Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilün

Oda yanmış dilim ol lebleri gül-nâra fedâ
Câna gelmiş tenim ol lehce-i güftâra fedâ
Çeşm-i sevdâ-zedem ol âhû-nigeh hayrânı
‘Akl-ı hayret-zedem ol nergis-i bîmâra fedâ
Kara bağrımda ‘azîz besledigim cân-ı şirîn
Ârzû-yı dehenim la‘l-i şeker-bâra fedâ
Ne ki var variyetim turre-i tarrârlara
Ne ki var mâ melekim dîde-i ‘ayyâra fedâ
Ferş-i râh eyledigim râh-ı güzer-gâhında
Gözümün nûrı serâ-perde-i ruhsâra fedâ
Kim olur ben gibi şeydâ ki heves-nâk itdim
Hâsıl-ı zühdimi bir kâse-i ser-şâra fedâ
Terk-i nâz eylegil ey nâz-fürûş u cilve-künân
Bir görün Mîr Nigârî ola dîdâra fedâ

In English

1. My heart burned in fire is a sacrifice to those pomegranate-blossom lips; my body, worn to the soul, a sacrifice to that manner of speaking.

2. My passion-struck eye is enthralled by that gazelle-glanced one; my bewildered reason is a sacrifice to that languid narcissus.

3. The sweet soul I have nursed as something precious in my black breast, and my mouth's desire, are a sacrifice to the ruby lips that rain sugar.

4. All the wealth I have is a sacrifice to the deceitful forelocks; all the property I own, to those roguish eyes.

5. The light of my eyes, which I spread on the road she passes along, is a sacrifice to the veil of her cheek.

6. Who could be as love-mad as I, that eagerly sacrificed all the earnings of my asceticism to one brimming cup?

7. O seller of coquetry, O flirt, give up your airs; show yourself once, and let Mîr Nigârî be a sacrifice to your face.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The ghazal reads like a list of offerings. In each couplet a part of the lover is sacrificed in exchange for a part of the beloved, and the refrain "fedâ" (a sacrifice) seals the transaction: the burnt heart to lips the colour of pomegranate blossom, the exhausted body to the manner of speech, the eye to the gazelle-glanced one, reason to the "nergis-i bîmâr", the sweet soul to the lips that rain sugar. In divan poetry the narcissus is likened to the eye; the "bîmâr", sick, narcissus is the languid, half-closed eye. In couplet four what is sacrificed becomes wealth and property, while forelock and eye are called deceitful (tarrâr) and roguish (ayyâr); the beloved's beauties are so many robbers stripping the lover of what he owns.

The words "kara bağrım", my black breast, in the third couplet deserve particular attention in Nigârî's poetry. In one of the syllabic poems quoted by Pervane Bayram the poet says "Kara bağrım kanlu kara bağımdır" (my black breast is my bloody black garden), playing openly on kara bağır and Karabağ. Karabakh is not named in this ghazal, and there are not enough grounds to say such an association is intended; still, reading "kara bağrım" in a poet who so often recalls his homeland brings that syllabic poem to mind.

The sixth couplet shows the rind's familiar stance against the zealot. Zühd, asceticism, is the merit earned by renouncing the good things of the world; the poet has traded all its earnings for one brimming cup of wine. In the last couplet he turns to the beloved: let her stop selling coquetry and show herself once, and let Mîr Nigârî be a sacrifice to her face. The list is thus completed by the poet's sacrifice of himself. Each item of the offering is tied to a rhyme in "-âr": gül-nâr, güftâr, bîmâr, şeker-bâr, ‘ayyâr, ruhsâr, ser-şâr, dîdâr.

Bibliography

Online sources