Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün

İştiyâkın ey sanem Şîrîn mi Leylâdır mı yâ
Vâlihin Ferhâd-ı şeydâ Kays-ı rüsvâdır mı yâ
Çeşmine cânlar virür ol kim tılâ kaydındadır
Ey gözüm bu sihr mi bir söyle kîmyâdır mı yâ
Bahş-ı zevk eyler dem-â-dem leblerin ey nûş-hand
Şehd-i zevk-efzâ mı yâ neş’e-i sahbâdır mı yâ
Veh dehânın ‘akl-ı kül derkinde hayrândır ana
Cüz’-i bî-cüzdür mi yâ müşkil mu‘ammâdır mı yâ
Eyle cem‘iyyet sadâsı var dergâhında kim
Bilmezem mahşer mi yâ gavgã-yı kübrâdır mı yâ
Âh-ı cân-sûzundan ey dil nüh felek ser-geştedir
Menzilin firkat mı yâ gülzâr-ı sevdâdır mı yâ
Böyle kim Mîr Nigârî zevk hâsıldır sana
Hemdemin neydir mi yâ la‘l-i şeker-hâdır mı yâ

In English

1. O idol, is the longing for you Shirin, or is it Leylâ; is your bewildered lover the love-mad Ferhad or the disgraced Qays?

2. Whoever is held in the golden bond gives souls to your eye; O my eye, tell me, is this magic or is it alchemy? (The "tılâ kaydı", golden bond, of the line is not clearly understood.)

3. O sweetly smiling one, your lips bestow delight at every moment; is this delight-increasing honey, or the joy of wine?

4. Alas, your mouth! Universal reason stands amazed at grasping it; is it a part that has no parts, or a hard riddle?

5. At your threshold there is such a sound of crowds that I do not know whether this is the gathering of the Last Day or the uproar of the great doom.

6. O heart, the nine spheres are dizzy from your soul-burning sighs; is your dwelling separation, or the rose garden of passion?

7. Mîr Nigârî, since such delight has come to you, is your companion the reed flute, or the sugar-eating ruby lips?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Every couplet of the ghazal ends with a question, and the refrain fixes the question into a pattern: "-dır mı yâ", or is it ...? In divan poetry asking about something known as if one did not know it is called "tecâhül-i ârif", feigned ignorance. The poet asks whether the beloved's lips are honey or wine, whether the crowd at her threshold is the Last Gathering or doomsday; asking although he knows the answer is a way of saying that the beloved surpasses everything. Over seven couplets this question pattern is not broken once.

For the divan poets the beloved's mouth is so small that it almost does not exist. The fourth couplet joins this old image to a concept of kalâm, Islamic theology, and calls the mouth "cüz’-i bî-cüz", a part that cannot itself be divided into parts. The indivisible part, which the theologians called "cüz’-i lâ yetecezzâ", is a concept debated as the smallest unit of matter. Even universal reason is bewildered at grasping this mouth; it is either an indivisible mote or an insoluble riddle. A term from a philosophical debate has been borrowed to describe the beloved's beauty.

The first couplet names together the two love stories that occur in many of the divan's ghazals: Ferhad and Shirin, Majnun (Qays by his real name) and Leylâ. The "dergâh" of the fifth couplet evokes both the beloved's door and a dervish lodge; the sound of the crowd at the door is likened to the uproar of the Last Day. In the closing couplet the question turns to the poet: is the source of his delight the voice of the reed flute or the beloved's lips? Each question is knotted on a rhyme ending in a long "â": Leylâ, rüsvâ, kîmyâ, sahbâ, mu‘ammâ, kübrâ, sevdâ, şeker-hâ.

Bibliography

Online sources