Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün

Şifâdır derdime ol ra‘şe kim zülf-i dü-tâdandır
Safâdır gülşene ol lerze kim bâd-ı sabâdandır
Cefâ agyârdandır söylemek bî-hûdedir ammâ
Şikâyet eylemek dildârdan ‘ayn-ı hatâdandır
Belâlansun gam-ı dilberle dil zîrâ ki ‘âlemde
Belâlar çekdigim mahzâ benim ol mübtelâdandır
Elem ne intihâdan hergiz ey dil kim benem ancak
Gam-ender-gam melâl-ender-melâlım ibtidâdandır
Te‘alluk dâmına girmez gönül itmez hevâsında
Ki ol bir mürg-ı zîrekdir velî ‘âlî yuvadandır
Hazer kıl mest-i gönlümden ki ey vâ‘iz ne söylersin
Hadengi tîzdir zîrâ ki ol ehl-i du‘âdandır
Ne hâsıl güft ü gûdan özge bir söyle medârisde
Husûl-ı matlab ey tâlib mücerred reh-nümâdandır
Elin tut öp ayağın himmet al bir serv-kãmetden
Ki yerde kalmaz ol himmet ki bir kadd-i bâlâdandır
Nigârî geçmezem meyhâneden zîrâ ki ol menzil
Mahall-i feyzdir pîr-i mugãn ehl-i Hudâdandır

In English

1. The trembling that comes from the doubled tress is a cure for my pain; the quiver that comes from the east wind is delight to the rose garden.

2. Cruelty comes from the rivals, and to speak of it is vain; but to complain of the beloved is error itself.

3. Let the heart fall into affliction with grief for the beloved; for the afflictions I suffer in the world come solely from that afflicted (heart) of mine.

4. O heart, grief does not come from the end at all; for my grief upon grief, my sorrow upon sorrow, come only from the beginning (from pre-eternity).

5. The heart does not enter the snare of attachment nor follow its desire; for it is a clever bird, but from a lofty nest.

6. O preacher, beware of my drunken heart, what are you saying? Its arrows are sharp, for it is of the people of prayer.

7. What comes of talk and chatter in the madrasas? Say something else; O seeker, reaching the goal comes solely from the guide.

8. Take his hand, kiss his foot, take favour from one with a cypress's stature; for favour that comes from a lofty stature does not stay on the ground.

9. Nigârî, I do not pass the tavern by, for that lodging is a place of grace; the elder of the Magians is of the people of God.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Nigârî's understanding of Sufism is summed up briefly in the seventh couplet. Nothing comes of the talk and debate of the madrasas; the seeker reaches what he seeks only through a "reh-nümâ", a guide. On the Naqshbandi path the spiritual guide's place is great, and the seeker advances by his favour. The eighth couplet describes the form of this devotion: take his hand, kiss his foot, take favour from one with a cypress's stature. "Cypress-statured" is in divan poetry an epithet of the beloved, but here it also points to the guide. "Does not stay on the ground" is two-sided as well: favour from a lofty stature does not fall to the ground, does not go unanswered. The tavern's elder, in the closing couplet, is "ehl-i Hudâ", one of the people of God; the tavern, as the place where the guide is found, is a lodging of grace.

The sixth couplet is a warning to the preacher. The arrows of the poet's drunken heart are sharp, because it is "ehl-i du‘â", of the people of prayer. The belief that the prayer of the wronged finds its target like an arrow is common in Turkish too. If the preacher speaks ill of the drunken heart, that heart's prayer may strike him. The heart is a clever bird in the fifth couplet: it does not fall into the snare of attachment or chase worldly desires, because it has come from a lofty nest. The thought that the soul's true home is on high is fitted into this image of a bird.

The second line of the third couplet recurs almost unchanged in "Dil-i ‘uşşâk tek oynar", a couple of ghazals later: it is the afflicted heart that bears the afflictions. "İntihâ" and "ibtidâ", end and beginning, in the fourth couplet carry the same thought into time: the lover's grief is the product not of an ending but of a beginning before time.

Bibliography

Online sources