Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Habbezâ kãmetine beyle ki ol nâz eyler
Ger niyâz eylese cân ‘ömr–i ebed âz eyler
Târ-ı tarrârına eyvâh sabâ degdigce
Tutuşup nây-i gönül târa vü sâz eyler
Yâd kıldıkca ruhun dîde-i ter kan ağlar
Eylemem fâş gamın lîk bu gammâz eyler
Tâlibân içre beni kıldı esîr-i gamzen
Âferîn bâz-ı gözün saydını mümtâz eyler
Eylemez zülf-i zerefşâna heves sôfî belî
Eylemez sâr-ı heves tâvusa şehbâz olur
Bitmez iş lâf u güzâf ile gerek mahv-ı vücûd
Eylemez kimse bunı ‘âşık-ı ser-bâz eyler
Hâce-i mekteb-i ‘uşşâkdır ol kim evvel
Ders-i ‘uşşâk hevesi leylden âgãz eyler
Ey Nigârî çıkar ol dâire-i ‘âlemden
Beyle kim bâz gönül ‘aşkıla pervâz eyler
Tıfl-ı zâyende-i tab‘ım eyle şirîndir kim
Görse ger dâyeliğin Hâfız-ı Şîrâz eyler

In English

1. Bravo to that stature that shows such coyness; were the soul to plead with it, it would think even eternal life too little.

2. Alas, whenever the east wind touches her thieving strand of hair, the reed of the heart catches fire and plays strings and lute.

3. Whenever it recalls your cheek, the tearful eye weeps blood; I do not reveal your grief, but this telltale does.

4. Your glance has made me a captive among the seekers; bravo to the falcon of your eye, it makes its prey a chosen one.

5. Yes, the Sufi feels no desire for the gold-scattering tress; the starling of desire cannot become a falcon for the peacock. (What this line means can only be guessed.)

6. The work is not done with talk and idle words; the effacement of the self is needed, and no one does it but the lover who stakes his head.

7. The master of the school of lovers is the one who begins the lesson of lovers' desire with the night (with Leyla).

8. O Nigârî, the falcon of the heart so beats its wings with love that it leaves the circle of the world.

9. The child born of my nature is so sweet that Hafez of Shiraz, if he saw it, would become its nurse.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A second signature is set on the poem by the couplet that follows the pen name. The child born of the poet's nature, his poetry, is so sweet that Hafez of Shiraz would nurse it if he saw it. For Hafez, held to be the greatest master of the Persian ghazal, to become nurse to the poetic child of a Turkish poet is a bold image; the name "Şîrâz" also carries the same sounds as "şîrîn", sweet. In a ghazal not long before, poetry was again a child and the poet its nurse; here the nursing is left to Hafez.

The word "leyl", night, in the seventh couplet also recalls the root of the name Leyla. The true master of the school of lovers is the one who begins the lesson of love at night: one who stays sleepless and sits down to his lesson with Leyla's name. In divan poetry night is the time when the lover weeps, prays and thinks of the beloved, and the story of Majnun draws strength from this link between night and the name Leyla. The sixth couplet states the condition of the road of love plainly: this work is not done with words, "mahv-ı vücûd", the effacement of being, is needed, and only the lover who stakes his head can achieve it.

The second couplet is built with musical terms. "Târ" is both a strand of hair and a stringed instrument; "nây" is the reed flute, "sâz" an instrument. Whenever the east wind touches the beloved's strand of hair, the heart's reed catches fire and plays string and lute. In the third the tear becomes "gammâz", a telltale: the lover hides his grief, but the tears betray it. Birds of prey appear in the fourth and eighth couplets: the beloved's eye is a falcon that makes its quarry a chosen one, while the falcon of the heart beats its wings with love and leaves the circle of the world.

Bibliography

Online sources