Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Meyhânede ey vâ‘iz yer yok size kim füccâr
Cennetde bulunmaz çün ol yerde olur ebrâr
Bir yâr içün ey yârân cennetden ayağ çekdim
Zîrâ dilemez dârı ‘uşşâk diler deyyâr
Bir bû ile ey kâkül bend eyledin ‘uşşâkı
Bildin mi neler itdin miskînlere ey tarrâr
N’itdimse yine aldım bir bûse ayağından
Zîrâ ki bilür vechin ahz eylemegin cerrâr
Hıfz-ı rumûzâtı rahm it özüne ey dil
İzhâr-ı hatâdandır keşf eyleme gel esrâr
Terk itdiler izmârı keşf itdiler esrârı
Nâ-hak degül olması Hallâcların ber-dâr
Bu tab‘-ı şirînkârı gitdi yine cevlâna
Bir yâr-ı şirîn-güftâr bir dilber-i hoş-reftâr
Bu mest-i şarâb-hârın eş‘ârını der-gûş it
Zîrâ ki gelür Hakdan tab‘-ı velîye güftâr
Kur’ân-ı mahabbetden bir âyet-i İhlâsı
Ey Mîr Nigârî kıl her şâm u seher tekrâr

In English

1. O preacher, there is no room for you in the tavern, for it is the place of sinners; sinners are not found in paradise, since that is where the righteous are.

2. O friends, for the sake of one beloved I have drawn my foot back from paradise; for lovers do not want the house, they want the master of the house.

3. O forelock, with a single scent you have bound the lovers; did you know what you did to the poor ones, O cutpurse?

4. Whatever I did, I still took a kiss from her foot; for the one who seizes knows the way of taking. (The sense of this line cannot be fully made out.)

5. O heart, have pity on yourself and keep the hidden signs; revealing them comes of error, come, do not lay bare the secrets.

6. They gave up concealment and laid bare the secrets; it is not unjust that the Hallajs are hanged on the gallows.

7. This sweetly working nature has gone off roaming once again: toward a sweet-spoken beloved, a heart-stealer of graceful gait.

8. Listen to the poems of this wine-drinking drunkard; for speech comes from God to the nature of the saint.

9. O Mîr Nigârî, every evening and morning repeat a verse of Sincerity (İhlâs) from the Qur'an of love.

Literary and Historical Commentary

At the heart of the ghazal stands Hallaj. The sixth couplet says it is not unjust that those who stopped concealing and laid bare the secrets are hanged. The plural "Hallajs" turns the Sufi executed in Baghdad in 922 for the words "Ene'l-Hak", I am the Truth, into a type: every lover who does not keep his secret is a Hallaj. The fifth couplet prepares this verdict; the poet advises his heart to take pity on itself and keep the hidden signs. These two couplets set up a tension with the rest of the poem, since in the eighth the poet asks that the poems of a drunken wine-drinker be heard and says that they come to the saint's nature from God. The secret must be kept, and yet the poem is spoken. Studies of the influence of Attar and Rumi on Nigârî also note how often Hallaj appears in his verse and how the poet places himself beside him in the arena of divine love.

The first two couplets make paradise and the tavern change places. There is no room for the preacher in the tavern, since the tavern belongs to sinners; the preacher belongs in paradise, among the righteous. On its face this is praise, but the second couplet overturns it: the lover has given up paradise for one beloved. "Dâr" and "deyyâr", the house and its master, are two words from one root, and what lovers want is not the house but its master. The preacher who wants paradise as a place is made small beside the lover who wants the Lord of paradise.

The word "miskîn" in the third couplet joins with scent. Miskin means wretched, poor, but it carries within it the sound "misk", musk. The forelock has bound the lovers with a scent and robbed the poor with musk, and so it is called "tarrâr", cutpurse. At the close, "İhlâs" is both the name of the 112th sura of the Qur'an and the word for sincerity. The poet tells himself to recite a verse of İhlâs from the Qur'an of love morning and evening; what is to be repeated like a prayer is sincere love.

Bibliography

Online sources