Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Müfte‘ilün Müfte‘ilün Fâ‘ilün

Söylediler ‘âşık-ı şeydâ bana
Hem seni pervâne-i pervâ bana
Çâre ne elden ne gelür n'eyleyem
Her ne didi il didi sana bana
Hâk-i pâyın tâc-ı serimdir diyü
Gerden eger ‘arş-ı mu‘allâ bana
Hâl-i siyeh zülf-i karârın mı yâ
Kandan olup söyle bu sevdâ bana
İstemezem cenneti kûyun yiter
Ey ruh-ı gül ey boy-ı bâlâ bana
İstedim öpmek el ayağın henüz
Sunmadun ey desti muhannâ bana
Mîr Nigârî sana sahrâ-yı ‘aşk
Hıdmet-i ser-hayme-i Leylâ bana
Râh-ı tevallâya girişdin velî
İtmedin ey Kays cünûn pâ bana

In English

1. They called me "love-mad lover"; and you, they called the passion of the moth to me. (The reading is uncertain; it has been taken that the beloved is likened to the candle and the lover to the moth.)

2. What remedy, what can be done, what shall I do; whatever people said, they said to you and to me.

3. (I boast) that the dust of your feet is the crown of my head; (I would not exchange it) even if the lofty Throne bowed its neck to me. (The line has been understood approximately.)

4. Tell me, is it the black beauty spot or your restless curl; from where did this passion come to me?

5. O rose-cheeked, O tall one, I do not want paradise; your street is enough for me.

6. I wished to kiss your hands and feet; O you with henna-dyed hands, you have not yet held (your hand) out to me.

7. O Mîr Nigârî, let the desert of love be yours; service at the head of Leylâ's tent is mine.

8. O Qays (Majnun), you entered the path of love and allegiance (tevellâ), but you did not show me the foot of madness. (How the line should be taken is unclear.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

In this ghazal the speaking voice sets itself apart from Nigârî and from Majnun. In the seventh couplet the poet addresses his own pen name: "Mîr Nigârî, to you the desert of love, to me service at the head of Leylâ's tent." In the story of Majnun the desert is the place of the madman fallen far from the beloved; the head of the tent is nearness to her. The speaking voice leaves wandering in the desert to Nigârî and keeps service at the door for itself. In the last couplet it turns to Qays, Majnun's real name, and reproaches him: he has entered the path of tevellâ but has not shown the speaker the way of madness. In other couplets, which A. Azmi Bilgin cites in his introduction, the poet ranks himself above even Majnun on the path of love; this ghazal is a playful example of that stance.

"Tevellâ" means taking someone as friend and leader, binding oneself to him. In the literature devoted to the Prophet's family it is often named together with "teberrâ": loving the Prophet's household and keeping away from its enemies. Nigârî's love for the Prophet's family is well known, but there are not enough grounds in this couplet to say that the word is used in that particular sense; here it may describe allegiance on the path of love.

The rest of the ghazal is a plain lover's complaint, almost in the language of speech. The line "Çâre ne, elden ne gelür, n'eyleyem" (what remedy, what can be done, what shall I do) is understandable today. The meeting of the lover's language with everyday speech is frequent in Nigârî's divan and also accords with the atmosphere of the gatherings Hüsameddin describes for the syllabic poems. Couplet four asks where passion comes from: is it the black beauty spot or the scattered curl? The black colour matches the original sense of "black" in the word sevdâ (melancholy). The "desti muhannâ", the henna-dyed hand, of the sixth couplet is a familiar adornment of the beloved's hand in divan poetry.

The weak point of the rhyme is the second couplet: there "sana" stands in the rhyme position and, beside the "-â" of şeydâ, pervâ, mu‘allâ, sevdâ, bâlâ, muhannâ, Leylâ and pâ, looks like a weak rhyme. The ghazal has the refrain "bana" (to me) and runs in "müfte‘ilün müfte‘ilün fâ‘ilün".

Bibliography

Online sources