Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Der-miyân-ı rûy u leb hayretde[y]em ey dil-rübâ
Gûyiyâ bir sûzenem mâ-beyn-i dü-âhen-rübâ
Kâle-i mihrinde ey meh hayret-efzâdır günül
Bulmaz ol ser-geşte lutf eyle tarîk-ı ihtidâ
Hançer-i firkat tınâb-ı tâkatım kesmiş velî
Bir dimezsin kim nedir hâlin ‘aceb ey bî-nevâ
Bahtiyâr olsaydı kûyunda karâr itmez midim
Külbene kılmaz mıdım ey nâzenîn cânım fedâ
Gütf ü gûyun ârzû eyler gönül zîrâ kim ol
Derd-mendindir leb-i şehd-âbdan ister şifâ
Dem-be-dem şehd-âb-ı la‘lin-çün Nigârî sûz–mend
Nâle eyler bend bend tanbûr tek eyler nevâ

In English

1. O ravisher of hearts, I stand in wonder between your face and your lips; I am like a needle caught between two magnets.

2. O moon, beneath the burden (?) of love the heart is full of wonder; that giddy (heart) cannot find the right path, be kind and show the way. (The word "kâle" is not clearly understood; it has been taken in the sense of goods, burden.)

3. The dagger of separation has cut the tent rope of my endurance; yet not once do you say "O destitute one, how are you".

4. Had my fortune been my friend, would I not have settled at your door; O my graceful one, would I not have sacrificed my soul to your hut?

5. The heart longs for your speech, for it is sick for you and seeks its cure from your honeyed lips. (The phrase printed "Gütf ü gûy" in the edition has been understood as "güft ü gûy", speech, talk.)

6. Nigârî burns every moment for your lips like honey-water; like the tanbur he moans fret by fret and plays his melody.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The first couplet of the ghazal builds a comparison seldom met in divan poetry. The lover is stranded between the beloved's face and lips; drawn to both at once, he can turn to neither. Nigârî likens this state to a needle hanging between two magnets (âhen-rübâ, "iron-snatcher"). Because the needle is pulled equally to both sides it trembles where it is; and that is exactly what wonder is, the paralysis of not being able to choose between two beauties. The comparison places a natural phenomenon, an experiment a reader of the period could see with his own eyes, inside love.

The "tınâb-ı tâkat" of the third couplet means the tent rope of endurance. Patience is a tent, and the rope that holds it up has been cut by the dagger of separation. Against this heavy scene the poet sets a single word from the beloved: it would have been enough for her even to ask "how are you", but she does not say even that. Next the lover blames his own fortune; had it been kind, he would not have left the beloved's door and would have sacrificed his soul to her hut. "Külbe" here describes the humble house of the beloved or of the spiritual guide.

The last two couplets bring speech and sound to the fore. Because the heart is sick it longs for the beloved's word; the cure lies in her honeyed lips. Signing the poem, Nigârî likens himself to the tanbur, the long-necked lute: the phrase "bend bend" recalls the frets on the tanbur's neck, and the poet's moaning is like the melodies drawn from those frets. The image the divan's opening pages built on the reed flute passes here to a stringed instrument.

In the opening couplet "dil-rübâ" (heart-snatcher) and "âhen-rübâ" (iron-snatcher) share the same Persian root; the beloved's pull on the heart and the magnet's pull on iron meet in the rhyme. The other rhymes of the six couplets (ihtidâ, bî-nevâ, fedâ, şifâ, nevâ) end in the same long "â". The letter "[y]" given in square brackets in the first couplet is an addition by the editor.

Bibliography

Online sources