Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün

Dilâ kıssa-i Ferhâd ile Mecnûnı güzel yâd it
Gezerken kûh u sahrâ dâmenin dut âh u feryâd it
Cihan-sûz eyle bir feryâd kıl kim yansun ‘âlemler
Yakılsun mülk-i mihnet külbe-i hicrânı berbâd it
Meger yok ey büt insâfın ki bir dem dimezsin kim
Felekde incidir âhın mesîhânı yeter dâd it
Ser-i kûyunda sor üftâdeler hâlin ki ey zâlim
Yeter bîdârlık bunca gel imdi terk-i bî-dâd it
Harâb-ı çeşm-i humârım nazar kıl ey gözüm bir dem
Serâ-yı gönlümü berbâd kılmış firkat âbâd it
Kılup terk-i vera‘ rüsvâ-yı ‘âlem ol ki ‘âlemde
Garaz bir ad imiş Mîr Nigârî sen de bir ad it
Tutup dâmân-ı rüsvânı çeküp bâde-i sevdânı
Düşüp meyhâne küncünde harâbât ehlin irşâd it
Salup raht-ı ikâmet hâb-gâh-ı Rûmda eğlenme
Kemâlât ehli yok bu yerde ‘azm-i hâk-i Bağdâd it
Beni mahrûm idüp mağmûm kılma bir kerîmâne
İlâhî gonçe-i ümmîdimi keşf eyle dilşâd it

In English

1. O heart, recall well the tale of Ferhad and Majnun; as you wander mountain and desert, hold fast to the skirt of sighs and cries.

2. Raise a world-burning cry so that the worlds may burn; let the realm of affliction be burned, lay waste the hut of separation.

3. O idol, you seem to have no fairness, for not once do you say "your sigh is hurting the Messiah in the sky; enough, I will give you justice". (The couplet has been understood approximately.)

4. O tyrant, ask after the state of the fallen at the head of your street; this much sleeplessness is enough, come now, give up cruelty.

5. O my eye, look for a moment at (my heart) ruined by your languid eye; separation has wrecked the palace of my heart, rebuild it.

6. Leave scrupulousness and be disgraced before the world; for in the world the aim, it seems, is a name; Mîr Nigârî, make a name for yourself too.

7. Holding the skirt of disgrace and drinking the wine of passion, fall into the corner of the tavern and guide the people of the ruined tavern.

8. Do not lay down your load of sojourn and linger in the sleeping place of Rûm; there are no people of perfection here, set out for the soil of Baghdad.

9. My God, do not deprive me and make me grieve, be generous; open the bud of my hope, make me glad.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The eighth couplet is the place where the ghazal steps out of the language of love for a moment and looks at the earth: "Do not lay down your load and linger in the sleeping place of Rûm; there are no people of perfection here, set out for the soil of Baghdad." Rûm in the old geographical language is the name of Anatolia; Nigârî spent the last thirty years of his life in Amasya and Merzifon, that is, in the land of Rûm. Baghdad carries two different meanings for him. The Khalidi branch of the Naqshbandi order takes its name from Mevlânâ Hâlid-i Bağdâdî, who was formed in the region of Baghdad and Sulaymaniyya; Nigârî's sheikh İsmâil Şirvânî was his deputy. Baghdad is also Fuzûlî's city, and A. Azmi Bilgin draws attention to a couplet in which Nigârî likens himself to Fuzûlî and says he has turned Karabakh into a land of Baghdad. Which Baghdad the couplet means cannot be said; but the words "there are no people of perfection here" suggest the tension the poet experienced with his surroundings in Anatolia.

The ghazal's second weight-bearing word is irşâd. In the seventh couplet the heart is told to hold the skirt of disgrace, fall into the corner of the tavern and "harâbât ehlin irşâd", guide the people of the ruined tavern. Irşâd is the name for a sheikh's training of his disciples. A Naqshbandi sheikh gives his own heart the task of falling into the tavern and guiding there. "Garaz bir ad imiş", the aim is a name, in the sixth couplet repeats the advice "make a name for yourself" from a few pages earlier in the divan.

The fourth couplet contains a cinas: "bîdârlık", wakefulness, sleeplessness, and "bî-dâd", cruelty, are close in sound; the poet tells the beloved to give up sleeplessness and cruelty at once. Bağdâd of the eighth couplet is itself a link in the "-âd" rhyme; after yâd, feryâd, berbâd, dâd, bî-dâd, âbâd, ad, irşâd, Bağdâd and dilşâd comes, in every couplet, the refrain "it" (do, make). The pattern consists of four "mefâ‘îlün".

Bibliography

Online sources