Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Meyhâne-i gaybetden yüz nâz ile bir dildâr
Bî-perde zuhûr itdi keşf eyledi bin esrâr
Evsâf-ı dehânından ‘uşşâk-ı nazar-bâza
Sordum didiler müşkil lâ tüdrikühü'l-ebsâr
Şehd-âbe-i la‘linden sormuş sanemâ tab‘ım
Gelmiş yine güftâra bu tûtî-i şekker-bâr
Âyât-ı şifâdır mey zîrâ dil-i bîmârım
Her şâm u seher eyler evsâf-ı lebin tekrâr
Ger haste-i sevdâyam bîmâr-ı tevellâyam
Lâkin ne elem zîrâ dildâr kılur tîmâr
Kelb-i kûy-ı dildâra ihlâs ile kıl hıdmet
Tâ kim bulasın ‘izzet ey vâ‘iz-i bî-mikdâr
Ey Mîr Nigârî gel feryâd ile uğraşma
Kelb-i kûy-ı dildârı tâ kılmayasın bîdâr

In English

1. From the tavern of the Unseen, with a hundred coquetries, a beloved appeared without a veil and laid bare a thousand secrets.

2. I asked the lovers who gaze on beauty about the qualities of her mouth; they said, "It is a hard matter: eyes cannot perceive it."

3. O idol, my poetic nature has sucked the honeyed syrup of your ruby lip; this sugar-raining parrot has come to speech once more.

4. Wine is verses of healing, for my sick heart, every evening and morning, recites the qualities of your lip over and over.

5. If I am sick with passion, sick with tevellâ (love of the Prophet's family), what grief; for the beloved tends the sick.

6. O worthless preacher, serve with sincerity the dog of the beloved's street, so that you may find honour.

7. O Mîr Nigârî, come, do not busy yourself with wailing, lest you wake the dog of the beloved's street.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The second couplet uses a phrase of the Qur'an in a language of love that borders on teasing. "Lâ tüdrikühü'l-ebsâr", "Eyes do not perceive Him", is said of God in verse 103 of the sura al-An'am. In divan poetry the beloved's mouth is so small that it cannot be seen; poets describe it as a dot, a nothing, a secret. Nigârî asks the lovers whose path is gazing for the qualities of that mouth, and they answer with the verse. Within one couplet the familiar conceit stands beside the divine echo carried over from the "tavern of the Unseen" of the first: the beloved who appeared unveiled has come from the hidden world, and her mouth too escapes the eye.

The verb "sormuş" in the third couplet is Azerbaijani "sormak", to suck. The poet's nature, his gift for verse, has sucked the honey syrup on the beloved's lip and, like a sugar-scattering parrot, begun to speak again. Sugar and parrot together recall a familiar scene in divan poetry, where the parrot is fed sugar to make it talk. Here the sugar comes from the lip, and what talks is poetry.

The fourth and fifth couplets work with sickness and cure. The "verses of healing" recited at a sick person's bedside become wine in the ghazal; what the sick heart recites each morning and evening are the qualities of the beloved's lip. Two illnesses are named in the fifth couplet: passion and tevellâ. Tevellâ means taking the Prophet's family as friends and is a frequent word in Nigârî's verse. The one who will treat this illness, as the word "tîmâr", nursing, tells us, is the beloved herself.

The last two couplets turn the same image, the dog of the beloved's street, toward two different people. The preacher is told to serve that dog if he wants honour; in divan poetry the dog at the beloved's door is worth more than the lover himself. The signature couplet has the poet advise himself to give up wailing, since his cries might wake the dog. The lover fears to disturb the sleep of the very dog the preacher is told to serve.

Bibliography

Online sources