Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Âh kim şeydâ olup bir gül-‘izâr itdim taleb
Yandı cânım cânıma gûyâ ki nâr itdim taleb
Hân-mânım yandurup virdim yile ol vakt kim
Cân yakan evler yıkan bir fitne-kâr itdim taleb
Târ-mâr itdim kamu yağmaya virdim varımı
Vakt kim tutdum hevâ bir zülf-i mâr itdim taleb
Terk ü tecrîd eyleyüp kıldım beyâbân seyrini
Leyli-âsâ tâ ki bir nevres-nigâr itdim taleb
Gãrdır ser-menzilim kûh u beyâbândır yerim
Tâ ki bir âhû-reviş ‘anber-nisâr itdim taleb
Bulmadım râh-güzârın u görmedim âsârını
Gerçi kim ol nâzenîni bî-karâr itdim taleb
Seyr kıldım sordum ey Mîr Nigârî bir haber
Ayldım bir yerde gerçi bî-şümâr itdim taleb

In English

1. Ah, gone mad I sought a rose-cheeked one; my soul burned, as if I had sought fire for my soul.

2. When I sought a soul-burning, house-wrecking troublemaker, I burned my house and home and gave it to the wind.

3. When I fell to longing and sought a snake-like curl, I scattered everything and gave my possessions up to plunder.

4. Ever since I sought, like Leylâ, a fresh beloved, I have entered the path of renunciation and detachment and roamed the deserts.

5. Ever since I sought a gazelle-paced, ambergris-scattering beauty, the head of my dwelling has been a cave, my place the mountain and the desert.

6. Though I sought that graceful one restlessly, I did not find the road she passed nor see her traces.

7. O Mîr Nigârî, I wandered and asked for news; though I sought beyond counting, in one place I came to my senses (?). (The word "Ayldım" at the start of the line cannot be read with certainty; it may be "ayıldım", I came to my senses, or "ağladım", I wept.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

The ghazal tells the story of a quest, and the refrain "itdim taleb", I sought, starts the quest anew in every couplet. In Sufism "taleb" means desiring and seeking God; "tâlib" is the name of the seeker who has entered the path. Nigârî uses this term within a love story and counts the price of the search step by step. First the soul burns, then house and home are burned and given to the wind, then all one's possessions are left to plunder. In the fourth couplet the lover enters the path of "terk ü tecrîd": leaving the world and stripping oneself of it. In the fifth his home has become cave, mountain and desert.

The sequence fits the story of Majnun. Majnun too left home, family and reason for Leylâ and fell into the deserts. Nigârî names Leylâ openly ("Leyli-âsâ", like Leylâ), but he describes the beloved he seeks as gazelle-paced and scattering ambergris; the gazelle is both the animal Majnun befriended in the desert and a symbol of beauty, and ambergris is the beloved's scent. The sixth couplet states the result of the search: the lover has found neither her road nor her trace.

In the closing couplet the poet addresses himself and reports the outcome, but the word that carries the outcome is printed "Ayldım" in the edition and cannot be read with certainty. Read as "ayıldım", he came to his senses somewhere after searching beyond count, perhaps realising that what he sought was within rather than without; read as "ağladım", the quest ended in tears. The text hangs between these two readings. Where the sense grows this uncertain, the sound pattern never wavers: gül-‘izâr, nâr, fitne-kâr, mâr, nigâr, nisâr, bî-karâr and bî-şümâr bind the couplets to the same "-âr".

Bibliography

Online sources