Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilün

Bu ‘amel-hâne-i âlemde ki tâ var hayât
Bir ‘amel kıl ki ola bârî bâdî-i necât
Eyle rindâne ‘amel zünd ü riyâyı terk it
Kalmaya sînede aslâ eser-i Lât [u] Menât
Ne kadar var beden içre dilâ cünbiş-i cân
‘Aşkıla muzdarib ol eyleme gayr-ı harekât
Ayağ al mey-kede-i temkîne düş şâm [u] seher
Koyma elden yere peymâne-i bâde-i sebât
Sâkin-i bâr-geh-i pîr-i mugãn ol heme dem
Çünki ol yerde olur bâde-i feyz ü berekât
Bahş-i cân eyledin ey Mîr Nigârî câma
Ne gamın kim yeter ‘âlemde sana bu hasenât

In English

1. In this workshop of deeds that is the world, as long as there is life, at least do a deed that may be a cause of salvation.

2. Act like a rind, give up asceticism and hypocrisy; let no trace of Lât and Menât (the idols) remain in your breast.

3. O heart, as long as there is any stirring of the soul in the body, struggle with love; make no movement other than love.

4. Take up the cup, fall morning and evening into the tavern of steadfastness; do not let the cup of the wine of constancy fall from your hand.

5. Sit always in the pavilion of the tavern elder; for in that place is the wine of bounty and blessing.

6. O Mîr Nigârî, you have given your soul to the cup; what grief can you have, this good deed is enough for you in the world.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The ghazal speaks the language of religious deeds but uses that language in reverse. "‘Amel" is worship and good works; "necât", salvation; "hasenât", meritorious good deeds; "berekât", blessings. These are the words of the preacher and the zealot. Nigârî sees the world as an "‘amel-hâne", a workshop of deeds, and asks that a deed leading to salvation be done; but this deed is a "rindâne" deed, done as a rind, and it begins with giving up asceticism and hypocrisy. In the last couplet the greatest good deed is to give one's soul to the cup. Thus the words merit and salvation enter the service of the tavern.

Lât and Menât in the second couplet are two idols worshipped in Mecca before Islam. In Sufi poetry these names are often used for the idols within a person, the desires of the self and selfhood. The poet asks that no trace of these idols remain in the breast; hypocrisy is an idol too, and so is the display of asceticism. This couplet says plainly that the ghazal's call to rindhood is aimed at breaking the idols within.

The fourth couplet ties two Sufi terms to the image of the tavern: "mey-kede-i temkîn", the tavern of steadfastness, and "bâde-i sebât", the wine of constancy. Temkîn is the wayfarer's ability to stand firm without being tossed from state to state; sebât is resolve on the path. The tavern is usually the place of losing oneself, but here it becomes a tavern of calm and resolve. The rhyme sets side by side necât, berekât and hasenât from the vocabulary of deeds, Menât from the idols and sebât from Sufism; with hayât and harekât, all of them end in "-ât". The ghazal's metre is "fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün".

Bibliography

Online sources