Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Dâğ-ı sevdâ ile uğraşmak vefâdandır sana
Daşa çalmak tîşe[y]i şirîn-safâdandır sana
Dâğ-ı dîdâr ile yanmak dem-be-dem bî-ihtiyâr
Ey dil-i şûr âyet-i rü’yet-nümâdandır sana
Bâdesiz peymânesiz her lahza nûş-â-nûşlık
Sâkî-i rûz-ı ezel kãlû belâdandır sana
Sabr kıl gel iştikâdan çek kadem kim ‘âkıbet
Zevk-ı bâkî rütbe-i ‘âlî belâdandır sana
Her biri bir bâğdır ferdâ bugün kim sînede
Dâğlar kim teşne-gân-ı Kerbelâdandır sana
Tâ kıyâmet kãf-ı kalb üzre ma‘a temkîn-bâl
İstikãmet devlet-i âl–i ‘abâdandır sana
Levha-i sînende ey Seyyid Nigârî dem-be-dem
Bî-kalem nakkãşlık meşk-ı Bahâdandır sana

In English

1. O heart, struggling with the brand (wound) of passion comes to you from faithfulness; striking the pickaxe against stone comes to you from the sweet joy of Shirin.

2. O turbulent heart, burning involuntarily every moment with the brand of the beloved's face comes to you from a verse that promises the sight of God. (The line has been understood approximately.)

3. Drinking deep every moment without wine and without cup comes to you from the cupbearer of the day of pre-eternity, from the words "Kâlû belâ".

4. Be patient, come, draw back your foot from complaint; for in the end lasting delight and lofty rank come to you from calamity.

5. Each of the brands in your breast today will be a garden for you tomorrow; for they come from the thirsty ones of Karbala.

6. Standing upright with composure and calm on the Mount Qaf of the heart until doomsday comes to you from the fortune of the Âl-i abâ. (The line has been understood approximately.)

7. O Seyyid Nigârî, the painting without a pen on the tablet of your breast at every moment comes to you from the lesson of Bahâ.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The last couplet names the path Nigârî belonged to through a term of art. "Nakkâşlık" is the work of painting and ornament; "meşk" is a master teaching a pupil calligraphy and painting by giving a model. On the tablet of the poet's breast a painting without a pen is being made, and it comes from "Bahâ's lesson". The epithet of Bahâeddin Nakşibend, founder of the Naqshbandi order, is explained as the one who binds the "nakş" (the image, the design), who engraves it on the heart. The painting without a pen is remembrance (zikr) written on the heart; on the Naqshbandi path it is essential that zikr be performed silently, in the heart. In this couplet the poet tells both the name of his master and the method of his path in the language of a painter's workshop. Read together with the phrase "silsile-i zülf-i Bahâ" in the twenty-seventh poem of the divan, the name Bahâ is seen more clearly to be a deliberate sign in Nigârî.

The two couplets in the middle of the ghazal call up two great religious memories. In the third couplet the wine drunk without wine and without cup comes from the cupbearer of "rûz-ı ezel", the day of pre-eternity. That day is the Covenant of Alast told in the sura al-A‘râf, when the souls answered God's question "Am I not your Lord?" with "Kâlû belâ", yes. Love is a wine drunk on that day. In couplet five the wounds in the breast are tied to the thirsting martyrs of Karbala. The word "dâğ" means a brand, a wound, and is close in sound to "bâğ", a garden; the brands that are wounds in the breast today will be gardens tomorrow.

In the opening couplet the story of Ferhad is recalled through a play on words: striking the pickaxe on stone comes from "şirîn-safâ", sweet joy; Ferhad's digging through the mountain is for Shirin, and the joy of this work is sweet. The uprightness (istikamet) mentioned in the sixth couplet comes from the fortune of the Âl-i abâ, the Prophet's family; Nigârî's two allegiances, the Naqshbandi lineage and love of the Prophet's household, stand side by side in this ghazal too. The two allegiances surface in the rhyme too: "Kerbelâ", "‘abâ" and "Bahâ" build the long "â" rhyme together with "vefâ, şirîn-safâ, rü’yet-nümâ" and a twice-used "belâ".

Bibliography

Online sources