Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün

Fakîhler ders-i ‘aşkı mushaf-ı ruhsârı bilmezler
Sefîhler kenz-i mahfî gevher-i esrârı bilmezler
Fünûn-ı ‘aşkı ger zâhir-perestler bilmez ‘ayb olmaz
Harîdârân-ı har-mühre dür-i şehvârı bilmezler
Katı ma‘zûrdur müştâk-ı cennet hem-çü zâhid çün
Bilürler dârı ahmaklar velî diyâr bilmezler
Severler bir bölük yem-hâr isterler ‘alef-zârı
Şikem kaydın çekenler neş’e-i dîdârı bilmezler
Habîbân anlamaz agyârı bilmez gayr-ı dildârı
Bilenler yârı tahkîkãne gayr-i yârı bilmezler
Kadeh-hârân-ı sevdâ mest-i ma‘nâ anlamaz âyîn
Taleb-kârân-ı bî-mezheb dîn ü dindârı bilmezler
Degül vâkıf özinden bî-haberdir câm-ı mahviyyet
Çekenler mest-i lâ-ya‘kıl olanlar varı bilmezler
Nazar kılmaz talebkârân bakmaz sünbülistâna
Esîr-i turra-i tarrârlar şeh-mârı bilmezler
Gezer Mîr Nigârî lâübâlî nâmdan geçmiş
Cünûn-ı dîde-i Leylâ olanlar ‘ârı bilmezler

In English

1. Jurists do not know the lesson of love, the Qur'an of the cheek; fools do not know the hidden treasure, the pearl of secrets.

2. If worshippers of the outward do not know the sciences of love it is no shame; buyers of donkey beads do not know the royal pearl.

3. Whoever longs for paradise, like the ascetic, is quite excusable; for fools know the house but do not know its master.

4. One band loves fodder and wants pasture; those who bear the fetter of the belly do not know the joy of beholding the face.

5. Lovers do not understand the rival, know none but the beloved; those who truly know the beloved know none but the beloved.

6. The drinkers of the cup of passion, drunk on meaning, do not understand rite; seekers without a school do not know religion or the religious.

7. Those who drink the cup of self-effacement are unaware of themselves and know nothing; the senseless drunk do not know existence.

8. Those on the quest do not look upon the hyacinth garden; the captives of the thieving forelock do not recognise the king serpent. (What the second line means is not certain.)

9. Mîr Nigârî goes about heedless, having given up his name; those gone mad for Leyla's eye know nothing of shame.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The refrain "bilmezler", they do not know, divides two companies in every couplet. On one side are the jurists, the worshippers of the outward, the ascetics longing for paradise and those fettered by the belly, who know nothing of the knowledge of love. On the other are the drunk of love, those beside themselves and those gone mad for Leyla's eye, who in turn know nothing of rite, school, existence or shame. The same verb works in two directions. What the first company does not know is a lack; what the second does not know is a freedom. The ghazal builds this pairing over nine couplets, each time with a different word.

The "kenz-i mahfî", hidden treasure, of the first couplet rests on a well-known holy tradition in Sufism: "I was a hidden treasure, I loved to be known, and I created the world." This is what jurists and fools do not know. In the second couplet "har-mühre", the donkey bead, is the cheap blue bead hung round animals' necks; those who trade in it do not understand the worth of a royal pearl. The distinction between "dâr" and "diyâr" in the third couplet is familiar from earlier ghazals of the divan: fools know the house but not its master. There is forbearance here too; the poet finds the one who longs for paradise "quite excusable", since no one can be held to account for what he does not know.

The sixth couplet carries the harshest word in the poem: "bî-mezheb", seekers without a school, know neither religion nor the religious. The word should be read here not as an attitude outside faith but as the state of a Sufi who has cut his ties with outward rule and practice and lives by the search alone; "âyîn", rite and ceremony, in the same couplet supports this reading. Towards the end of his life Nigârî was accused of Rafidism and exiled to Harput in 1884; one may suppose that lines like this gave material to his accusers, though there is no direct record of it. With his pen name the poet sets himself beside Majnun: past all concern for name and fame, he knows no shame, like those gone mad for Leyla's eye.

Bibliography

  • Nigârî, Nigârî Dîvânı, ed. A. Azmi Bilgin, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2017 (e-book, Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 482), poem 173, p. 110. https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/TR-194361/nigari-divani.html
  • Aytekin Şenzeybek, "Hamza Nigârî'nin Farklı İslam Yorumlarına Yaklaşımı", Necmettin Erbakan Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, 47, 2019, pp. 429-444.

Online sources