Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilün

Bezm-i rindânımıza geldi ki oldum hammâr
Mey için söyledi hem eyledi câmı serşâr
Kandı ashâb-ı safâ her biri bir câm ile ben
Kanmadım kâse-i serşârı ki çekdim sad bâr
Gördi idmânımı îkãnımı tahkîk itdi
Didi bilmedim senin ihlâsını ey şirînkâr
Var bir başka delîlim diyem ey ehl-i hulûs
Kılgil ihlâs ile tasdîk bunı âyet-vâr
Sôfî Tebbet okudı meclis-i Kur’ânîde ben
Kul hüva'llâhı mükerrer bütün ihlâsı mı var
Kürsîden indi ‘alef pâresi ihsân itdim
Hoşlanup vâ‘iz-i har kıldı kemâlin izhâr
Kaynar ey Mîr Nigârî deheninden kand-i âb
Eylesen şi‘r-i şeker-bârımı tekrâr tekrâr

In English

1. He came to our gathering of rinds, and I became the wine-man; he spoke on behalf of wine and filled the cup to the brim.

2. The people of pleasure were each quenched by one cup; I was not quenched though I drained the brimming bowl a hundred times.

3. He saw my habit and put my certainty to the test; he said, "I did not know your sincerity, O sweet worker."

4. O people of sincerity, I have another proof, let me tell it; confirm it with sincerity, as you would a verse of scripture.

5. At the Qur'an gathering the Sufi recited Tebbet; I recited "Kul hüva'llâh" again and again. Is all the sincerity his?

6. He came down from the pulpit; I made him a gift of a bit of fodder; the donkey of a preacher was pleased and showed his accomplishment.

7. O Mîr Nigârî, if you recite my sugar-scattering poem over and over, sugar water will bubble up from your mouth.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The ghazal tells of a scene at a gathering, and in this it differs from most of the divan. The couplets follow one another like events: someone comes to the rinds' gathering, speaks for wine and fills the cup; the people of pleasure are quenched by one cup, while the poet drinks a hundred and is still not satisfied; the newcomer sees this and says he did not know his sincerity. Who the newcomer is goes unsaid in the first couplets. In the fifth and sixth a Sufi and a preacher descending from the pulpit appear, and by the end of the scene it is clear that the poet's counterpart is this Sufi-preacher.

The fifth couplet is the knot of the ghazal and rests on the order of two suras of the Qur'an. Tebbet, the sura al-Masad, is a short sura cursing Abu Lahab and his wife; it stands 111th in the scripture. Immediately after it comes the 112th, İhlâs, Sincerity, which opens "Kul hüva'llâhu ehad", Say: He is God, the One. At the gathering the Sufi recited Tebbet and the poet İhlâs. So the poet asks: who has sincerity? The newcomer's words in the third couplet, "I did not know your sincerity", and the poet's address to "the people of sincerity" in the fourth prepare for this point. This deft joining of the sura's name with the sense of sincerity also calls to mind the phrase "Kur'ân-ı mahabbetden bir âyet-i İhlâs", a verse of Sincerity from the Qur'an of love, in another of the divan's ghazals.

The sixth couplet is the sharpest point of the satire. The poet offers the preacher coming down from the pulpit "a bit of fodder", and the preacher, pleased, displays his "accomplishment". Likening a preacher to a donkey is a harshness found in divan poetry; here the link between fodder and contentment also says what the preacher measures his worth by. What sweetens the whole quarrel in the end is an image of sugar in the signature couplet.

Bibliography

Online sources