Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Başın ey servim ayağından getürmez âftâb
Hâk-i pâyün feyzine yüz koymuş eyler intisâb
Pâs-bân-ı reh-güzârındır meger kim rûz u şeb
Nevbet-âne bekler ey büt âf-tâb u mâh-tâb
‘İşvelik resminde veh çeşmin ne hâlet gösterür
Kim geçüp mestânelikden mât olmuş şeyh u şâb
Tâlib-i dîdârlar almaz cemâlinden nasîb
‘Arş-ı dîdârın ne çok bâlâdır ey ‘âlî-cenâb
Seyr-i dîdârın ki ey gül ‘âşıka düşvârdır
Bes ne hâcet vech ne âyâ nikãb-ender-nikãb
Bî-nevâyam fakr-ender-fakr kâr itmiş bana
el-‘Atâ muhtâcım ey hüsnî nisâb-ender-nisâb
Eyle hâlet buldum ey meh za‘flik bâbında kim
Dâhil oldum bî-tekellüf ‘arşına bî-feth-i bâb
Kâse-i ser-şâr ile mest eyledim zâhidleri
Sâye-i mihrinde ey büt eyledim bir hoş sevâb
Saymak olmaz ey sanem Mîr Nigârî hastenin
Der-hem olmuş dâğ-der-dâğı cigerde bî-hisâb

In English

1. O my cypress, the sun does not lift its head from your feet; it has laid its face on the bounty of the dust of your feet and attached itself to you.

2. O idol, the sun and the moon must be the watchmen of the road you pass, keeping watch by turns day and night.

3. Ah, what states your eye shows in the art of coquetry, that old and young alike have gone beyond drunkenness and been checkmated.

4. Those who seek to see your face receive no share of your beauty; O exalted one, how high is the Throne of your face.

5. O rose, since gazing at your face is already hard for the lover, what need is there for veil upon veil over your face?

6. I am destitute, poverty upon poverty has worked on me; O you whose beauty is the minimum for alms upon the minimum (nisâb), I am in need of your gift.

7. O moon, at the door of weakness I found such a state that, without the door being opened, I entered your Throne with no trouble.

8. O idol, I made the zealots drunk with a brimming bowl; in the shade of your love I did a fine meritorious deed.

9. O idol, the wounds of sick Mîr Nigârî cannot be counted; in his liver brand upon brand has mingled beyond reckoning.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The sixth couplet rests on the alms (zekât) image of divan poetry. In Islamic law the nisâb is the minimum amount a person's wealth must reach before it becomes liable to alms; the rich person whose wealth exceeds the nisâb is obliged to give alms to the poor. Divan poets apply this concept to beauty: the beloved whose beauty exceeds the nisâb must give "the alms of beauty" to the poor lover. Nigârî strengthens the image with the "-ender-" pattern: he himself is "fakr-ender-fakr", poverty upon poverty, while the beloved's beauty is "nisâb-ender-nisâb", nisâb upon nisâb. The account is plain; the beloved is the debtor, the lover the creditor.

The first two couplets put the sky in the beloved's service. The sun does not lift its head from her feet and lays its face on the dust of her feet; "intisâb" means attaching oneself to a sheikh or a great person and shows the sun as a disciple. Couplet two: the sun and the moon are two watchmen keeping watch by day and by night. The "nikâb-ender-nikâb", veil upon veil, of the fifth couplet announces the pattern of the sixth in advance and reproaches the beloved for covering with veils a face already hard to see.

The seventh and eighth couplets tell of two small victories of the lover. Weakness is a door; through it the lover has entered the beloved's Throne without the door being opened. That one who counts himself as nothing reaches the heights without effort fits the Sufi thought that counts humility as loftiness. In the eighth couplet the poet has made the zealots drunk with a brimming bowl and counted it a meritorious deed; the rind believes he has done the zealot a kindness by drawing him into his gathering. The "nisâb" of the alms couplet and the "sevâb" and "hisâb" of the eighth and last couplets carry the language of accounts into the rhyme; the other "-âb" rhymes are âftâb, intisâb, mâh-tâb, şâb, cenâb, nikâb and bâb.

Bibliography

Online sources