Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Urdı hicrân-ı ruhun âteş-i sûzân bana
Ağlasa il ne ‘aceb ey leb-i handân bana
İhtiyârımla degül âh bu dîvâneligi
N'eyleyem eyledün ey Leylî-i devrân bana
Seyr-i sahrâ dil-i sûzânıma teskîn mi virür
Vakt-ı firkat od olur seyr-i gülistân bana
Heves-i la‘l-i leb ü zülf-i girih-gîr-i nigâr
Yazdı bu mecma‘anı virdi bu dîvân bana
Düşübem bâdeye peymâlığa Mecnûn olubam
Gör ne Leylâlığ ider dîde-i mestân bana
Eylesem ‘Örfî-i Şîrâz ile bahs olmaz ‘aceb
Ki virüp lutf-ı Hudâ bâde-i ‘irfân bana
Fenn-i eş‘ârı Nigârî ne güzel ta‘lîm ider
. Pîr-i mugãn-ı ‘aşk-ı suhandân bana

In English

1. Separation from your cheek struck a burning fire into me; O you of the smiling lips, is it any wonder if people weep for me?

2. Ah, this madness is not of my choosing; O Leylâ of the age, what can I do, it was you who brought me to this.

3. Does roaming the deserts give comfort to my burning heart; in the time of separation, gazing at the rose garden becomes fire to me.

4. Desire for the beloved's ruby lips and knotted curls wrote this collection and gave me this divan.

5. I have fallen to wine and to drinking cup after cup, I have become Majnun; see how the drunken eyes play Leylâ to me.

6. It would be no wonder if I contended with Örfî of Shiraz; for God's favour has given me the wine of mystical knowledge.

7. Nigârî, how finely the eloquent elder of the tavern of love teaches me the art of poetry.

Literary and Historical Commentary

In the fourth couplet the poet tells how his divan was born: desire for the beloved's lips and knotted curls "wrote this collection and gave me this divan". It is not the poet who writes the divan but his desire. Another couplet that counts the divan a product of love is cited by A. Azmi Bilgin in the introduction to his edition. In this ghazal the same thought is completed by the last couplet: the one who teaches the poet the art of poetry is the "pîr-i mugân-ı ‘aşk", the elder of the tavern of love. The pîr-i mugân in divan poetry is the old keeper of the tavern and in the Sufi reading takes the place of the spiritual guide. Poetry is presented as the work both of desire and of a guide.

The sixth couplet says plainly where the poet places himself. Örfî of Shiraz was a powerful Persian poet of the sixteenth century who went from Shiraz to India and was much read by Ottoman poets as well. Nigârî does not shrink from claiming a "bahs", a contest, with him, for the wine of mystical knowledge has been given him by God's favour. Elsewhere, as Bilgin shows, the poet ranks himself with Hafez and with Khwaju of Kerman as well. Though the claim looks like a boast (fahriye), its source lies not in the poet himself but in a favour granted to him.

The other couplets of the ghazal turn around the story of Leylâ and Majnun. The poet says his madness is not his choice, that "the Leylâ of the age" brought him to it; wandering the deserts brings no comfort, and the rose garden turns to fire in separation. In couplet five wine and madness merge: drunken eyes play Leylâ to the lover. In the edition the second line of the seventh couplet begins with a full stop; this may indicate that a word has dropped from the beginning of the line. In a ghazal about the birth of the divan, the word "dîvân" itself enters the rhyme; the other rhymes (sûzân, handân, devrân, gülistân, mestân, ‘irfân, suhandân) carry the same "-ân".

Bibliography

Online sources