Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlü Mefâ‘îlü Fe‘ûlün

Bir dâğ-ı ciger-sûz ile bu sîne kebâbdır
Bes çekdigimiz anun-içün bâde-i nâbdır
Bir bâdedir ol kim anı idrâk eylemez göz
Bî-câm içilür içdügümüz başka şarâbdır
Gördün mi ki uyumak ile kim irdi murâda
Fikr eyle dilâ bî-hude bes bu nice hâbdır
Teşrîf eyle ey sâkî harâbâta nazar kıl
Gör kim nice bin ‘âşık-ı dil-haste harâbdır
Dergâhına vardım cem‘ olup ol kadar ‘âşık
Heyhâ didim âyâ bu ne şehdir bu ne bâbdır
Her şâm u seher Mîr Nigârî yakılur cân
‘Aşk âteşine söyleme âyâ bu ne tâbdır

In English

1. This breast has been roasted by a liver-burning brand; that is why what we drink is pure wine.

2. It is a wine the eye cannot perceive; it is drunk without a cup, what we drink is another wine.

3. Have you ever seen anyone reach his desire by sleeping? O heart, think on it; what kind of idle sleep is this?

4. O cupbearer, honour the tavern with a visit and look; see how many thousands of heartsick lovers lie in ruin.

5. I came to his court; so many lovers had gathered there that I said, "Alas, what a king this is, what a gate."

6. Every evening and morning the soul of Mîr Nigârî burns; do not ask the fire of love, "What heat is this?"

Literary and Historical Commentary

The first couplet of this short six-couplet ghazal opens with an image from the table talk of divan poetry: roast meat and wine. The breast has been roasted by a brand that burns the liver, the burn-mark left by love, and with roast meat one drinks wine. The second couplet, though, says at once that this is no ordinary drink. The eye cannot see it, no cup is needed, it is "another wine". That wine in Sufi poetry stands for divine love and drunkenness for rapture is well known; Nigârî does not hide the fact and gives it openly in the first two couplets.

The third couplet is a call to wake from heedlessness. Sleep in the language of Sufism is the name for unawareness of God; the poet says no one has been seen to reach his goal by sleeping and advises his heart to rise from this idle slumber. "Harâbât", tavern, and "harâb", ruined, in the fourth couplet come from the same root and call each other up: the cupbearer who comes to the tavern will see thousands of heartsick lovers in ruins there. The tavern, as its name requires, is the place of the ruined.

The word "dergâh" in the fifth couplet opens in two directions. A dergâh is both a sovereign's gate and palace and a sheikh's dervish lodge. Arriving at that dergâh, the poet is astonished at the crowd of lovers gathered there and says, "what a king this is, what a gate". The same words could be said of a sultan's palace, of a spiritual guide's lodge or of the threshold of God. Fire has the last word in the signature couplet: the poet's soul burns every morning and evening, but it is pointless to ask the fire of love about its heat, since burning is its nature.

Bibliography

Online sources