Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Destinde gezer sâgar mey-hâr mül ile oynar
Hayret-zede raks eyler dil kulkul ile oynar
Uğraşmagil ey dil çün zülf ile oyun olmaz
Sergeşte gezer zîrâ her kim tel ile oynar
Bilmem ki ne ‘âlemdir ‘aşk ‘âlemi kim her dem
Bir zevk bulupdur kim Mahmûd kul ile oynar
Ey kâkül-i tarrârım sevdâda budur kârım
Hasretle yanar cânım dâğ dil ile oynar
Eyle sanuram ey cân dîde-i belâ-bînem
Müjgânına benzetmiş her dem mül ile oynar
Bir lahza degül her ân sînemde kılur cevlân
Peykân-ı gözün zîrâ cîrân çul ile oynar
Ey Mîr Nigârî hîç bir yerde karâr itmez
Sâlâr mahabbetdir dil menzil ile oynar

In English

1. The wine-drinker goes about with a goblet in hand and plays with the wine; astonished he dances, the heart plays with the gurgle of the flask.

2. O heart, do not meddle, for there is no playing with the tress; whoever plays with that strand wanders with a reeling head.

3. I do not know what kind of world the world of love is, where every moment it has found such delight that Mahmud plays with his slave.

4. O my thieving forelock, this is my work in passion: my soul burns with longing, the brand plays with the heart.

5. O soul, I think my calamity-seeing eye has likened (the wine) to her lashes, and so it plays with the wine every moment. (The rendering of this couplet is conjectural.)

6. Not for a moment but every instant the arrowhead of your eye roams in my breast; for the gazelle plays with the horse-cloth. (The second line is obscure.)

7. O Mîr Nigârî, (the heart) settles nowhere; love is its commander, the heart plays with the stages of the road.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The verb "oynar" in the refrain means both to play and to stir, to keep moving, and in each couplet it pairs with something different: wine, the gurgle of the flask, the strand of the tress, the heart, the arrowhead, the stages of the road. The first couplet sets the scene in the tavern. The drinker carries his goblet about and dances in astonishment, and the heart plays with the "kulkul" of wine poured from flask to cup. Kulkul is the name for the sound wine makes as it pours from a flask's narrow neck, a word often found in divan poetry.

The third couplet rests on the famous story of Mahmud of Ghazna and his slave Ayaz. In divan poetry the pair are the example of a sultan in love with his slave, a master with his servant; love is said to make a plaything even of a king before a slave. Nigârî says he does not know what manner of world the world of love is, for there Mahmud plays with the slave. The warning of the second couplet belongs to this world too: whoever plays with the strand of the tress loses his head, for the tress is not to be trifled with.

The fifth and sixth couplets are hard to read. "Cîrân" in the sixth may be the Azerbaijani "ceyran", gazelle; a gazelle playing with a horse-cloth may have been meant as an image for the arrowhead of the eye stirring restlessly in the breast, but the logic of the couplet cannot be fully worked out. The heart of the signature couplet is a traveller that settles nowhere. Love is its commander, and the heart plays with the stages of the road, passing from stop to stop without halting. With the stations of the Sufi path in mind, this also expresses the seeker's refusal to stay fixed at any one station.

Bibliography

Online sources