Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün

Ey hoş ol günler çıkup ‘arz-ı cemâl eylerdi yâr
Terledüp ruhsâr-ı al eylerdi âl eylerdi yâr
Âh ol demler ne demler kim gazel gevher bana
Kâkül-efşân bû-feşân reml-i gazâl eyledi yâr
Hayretim zûr eyledikce vahş-gâh-ı mihrde
Ünsiyet eylerdi gönlüm gûş-mâl eylerdi yâr
Ey hoş ol günler ne hoş günler ki bî-harf ü makãl
Nîm-tebessüm nîm-nigeh hâlim suâl eylerdi yâr
Bâde-i dildârlığla ‘âşıkın mest eyleyüp
Başka hâlet gösterürdi başka hâl eylerdi yâr
Ey hoş ol sâ‘at ne sâ‘at ey hoş ol hâlet ne hâl
Dilberâne güft ü gû şîrîn makãl eylerdi yâr
N’oldı ey Seyyid Nigârî ol zamân kim sûz-nâk
Eyledikce ben niyâz ‘arz-ı cemâl eylerdi yâr

In English

1. Ah, how fine those days were, when the beloved would come out and show her beauty, make her red cheek glow with sweat and play her coquettish tricks.

2. Ah, what moments those were, when the beloved, scattering her forelock and spreading her scent, made the ghazal a pearl for me and bounded like a gazelle. (The sense of the couplet is uncertain.)

3. As my bewilderment grew stronger in the wild haunts of love, my heart would grow tame, and the beloved would pull my ear.

4. Ah, how fine those days were, what fine days, when without a word or a phrase, with half a smile and half a glance, the beloved would ask how I was.

5. Making the lover drunk with the wine of her belovedness, the beloved would show another state and bring about another state.

6. Ah, what an hour that was, what an hour; ah, what a state that was, what a state; the beloved would talk winningly and speak sweet words.

7. O Seyyid Nigârî, what became of that time when, as I pleaded with a burning heart, the beloved would show her beauty?

Literary and Historical Commentary

The ghazal opens with "Ey hoş ol günler", how fine those days were, and speaks throughout in the past. The refrain "eylerdi yâr", the beloved would do, names a habit in each couplet: the beloved would come out and show her beauty, make her cheek glow, pull the lover's ear, ask after him, speak sweet words. The Turkish past tense formed with "-r-dı" describes not something that happened once but something that happened again and again and is now over. The ghazal is therefore a poem of longing, and in its last couplet it asks the question openly: what became of that time?

The fourth couplet holds the finest of these memories. Without a word, with "nîm-tebessüm nîm-nigeh", half a smile and half a glance, the beloved would ask how the lover was. A whole conversation carried out in two half-gestures conveys the closeness between beloved and lover better than words. The third couplet sets "vahş-gâh", the haunt of wild beasts, against "ünsiyet", becoming familiar, being tamed: as bewilderment grows in the wild country of love the lover's heart grows tame, and the beloved pulls his ear like a teacher.

"Al" and "âl" in the first couplet are two words close in writing and different in meaning: al is red, âl is a trick, a coquetry. The beloved makes her red cheek glow and plays her tricks. The second couplet is hard to read: "reml" describes the bounding run of a gazelle, but it also recalls the name of "remel", the metre of the ghazal. As she gives the ghazal like a pearl, the beloved bounds like a gazelle; the line may play on these two senses. The refrain appearing in this couplet as "eyledi yâr" is the one place where the past tense departs from the sense of repetition it carries elsewhere.

Bibliography

Online sources