Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Habîbâ kãmetin gördüm yakîn itdim kıyâmet var
Kıyâmetden ziyâde kãmetinde çok ‘alâmet var
‘Alâmât-ı kadin kâtiblerin gördüm meded ister
Utâridden ki serv-i kãmetinde çok kerâmet var
Meger ser-geşte-i nahl-i kadündür tûbâ ey servim
Anun-çün ser-nigûn olmuş başında çok melâmet var
Ser-i kûyunda kim erbâb-ı dil cem‘iyyetin gördüm
Kıyâmet mi didim hey hey didiler serv-kãmet var
Sefer yok mı didim âyâ bu yerden didiler yok yok
Bizim içün tâ kıyâmet bu makãm içre ikãmet var
Çeküp el servden kumrı ser-i kûyun makãm itmiş
Ki görmüş kãmetinde özge bâbet istikãmet var
Penâh it sâye-i serv-i kadin kurtar melâmetden
Nigârî sâye-i servinde ol yârin selâmet var

In English

1. O beloved, I saw your stature and became certain the Resurrection is real; in your stature there are more signs than in the Resurrection itself.

2. I saw the scribes who write down the signs of your stature ask help of Mercury (the star of scribes), for in your cypress stature there are many wonders.

3. O my cypress, the Tuba tree must be bewildered by the sapling of your stature; that is why it hangs its head, there is much blame upon it.

4. Seeing the people of the heart gathered at the head of your street, I said, "Is it the Resurrection?" They said, "Hey, hey, there is a cypress-statured one."

5. I said, "Is there no leaving this place?" They said, "No, no; for us there is dwelling in this station until the Resurrection."

6. The turtle-dove has drawn its hand back from the cypress and taken the head of your street as its station, for it saw in your stature an uprightness of another kind.

7. Nigârî, take refuge in the shade of the cypress of her stature and save yourself from blame; in the shade of that beloved's cypress there is safety.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The ghazal works from start to finish one of the best-known games of divan poetry, the bond between "kâmet" and "kıyâmet". Kâmet is stature, figure; kıyâmet the day on which the dead will rise. Both come from the same Arabic root, "kıyam", standing up. The lover who sees the beloved's stature and watches her rise believes that the Resurrection has broken out. The Turkish idiom still in use, "kıyamet koparmak", to raise a great uproar, lies close to this scene. In the first couplet the poet sees more signs in the beloved's stature than in the Resurrection; in the fourth he asks the crowd gathered in the beloved's street, "Is it the Resurrection?" and the answer comes: "There is a cypress-statured one."

The fifth couplet carries the same game into staying and going. "Makâm" and "ikâmet" also come from the root; those gathered in the street say they will not leave, they will dwell there until the Resurrection. The Resurrection is both an end and a measure of time. In the sixth "istikâmet", uprightness, honesty, is another derivative of the root: the turtle-dove, known in divan poetry as the cypress's lover, has left the cypress and settled in the beloved's street, for it saw in her stature an uprightness of another kind.

The Tuba of the third couplet is the great tree believed to stand in paradise. In some accounts its branches hang downward. Nigârî reads this bowed posture as shame: the Tuba has seen the beloved's stature, been bewildered by it and lowered its head, and "melâmet", blame, rests upon it. Utarid, Mercury, named in the second couplet, was held in the old science of the stars to be the star of scribes and writing; the scribes who set out to record the signs of the beloved's stature ask its help. At the very end blame and safety, "melâmet" and "selâmet", face each other, and the lover finds safety in the cypress's shade.

Bibliography

Online sources