Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Dil-i ‘uşşâk tek oynar telin sanma sabâdandır
Nevây-ı nây-ı dilden hâsıl olmuş bir hevâdandır
Gönül koymuşlar adın bir belânın bana virmişler
Belâlar çekdigim her dem benim ol mübtelâdandır
Mezâkım dem-be-dem artar hadengin câna degdikce
Meger kim tîr-i dil-dûzun kamu zevk u safâdandır
Dem-â-dem hiddet-i ‘aynım pey-â-pey rehgüzârından
Gözümde ey habîbim hâsıl olmış tûtiyâdandır
Seher şâm oynasun gezsün ser-i kûyunda bir yer vir
Safâlar eylesün kelbinle gönlüm âşinâdandır
Yazup hûn-ı cigerle ser-güzeştin hâk-i dergâha
Gözüm gör kim bu ol mâbeynimizde mâ cerâdandır
Virür lezzet dem-â-dem arturur zevkım ziyâd eyler
Ol eş‘âr-ı şirîn-ter kim Nigârî bî-nevâdandır
Şehîd-i nâvek-i dil-dûz olursam n'ola zîrâ kim
Bana bu irs ol şâh-ı şehîd-i Kerbelâdandır

In English

1. Do not think your strand of hair dances like the lovers' heart because of the east wind; it comes from a melody born of the tune of the heart's reed flute.

2. They gave a calamity the name "heart" and handed it to me; the afflictions I suffer every moment come from that afflicted (heart) of mine.

3. Each time your arrow touches my soul my delight grows; it seems your heart-piercing arrow is nothing but pleasure and joy.

4. O my beloved, the sharpness of my eye that grows each moment comes from the kohl (of the dust) of the road you pass along again and again. (This couplet is rendered loosely.)

5. Give it a place at the head of your street; let it play and roam morning and evening; let it make merry with your dog, my heart is an old acquaintance of his.

6. My eye wrote its story in the blood of the liver on the dust of the threshold; see, this is of what passed between us.

7. Those sweeter poems that come from poor Nigârî give delight every moment, and increase and multiply my pleasure.

8. What if I become a martyr of the heart-piercing arrow? For this inheritance comes to me from that martyred king of Karbala.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The first couplet gives the strand of hair a musical explanation. The beloved's strand dances and stirs like the lovers' heart, but it is wrong to put this down to the east wind. The movement comes from a "hevâ", a melody, born of a "nevâ", a tune, rising from the reed flute of the heart. "Nevâ" is also the name of a mode in Turkish music; "hevâ" means both air and melody. The strand of hair is dancing to a tune rising from the lover's heart. The same word returns in another sense in the seventh couplet: Nigârî is "bî-nevâ", poor, without voice or means, yet the poems that come from him give delight like sweet melodies.

The second line of the second couplet appears almost unchanged in the third couplet of "Şifâdır derdime", a couple of ghazals earlier. The poet used the same thought, that it is the afflicted heart that bears the afflictions, in two ghazals; here he adds a preface to it: they gave a calamity the name "heart" and handed it to him. The heart is neither an organ nor a feeling but a calamity bestowed upon man.

"Mâ cerâ" in the sixth couplet, what took place, recalls the telling of a story. The eye has written the lover's story in the blood of the liver upon the dust of the threshold; the writing is the record of what passed between beloved and lover. What ties the ghazal to Karbala is the final couplet, set after the pen name. To die a martyr of a heart-piercing arrow is an inheritance the poet has received from the martyred king of Karbala, Husayn. Nigârî, who knew himself to be of Husayn's line, counts dying in love as an inheritance of that line too. Earlier in the divan, "Yâd-ı ruhsârın ile" had likewise ended by placing a Karbala couplet after the pen name.

Bibliography

Online sources