Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Mübtelâ-yı firkatem bes çâre ne cân ey tabîb
Cânıma kâr eylemiş âzâr-ı hicrân ey tabîb
Çâk kılgil sîne-i sûzânım içre bağrıma
Cem‘ olup gör kim nice cân ey tabîb kan ey tabîb
Dâğ-ı dildendir mücerred âh gönlüm yoksa kim
Eylemez bî-dâğ-ı dil feryâd u efgãn ey tabîb
Var mı tayyiblerde yâ gördün mi hikmet hânede
Söylemiş mi derd-i ‘aşka çâre Lokmân ey tabîb
Gam bucağında vücûdum pâymâl itmiş firâk
‘Ârız-ı gül-çehredir def‘ine dermân ey tabîb
Çekmegil bî-câ emek bî-hûde efkâr itme kim
Çâre-i derd-i dilimdir la‘l-i cânân ey tabîb
Eylegil Mîr Nigârî hastenin hâlin suâl
İntizâr-ı makdemindir dîde-giryân ey tabîb

In English

1. O physician, I am afflicted with separation; then what is the remedy, what can the soul do, O physician; the sickness of separation has seized my soul.

2. O physician, split open my breast within my burning heart and see how many souls, O physician, how much blood has gathered there.

3. O physician, my sigh comes purely from the wound of the heart; otherwise one with no wound in his heart does not cry out and lament.

4. O physician, is there among physicians, or have you seen in the house of wisdom, whether Luqman named a remedy for the pain of love? (The word "tayyiblerde" in the edition has been understood as "tabîblerde", among physicians.)

5. Separation has trampled my being in the corner of grief; O physician, the remedy to drive it away is the cheek of the rose-faced one.

6. O physician, do not labour in vain or lose yourself in idle thoughts; the cure for the pain of my heart is the ruby lip of the beloved.

7. O physician, ask after the state of sick Mîr Nigârî; his weeping eyes await your coming.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Having told the physician "do not trouble yourself" in the previous ghazal, the poet here enters into a long conversation with him. The refrain "ey tabîb", O physician, closes every couplet as an address; in the second couplet the address is repeated in the middle of the line as well: "nice cân ey tabîb kan ey tabîb". The poem is built like a patient telling his pain to the physician at his bedside, yet every couplet says again that the pain he describes cannot be cured by medicine.

The fourth couplet names Luqman, the legendary master of medicine. Luqman is the sage after whom a sura of the Quran is named; in popular tradition he is known as the physician who found a cure for every ill. The word "hikmet-hâne" also has two senses: hikmet means both wisdom and, in the old language, medicine. The poet implies that despite all the knowledge of physicians and houses of wisdom not even Luqman named a remedy for the pain of love. The fifth and sixth couplets supply the remedy themselves: the cure is the beloved's rose face and ruby lip, and the physician's labour is in vain.

The scene of the second couplet is the harshest point of the ghazal. The lover asks the physician to split his breast and look inside; there he will see the many "cân" (souls) and the "kan" (blood) gathered. Placing soul and blood side by side in one line also exploits the closeness of their sounds. In the final couplet the physician is asked to inquire after the patient; the patient's weeping eyes seem to await the coming not of the physician but of the beloved. The kinship of soul and blood reaches into the rhyme: "cân" and "kan" form the "-ân" series together with hicrân, efgân, Lokmân, dermân, cânân and giryân.

Bibliography

Online sources