Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlün Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlün

Çekdim yine bir bâde mestem gelin ey ashâb
Mestâne habîbâne kılmış beni bu işrâb
Bir bâdedir ol bâde keyfiyyet ile memlû
Bî-leb içilür sâde bî-sâgar u bî-esbâb
A‘zâlarıma geçmiş bâde-i mahabbet kim
Dildâr ile oynar dil ger olsa gözüm der-hâb
İşrâb-ı müdâmımdan ihlâs-ı gönül hâsıl
İhlâs-ı cenânımdan her lahza açık bin bâb
Müstagrak-ı deryâ-yı eltâf-ı kerem-kârım
Ger nâz iderem her dem bir nâz idemez bevvâb
Bir kelbin ayağından öpdüm didiler kim bu
Kelbân-ı ser-i kûy–ı dildâr iledir ahbâb
Ey Mîr Nigârî ol bâde-i mahabbetden
Cân cezbededir dâim ten-lerzededir bî-tâb

In English

1. Once again I have drunk a draught, I am drunk; come, O friends; this drinking has put me into a drunken, lover-like state.

2. That draught is such a draught that it is full of rapture; it is drunk plain, without lips, without cup, without means.

3. The wine of love has passed into my limbs; even if my eye is asleep, the heart plays with the beloved.

4. From my constant drinking sincerity arises in the heart; from the sincerity of my heart a thousand doors open every moment.

5. I am drowned in the sea of favours of the Generous One; though I am coy every moment, the doorkeeper cannot be coy with me even once.

6. I kissed a dog's foot; they said this dog is a friend of the dogs at the head of the beloved's street.

7. O Mîr Nigârî, from that wine of love the soul is always in rapture (cezbe), the body trembles and has no strength.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The second couplet is one of those that state Nigârî's idea of wine most plainly: this draught is drunk "bî-leb", without lips, "bî-sâgar", without cup, and "bî-esbâb", without any means. In the introduction to his edition A. Azmi Bilgin draws attention to another ghazal in which the poet also says that the wine of love is a sweet, rose-coloured drink drunk without lips and without glass. The tavern images thus acquire a rule: Nigârî's wine is a drunkenness that belongs not to mouth and cup but to the heart.

The rest of the ghazal describes the traces of this drunkenness in the body. In the third couplet the wine of love has passed into the limbs, and even when the eye sleeps the heart goes on playing with the beloved. In the final couplet the soul is in "cezbe" and the body in "lerze", trembling, its strength gone. Cezbe in Sufism is the drawing of the servant towards himself by God and the rapture this drawing creates; Hüsameddin too writes that Nigârî's poems were recited in his gatherings with ecstasy and fervour. In the fourth couplet the fruit of constant drinking is "ihlâs": sincerity, the heart turning to God alone. From this sincerity a thousand doors open every moment.

Two couplets fix the lover's place at the beloved's door. The lover plunged in the sea of favour may be coy, but the doorkeeper cannot be coy with him; the door is open to him. In the sixth couplet the lover kisses a dog's foot, and the reason is given: this dog is a friend of the dogs of the beloved's street. In divan poetry the dog in the beloved's street is counted sacred because it is close to her door; Nigârî stretches this nearness one degree further and kisses the friend of those dogs as well. From the call to the "ashâb" in the first line to the strengthless body (bî-tâb) of the last couplet, the rhyme holds to "-âb": ashâb, işrâb, esbâb, hâb, bâb, bevvâb, ahbâb, bî-tâb.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources