "mükerrer" also means repeated. The naat thus closes by identifying its own pattern of repetition with the purest sugar.

The subject of the ghazal is the Ascension (mi‘râc). The first couplet rests on the first verse of the sura al-Isrâ: one night the Prophet was carried from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque (al-Aqsâ). The poet presents the two stations of this journey as the Prophet's two steps. In the eighth couplet the phrase "kâbe kavseyni ev ednâ" (the distance of two bows, or nearer) from the sura al-Najm appears as the Quranic description of how near the Prophet came to God during the Ascension. In the seventh couplet two names of the Prophet are listed: Yâsîn and Tâhâ are the letters at the head of the suras of those names and are counted by tradition among the Prophet's names. The "levlâ" of the ninth couplet points to the saying, beloved in Sufi circles and attributed to God, "Were it not for you, I would not have created the heavens"; that the Prophet is the cause of creation is repeated openly in the eleventh and twelfth couplets.

The heavens in this poem are a place of festival. The angels invoke God in wonder, the sky dances, Gabriel plays holding the rein of Burâq, the Prophet's mount, and Venus, the musician star, plays the harp. The "tâir-i Kudsî" of couplet two, the bird of the holy realm, cannot reach even the dust of the Prophet's feet however high it flies. According to tradition, during the Ascension Gabriel could not pass beyond a certain station; the couplet may recall this tradition, but the poet does not say who the bird is.

The edition gives the metre of this long naat as "fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün". In couplet eight a word could not be read and the edition leaves its place blank with "..."; the text is reproduced here with that gap.

Bibliography

Online sources