Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Gülzâr-ı melâhatda dil kâkül ile oynar
‘Attâr dükkân açmış darçın höl ile oynar
Gîsû ile uğraşdım aldım haber-i çünîn
Ahbâra olur vâkıf her kim tel ile oynar
Bî-hûde degül kim ol zülf ile yeler gönlüm
Kãnûn-ı ezeldir bu yel sünbül ile oynar
Deyyârı diler ‘âşık erbâb-ı vera‘ dârı
Gül-çîn güli gül-hânçı ister gül ile oynar
Dildâr ile oynar dil her şâm u seher zîrâ
Her şâm u seher bülbül söyler gül ile oynar
Mestâne gelür söyler her lahza habîbâne
Dildâr-ı şirîn-kârım gül bülbül ile oynar
Şevk-ı leb ile oynar ey Mîr Nigârî dil
Zîrâ ki kadeh-hârân zevk-ı mül ile oynar

In English

1. In the rose garden of beauty the heart plays with the forelock; as if a perfumer had opened his shop and played with cinnamon and cardamom.

2. I wrestled with the tress and got such news: whoever plays with that strand comes to know the tidings.

3. Not in vain does my heart run with that tress; it is the law of pre-eternity that the wind plays with the hyacinth.

4. The lover wants the master of the house, the pious want the house; the rose-picker wants the rose, and the rose-seller plays with the rose. (The sense given for "gül-hânçı" is uncertain.)

5. The heart plays with the beloved every evening and morning; for every evening and morning the nightingale sings and plays with the rose.

6. My sweetly working beloved comes drunk and every moment speaks as a lover should; the rose plays with the nightingale.

7. O Mîr Nigârî, the heart plays with longing for the lip; for drinkers of the cup play with the pleasure of wine.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Nigârî returns here to the refrain "ile oynar", plays with, which he had already used in "Destinde gezer sâgar", shortly before in the divan. No metre is entered above this poem, yet its lines fit the "Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlün Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlün" of that ghazal. Of the rhyme words, "kâkül", "tel" and "mül" are shared by both. The poet did not use a refrain once and leave it; he built the same game again with other objects and other scenes. Here the players are cinnamon and cardamom, hyacinth and wind, rose and nightingale.

The first couplet turns the garden of beauty into a perfumer's shop. "Darçın" is cinnamon and "höl" or "hel" cardamom, both strongly scented spices. The heart's play with the beloved's forelock is likened to a perfumer turning over his spices: the more he handles them, the more the scent spreads. The "tel" of the second couplet reads as the strand of the tress, and whoever plays with it is said to "come to know the tidings". A reader looking at the line with the eyes of its century might also think of news arriving by wire, the telegraph, whose lines had spread through Ottoman lands after the 1850s. The couplet itself, though, does not make the connection openly, and a tress as a strand bringing word from the beloved stays within the familiar language of divan poetry.

The fourth couplet repeats a contrast Nigârî was fond of: the lover wants "deyyâr", the master of the house, the pious want "dâr", the house. In the fifth and sixth couplets the rose and the nightingale enter a game that runs both ways; first the nightingale plays with the rose, then the rose with the nightingale. The same game has two sides, and beloved and lover take their places. The signature couplet brings the play back into the tavern: as cup-drinkers play with wine, so the heart plays with longing for the lip.

Bibliography

Online sources