Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlü Mefâ‘îlü Fe‘ûlün

Ol bârı ki bizler çekerüz kâr-ı kaderdir
Biz bilmezüz Allâh bilür bu ne kaderdir
Lâle gibi dağlandı ciger-gâhımız ammâ
Odlara salan cânımızı bir gül-i terdir
Gül gonçemizi açmadı bâde-i şebâne
İmdâd ile ey sâkî ki hengâm-ı seherdir
Müşkil degül ‘ukbâda nazar-bâzlık ammâ
Dünyâda nazar ‘ârız-ı dildâra hünerdir
Geh mey-kede ey hâce vü geh tekye-nişînem
Dahl eyleme etvârım ahvâl-i beşerdir
‘Aklın revişin bozdı yine pîr-i harâbât
Âyâ bu ne hâlet bu ne cezbe ne eserdir
Hıfz eylegil ihlâs ile ol pîr-i harâbın
Hâk-bîn ey dîde ki envâr-ı basardır
Ey dil yine hûy hâ görünür yâr işiginde
Bir gez ayag al gör ki ne gavgã ne haberdir
‘Azm itdi gönül kûy-ı nigâra didim ey cân
Bir başka ziyâret bu sefer özge seferdir
El üzme dilâ ‘âşık-ı şeydâ eteginden
Hıfz eyle bu güftârımı kim pend-i pederdir
İhlâs ile hıdmet eyle ey Mîr Nigârî
Bir ‘âşık-ı şeydâya ki erbâb-ı nazardır

In English

1. The burden we carry is the work of destiny; we do not know, God knows what destiny this is.

2. Like the tulip our liver has been branded; but the one who casts our soul into the fires is a fresh rose (the beloved).

3. Last night's wine did not open our rosebud; O cupbearer, come to our aid, for it is the hour of dawn.

4. To be a gazer in the hereafter (upon the beauty of God) is not difficult; but in this world, to gaze on the beloved's cheek is an art.

5. O master, now I sit in the tavern and now in the dervish lodge; do not meddle with my ways, these are the states of a human being.

6. The elder of the tavern has again upset the course of reason; what state is this, what rapture, what effect?

7. Keep faith with that ruined elder in sincerity; O eye, look to the dust, for (the dust of his threshold) is the light of sight.

8. O heart, again an uproar appears at the beloved's door; take a step just once and see what quarrel, what news this is. (We take "ayag al" to mean taking a step.)

9. The heart resolved to go to the beloved's street; I said, "O soul, this is a different visit, this journey is another journey."

10. O heart, do not let go of the skirt of the mad lover; keep these words of mine, for they are a father's counsel.

11. O Mîr Nigârî, serve in sincerity a mad lover who is one of the people of vision.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The poet's life is spent between two places, and in the fifth couplet he names them plainly to a master who questions him: sometimes he sits in the tavern, sometimes in the dervish lodge, and he counts this coming and going as a natural part of the human condition. In divan poetry the tavern and the lodge usually stand at opposite poles, the tavern the home of love and rapture, the lodge the home of rule and abstinence. Nigârî was a Naqshbandi sheikh and the lodge was his daily life, yet in the poem he claims the tavern as his own as well. The "pîr-i harâbât", the elder of the tavern, of the sixth and seventh couplets is the key figure of this double life: a guide who upsets the road of reason and gives rapture, the dust of whose door the eye counts as the light of sight, like kohl.

In thought the ghazal stands firmest at its fourth couplet. The vision of God in the hereafter is described as a grace promised to believers, and the poet says it is no hard matter. The real art is to look, in this world and through its veils, upon the beloved's cheek. Contemplating the reflection of divine beauty in a beautiful face is called "nazar-bâzlık" in Sufism and was a disputed attitude; the "erbâb-ı nazar", people of vision, of the closing couplet are those who share it. The poet counsels himself to serve such a lover with sincerity.

The words "ne kaderdir" in the opening couplet can also be read in Arabic script as "ne kadardır", how much it is, and the poet may have left the double sense on purpose: only God knows both what kind of destiny this is and how heavy the load. The "kûy-ı nigâr", the beloved's street, of the ninth couplet carries the poet's pen name within it. The heart's going there is no ordinary visit; the poet calls it "özge sefer", another kind of journey. The voice of counsel in the tenth couplet is a father's: the heart must not let go of the skirts of mad lovers.

The second line of the seventh couplet appears one syllable short of the metre in the edition; a reading such as "Hâk-bîn ol ey dîde" might be expected, but that is conjecture, and the text is left as the edition gives it.

Bibliography

Online sources