Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Müfte‘ilün Müfte‘ilün Fâ‘ilün

Lutf-ı Hudâ eyledi pervâ bana
Sundı ki ikrâmını bî-pâ bana
Bâğ-ı hüsnden yine bir tâze gül
Lutf-ı Hudâ eyledi i‘tâ bana
Lutf-ı Hudâvend-i kerem-kârdur
Câm-ı gönül ü mey tevellâ bana
Sehv degül lutfını izhâr içün
Cevrini efzûn ider ‘amden bana
Açdı ciger-gâhımı bir dâğ-ı dil
Eyledi âhım yine peydâ bana
Âh ki yandım yine âh itmedim
Mahz-ı kerem tâkat-ı bî-pâ bana
Başka degül ‘âlem-i dâreynde
Vasl-ı nigârımdı temennâ bana
Söyleme vâ‘iz elem-i dûzahı
Cennet olur yârıla her câ bana
Yârsız ey Mîr Nigârî yakîn
Dûzah olur cennet-i a‘lâ bana
Söylüyor esrârı ne esrâr-ı Hak
Tab‘-ı şirîn-kâr u şeker-hâ bana

In English

1. God's favour gave me a passion; it offered me his bounty without limit.

2. God's favour granted me once again a fresh rose from the garden of beauty.

3. It is the favour of the generous Lord: the cup of the heart and the wine of devotion (tevellâ) for me.

4. To show his favour he knowingly increases his cruelty towards me; this is no mistake.

5. A wound of the heart has opened my liver again; it has brought forth my sighs anew.

6. Ah, I burned again but did not sigh; the boundless endurance given me is pure generosity.

7. In the two worlds my one wish is nothing else but union with my beloved.

8. O preacher, do not speak of the torment of hell; with the beloved every place becomes paradise for me.

9. O Mîr Nigârî, there is no doubt that without the beloved even the highest paradise becomes hell for me.

10. My nature, which works sweetly and eats sugar, tells me secrets; and what secrets, the secrets of God.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The eighth and ninth couplets tie the knot of the ghazal. The preacher frightens by describing the torment of hell; the lover changes the measure: every place shared with the beloved is paradise, and without the beloved even the highest paradise is hell. In divan poetry the preacher (vâiz) and the zealot (zâhid) are types who live by the reckoning of fear and reward in religion and know nothing of love; couplets in which Nigârî argues with preachers and zealots are many in his divan. Here the argument shrinks to two short sentences, and heaven and hell cease to be places and become bound to the beloved's presence and absence.

The ghazal's first five couplets are woven with the phrase "lutf-ı Hudâ", God's favour. This favour gives passion, grants a fresh rose, offers the heart cup and wine. The fourth couplet describes a strange form of this favour: God knowingly increases his cruelty in order to show his favour. The thought familiar since the ghazal "Fârig olmazlar belâlar", that cruelty turns to joy and calamity to blessing, recurs here as well. The sixth couplet shows the inner side of this state: the lover burns but does not sigh, for a boundless endurance has been given him as a gift. "Mey-i tevellâ" in the third couplet, the wine of devotion, is the intoxication of binding oneself to love.

The poem continues for one more couplet after the pen-name couplet, and this last couplet says something about the source of the poetry. The poet's "şirîn-kâr u şeker-hâ" nature, his disposition that works sweetly and eats sugar, is telling him secrets: the secrets of God. Here too the poem is presented not as the poet's own product but as the speech of a nature speaking from within. Only "‘amden" in the fourth couplet breaks the rhyme; the other rhyme words (pervâ, bî-pâ, i‘tâ, tevellâ, peydâ, temennâ, câ, a‘lâ, şeker-hâ) end in "-â". The refrain is "bana" (to me), the metre "müfte‘ilün müfte‘ilün fâ‘ilün".

Bibliography

Online sources