Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Müfte‘ilün Müfte‘ilün Fâ‘ilün

Külbe-i ahzânıma gel ey habîb
Gör ne belâlar çekerim ey tabîb
Âteş-i firkat ne sitem-kâr imiş
Veh ne cefâ âh çekermiş garîb
Dûzah-ı hasretdir âzârım benim
Nabzıma el vurma yanar ey tabîb
Cânına rahm eyle benim kanıma
Girme girer kanuna yâr ey rakîb
Gûşe-i gülzârda çekmiş şarâb
Vasfını mestâne okur ‘andelîb
Sen gibi güftâr-ı şirîn görmedim
Bir sözün aldı beni ey dil-firîb
Sâye-i mihrinde Nigârî yakîn
Devlet-i karnını bulur ‘an karîb

In English

1. O beloved, come to my hut of sorrows; O physician, see what calamities I suffer.

2. How cruel the fire of separation is; alas, what torments, what sighs the stranger suffers.

3. O physician, my pain is the hell of longing; do not lay your hand on my pulse, your hand will burn.

4. O rival, have pity on your own life, do not be the death of me (kanıma girme); or the beloved will be the death of you.

5. In a corner of the rose garden the nightingale has drunk wine and drunkenly recites your praise.

6. O heart-beguiler, I have seen none as sweet-spoken as you; one word of yours carried me away.

7. Nigârî, know for certain that in the shade of your love he will soon find the fortune of nearness. (The word "karnını" in the edition is not clearly understood; it has been taken as "kurbunu", nearness.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

The ghazal opens with the phrase "külbe-i ahzân", hut of sorrows. In divan poetry this phrase recalls Jacob: the house where Jacob wept for years after losing his son Joseph is called "beytü'l-ahzân", the house of sorrows. Nigârî turns this house into a hut and calls the beloved to it; in the same line he also addresses the physician. Among the be ghazals of the divan there are several poems addressed to a physician; in this one the physician's place is set by a hyperbole: in the third couplet the lover tells him not to take his pulse, for the hand that touches a pain that is the hell of longing will burn.

The fourth couplet sets two Turkish idioms face to face. "Kanına girmek", to enter someone's blood, means to cause someone's death. The lover tells the rival not to be the death of him, that is, not to grieve him to death; otherwise the beloved will be the death of the rival. This threat to the rival carries the hope that the beloved will protect the lover and turns the couplet into a warning mixed with a jest.

In couplet five the nightingale has drunk wine in a corner of the rose garden and drunkenly recites the beloved's praise; its song here is a recitation, a text of praise. In the sixth couplet what carries the lover away is again a word of the beloved. The "‘an karîb", soon, of the last couplet is an Arabic phrase that recurs in several ghazals of this section of the divan. Tabîb serves twice as a rhyme word; the rest of the "-îb" series is habîb, garîb, rakîb, ‘andelîb, dil-firîb and karîb.

Bibliography

Online sources