Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün

Firkat-ı la‘linle ey ruhsârı verd
‘Âşık-ı hasret-keşin ruhsârı zerd
Sormadın bî-çâreler hâlin ne sûd
Bilmedin mi ne çeker ashâb-ı derd
Teskîn itmez âteş-i sûzânımı
Şerbet-i nâr âb-ı sabr mâ-ı berd
İmdi ey müşkil-güşâ gül vaktidir
Şeş-der-i hayretdir erbâb-ı nerd
Bâde-i gülgûn yerine kan virür
‘Âşık-ı sevdâya çerh-i lâciverd
Tâlib-i Leylâ belâ-ber-dûş olur
Kûh u vâdîden yemez gam reh-neverd
Lâ übâlî bî-hatar şâm u seher
‘Âşık-ı Leylâ gezer ser-mest ü mürd
Vâ‘izâ mey-hâre düşme kim düşer
Eyleyenler dâsıtânıyla neberd
Ey Nigârî fâtih-i dîdârdır
Âteş-i dil âb-ı sabr âh-ı serd

In English

1. O rose-cheeked one, through separation from your ruby lip the face of your longing lover has turned yellow.

2. You did not ask after the helpless, what good is it; did you not know what the people of pain endure?

3. Neither pomegranate sherbet, nor the water of patience, nor cold water soothes my burning fire.

4. O Opener of difficulties, now it is the time of roses; the backgammon players have fallen into the şeşder of bewilderment.

5. The azure sphere gives the lover of passion blood instead of rose-coloured wine.

6. He who seeks Leylâ carries calamity on his shoulder; the wayfarer does not grieve over mountain and valley.

7. Leylâ's lover wanders evening and morning careless, fearless, drunk and dead (to himself). (The sense of the couplet is uncertain.)

8. O preacher, do not attack the wine-drinker, for those who do battle with his tale fall. (The edition gives no gloss; the sense is approximate.)

9. O Nigârî, what opens the sight of the face is the fire of the heart, the water of patience and the cold sigh.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The fourth couplet is built on a term from backgammon. "Nerd" is the old name of the game; "şeşder", six doors, is closing six consecutive points in front of the opponent's pieces so that he cannot move. The poet says "şeşder-i hayret", the şeşder of bewilderment: like backgammon players, the lovers are caught in a block with no way out. In the same couplet God is addressed as "müşkil-güşâ", the Opener of difficulties, and the coming of the rose season is recalled. He is the one who will open the blocked way.

The colours of the ghazal are set in the first couplet. The beloved's cheek is "verd", rose; the lover's face is "zerd", yellow. The two Persian words differ by a single letter and open the rhyme. In the fifth couplet a third colour comes in: "çerh-i lâciverd", the azure sphere, offers the lover blood instead of rose-coloured wine. Red wine and red blood change places in the same cup.

The third couplet lists three drinks that will not soothe the lover's fire: pomegranate sherbet, the water of patience and "mâ-ı berd", cold water. The last couplet seems to answer it: what opens the door to the sight of the face is the fire of the heart, the water of patience and the cold sigh. Fire, water and the air of the sigh recall three of the four elements of the old natural philosophy; what brings the lover to the beloved are these elements within him. The ghazal opens with "verd" and closes with "serd"; its ten rhyme words trace a road from the colour of the rose to the cold sigh.

Bibliography

Online sources