Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün

Geç sanemden söyle ey dil yâ Samed
Tâ diye lebbeyk lebbeyk-i Ehad
Kıl ikãmet taht-gâh-ı fakrda
Ba‘d ezîn semmûrını yâ în nemed
Terk ü tecrîd iledür fakr ü fenâ
Gör nedir ‘âşıklık ey ehl-i hired
‘Aşk sahrâsında birdir merd ü zen
Farksızdır anda rûbâh u esed
Keyf kem kemdür te‘allük nâ-pedîd
Ol yire telvîn sığmaz hem ‘aded
Terk ü tecrîd ü fenâdandır bana
Devlet-i fakr u bekã mülk-i ebed
Ey Nigârî tâ yetince ol yere
Eyledim kül cismimi yandırdım kebed
Menzilim dûr u tarîkım hevl-nâk
Yâ Hızır yâ râhber sizden meded

In English

1. O heart, leave the idol (sanem), say "Yâ Samed"; so that the One (Ehad) may say "lebbeyk, lebbeyk" (here I am) to you. (The sense of the second line is uncertain.)

2. Dwell in the throne-seat of poverty; from then on your sable fur and this felt (are one). (The sense of the couplet is uncertain.)

3. Poverty and annihilation come through leaving and detachment; O man of reason, see what being a lover is.

4. In the desert of love man and woman are one; there is no difference there between fox and lion.

5. (There) quality and quantity fall short, attachment cannot be seen; neither the passing from state to state (telvîn) nor number fits that place.

6. For me the fortune of poverty and of abiding, the kingdom of eternity, comes from leaving, detachment and annihilation.

7. O Nigârî, until I reached that place I made my body ash and burned my liver.

8. My station is far, my road fearful; O Khidr, O guide, help from you.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Two words of the first line are very close in Arabic script: "sanem", idol, written "صنم", and "Samed", one of the names of God, written "صمد". Both begin with sâd; their second letters are one a nûn, the other a mîm. The poet tells the heart to cross this small difference between the two words: to give up the idol and turn to the Samed. Samed is the name in the sura al-Ikhlas meaning "the one who needs nothing and of whom all things have need"; "Ehad", One, from the first verse of the same sura, is in the rhyme of the second line. The opening couplet thus takes two names from the sura al-Ikhlas into its rhyme.

The rest of the ghazal lists the concepts of the Sufi path. "Fakr" is the dervish's owning nothing of the world; "fenâ" his passing away from his own being and vanishing in God; "bekâ" his abiding with God after that vanishing. "Terk ü tecrîd" is leaving the world and stripping off every tie. In the second couplet, for one who sits on the throne of poverty there is no difference left between a sable fur and a dervish's felt. The fifth couplet uses the categories of philosophy: "keyf", quality, and "kem", quantity, fall short at that station; "telvîn", passing from state to state, and "‘aded", number, do not fit there.

The fourth couplet says that in the desert of love man and woman, fox and lion are one. The distinctions drawn in the world between strong and weak, brave and timid do not hold in that desert. By the end the road has become perilous, and the poet asks Khidr for help. Khidr is known as a saint believed to be immortal, who comes to the aid of those who have lost their way. The seventh couplet carries the pen name, and the eighth becomes a prayer.

Bibliography

Online sources