Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Müfte‘ilün Müfte‘ilün Fâ‘ilün

Mihnetin artukdı safâdan bana
Gör ki ne hâsıldı cefâdan bana
Tâ ki esîr-i tel-i tarrâr-ı kâm
Eylemedin başka vefâdan bana
Turre-i tarrârına peyvendlik
Silsile-i zülf-i Bahâdan bana
‘Arsa-i ‘aşkında ser-efrâzlıg
Hâk-i pey-i âl-i ‘abâdan bana
Bâde-i sevdâ ile kalb-i selîm
Himmet-i ashâb-ı safâdan bana
Lâzım ise cânımı irsâl idem
Bir haber it bâd-ı sabâdan bana
Mîr Nigârî bu fedâkârlıg
Gamze-i eltâf-ı Hûdâdan bana

In English

1. Your affliction was more to me than joy; see what has come to me from cruelty.

2. Since you made me the captive of that deceitful lock that steals all desire, you have shown me no other faithfulness. (The couplet is not clearly understood.)

3. My bond to your deceitful forelock comes to me from the chain (silsile) of Bahâ's curl.

4. The raising of my head in the arena of your love comes to me from the dust of the feet of the Âl-i abâ (the People of the Cloak).

5. A sound heart (kalb-i selîm), together with the wine of passion, comes to me from the spiritual aid of the people of purity.

6. If need be, let me send my soul to you; send me some news by the morning breeze.

7. Mîr Nigârî, this self-sacrifice comes to me from a glance of God's favours.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The subtlest play on words in the ghazal is in the third couplet. The bond to the beloved's forelock comes from "silsile-i zülf-i Bahâ". Silsile, chain, is the name given in divan poetry to the linked rings of the curl; in the Sufi orders it is the name of the spiritual lineage reaching from sheikh to sheikh back to the Prophet. The word "Bahâ" means worth, splendour; but in the mouth of a Naqshbandi sheikh it can hardly fail to recall Bahâeddin Nakşibend, founder of the order. The couplet can thus be read two ways: the bond to the beloved's curl comes either from the bright chain of beauty or from Bahâeddin's lineage. The poet does not say which he means; the word carries both senses together.

The fourth and fifth couplets list the other sources of this bond. The raising of the head in the arena of love comes from the dust of the feet of the "Âl-i abâ", the Prophet's family whom he gathered under his cloak. "Kalb-i selîm", the pure and sound heart, is named in the sura al-Shu‘arâ as the only thing that will profit a person on the Day of Judgement; this heart too has been won through the spiritual aid of the "ashâb-ı safâ", those pure of heart. The ghazal thus places Nigârî's two great allegiances side by side in the same poem: the Naqshbandi lineage and love for the Prophet's family.

The seven couplets carry the refrain "-dan bana" (from ... to me), and each says where something comes from: from joy, from cruelty, from faithfulness, from Bahâ, from the Âl-i abâ, from the people of purity, from the morning breeze, from God. Since each of these words ends in a long "â", the list of sources is also the rhyme. In couplet six the tone suddenly becomes plain: he is ready to send his soul if need be, if only the morning breeze would bring some news. Sabâ, in divan poetry, is the breeze that carries messages between beloved and lover.

Bibliography

Online sources