Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Yar sînemi ‘aşkında ki gör kim nelerim var
Bin dâğ-ı dilim âteş-i cânım cigerim var
Sanma beni peymâye ki râh-ı hevesinde
Sarf itmege cânım gibi ebhâ güherim var
Vehm eylemezem ‘arsa-i hayretde ki vâkıf
Meyhânede sâkî gibi sâhib-nazarım var
Ey tûtî senin var mezâkın benim ammâ
Ne zevkde[y]em gör ne tükenmez şekerim var
el-Minnetü li'llâhi ki der-bâg-ı melâhat
Bir lebleri mül ‘ârız-ı gül sîm-berim var
Ey hâce sükût eyle ki berât-ıla gör kim
İsbât-ı Hudâ itmede haylî hünerim var
Sanma beni bî-fâide-i mihr-i melâhat
Hâfız gibi ey Mîr Nigârî eserim var

In English

1. Split open my breast in your love and see what I have: I have a thousand brands on the heart, a fire of the soul and a liver.

2. Do not think me of little worth; on the road of desire for you I have a jewel as precious as my soul to spend.

3. I fall into no misgiving in the arena of bewilderment, for in the tavern I have a friend of insight who knows all, like the cupbearer.

4. O parrot, you have your pleasure, but see what delight I am in, what inexhaustible sugar I have.

5. Thanks be to God, in the garden of beauty I have a silver-bodied beloved with lips of wine and a rose cheek.

6. O master, be silent; see by the warrant that I have no small skill in proving God. (This rendering is approximate.)

7. O Mîr Nigârî, do not think me without profit from the love of beauty; I have works like Hafez.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The learning of the madrasa breaks into the language of the tavern in the sixth couplet, the most interesting in the ghazal. The poet tells a master to be silent and adds that, as can be seen "by the warrant", an official document, he has no small skill in proving God. "İsbât-ı Hudâ", demonstrating the existence of God by proofs, is the subject of kalam, the science of theology taught in the madrasa. Nigârî was a scholar who had received a madrasa education in Karabağ before coming to Amasya. The poet who speaks the language of the tavern and the cupbearer here answers the master who questions him in that master's own language: he too knows this science. The word "berât" in the couplet is hard to read, and the meaning given is approximate.

The refrain "var", I have, counts in each couplet what the poet possesses. The count begins like an inventory of wealth, but the goods are unexpected: what will be seen when his breast is split open is a thousand brands on the heart, the fire of the soul and the liver. In the second couplet the jewel to be spent is something as dear as life; in the fourth comes an inexhaustible sugar to set against the parrot's, in the fifth a silver-bodied beloved. In the last the poet has works like Hafez's. Hafez's name was also invoked in the final couplet of the preceding ghazal; returning to the poet of Shiraz in two ghazals running shows that Nigârî took him as his own measure.

"‘Arsa-i hayret", the arena of bewilderment, in the third couplet recalls the stage of the Sufi path where the seeker falls into astonishment. In Attar's Mantiq al-tayr one of the seven valleys the birds cross is the valley of bewilderment. The poet does not fall into misgiving in this arena, for in the tavern he has a guide who sees all, like the cupbearer.

Bibliography

  • Nigârî, Nigârî Dîvânı, ed. A. Azmi Bilgin, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2017 (e-book, Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 482), poem 189, p. 120. https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/TR-194361/nigari-divani.html
  • Aytekin Şenzeybek, "Hamza Nigârî'nin Farklı İslam Yorumlarına Yaklaşımı", Necmettin Erbakan Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, 47, 2019, pp. 429-444.

Online sources