Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Veh ki zâyende-i tab‘ım yine hublâ görünür
Müjde ey dil bize ferzend-i dil-ârâ görünür
Gãlibâ gãliye-i zülf-i semen-sâya döküp
Ki bugün kilk-i terim ‘anber-i sârâ görünür
Cânda la‘lin hevesi dîde-i pür-hûnumdur
Ârzû-yı nazarı yâr-ı temennâ görünür
Nefes-i yâr mı yâ hemdem-i dildâr mı yâ
Her dem ‘aşk ki sad nefes Mesîhâ görünür
Kıssa-i Hazret-i Mûsâya haberdâr bilür
Şeb-i târikde sefer eyleme a‘lâ görünür
Kesilür vesvese-i râh bulur vehm zevâl
Vakt kim şa‘şa‘a-i nûr-ı tecellâ görünür
Seyr kıl bî-elem ey dil yime gam âhir kâr
Dökünür bir yere kim dilber-i hercâ görünür
Terk-i variyyet ile söylesin erinî erinî
Len terânî dimez ol yâr-ı hüveydâ görünür
Tâlib ol Mîr Nigârî ki talebkârlara
Yâri bî-perde seher şâm temâşâ görünür
Dil-i dîvâne gezer kûh u beyâbân etegin
Bî-ser ü pâ yine bir ‘âşık-ı şeydâ görünür

In English

1. Oh, the fertile power of my nature appears pregnant again; good news, O heart, a heart-adorning child appears to us.

2. Perhaps (my pen) has been dipped in the scented gâliye of the jasmine-fragrant tress, for today my fresh pen appears as pure ambergris.

3. In the soul the longing for your ruby lip is my blood-filled eye; the wish for a glance appears as the beloved desired. (We give this couplet only approximately.)

4. Is it the beloved's breath, or the beloved's confidant? At every moment of love a hundred breaths appear like the Messiah's.

5. Whoever knows the story of Moses knows that setting out on a dark night appears the best course.

6. When the radiance of the light of manifestation appears, the doubts of the road are cut short and illusion fades away.

7. O heart, go on without sorrow, do not grieve; in the end the matter comes to a place where the beloved who is everywhere appears.

8. Let him say "Erinî, erinî" (show me) in abandonment of self; that manifest beloved does not say "Len terânî" (you shall not see me), he appears.

9. O Mîr Nigârî, be a seeker, for to seekers the beloved appears unveiled, morning and evening, to be gazed upon.

10. The mad heart roams the skirts of mountain and desert; once again a crazed lover appears, without head or foot.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The ghazal's centre of gravity is Moses. The fifth couplet says that whoever knows the story of Moses also knows it is good to set out on a dark night. As the Qur'an tells it, Moses was travelling with his family on a dark night when he saw a fire in the distance, and when he approached it he heard the address of God. The dark night is the time when the light of manifestation is seen, and the sixth couplet says so plainly: when the light shines, all the doubts of the road are cut short. The eighth brings the scene on Mount Sinai. Moses had said "Erinî", my Lord, show Yourself to me, and received the answer "Len terânî", you shall never see Me. Nigârî reverses that answer: to the lover who says "Erinî" having abandoned his self, the manifest beloved does not say "Len terânî" but appears. In the Sufi reading, Moses could not see because his self was still in place; for one who lets the self go, the veil lifts.

The ghazal opens with the announcement of a birth. The poet's nature is pregnant, and a "ferzend-i dil-ârâ", a heart-adorning child, is about to be born. That child is poetry. Nigârî liked to compare his poems to a child; in other ghazals close by the poet is nurse to the child of his verse, or speaks of a child Hafez would nurse. The second couplet puts the pen's scent of ambergris down to its having touched the beloved's tress.

The refrain "görünür", appears, is no ordinary verb here; the whole ghazal is built on an appearing, a manifestation. The phrase "dilber-i hercâ" in the seventh couplet belongs to this too. "Her-câ" means everywhere, and the beloved found everywhere is the beauty that shows itself in all things in the thought of divine unity; the related "hercâî" means fickle, alighting now here, now there. The couplet set after the pen name returns to Majnun's world: the mad heart wandering mountains and deserts appears once more as a lover without head or foot.

Bibliography

Online sources