Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlü Mefâ‘îlü Fe‘ûlün

Şehdâb-ı leb-i la‘lini ihsân eyle ey dost
Müştâk-ı ciger-sûzımı reyyân eyle ey dost
Keşf eyle ruhun ‘âşık-ı dîdârı söndür
Bu ni‘met-i uzmâ ile mihmân eyle ey dost
Ser-çeşme-i la‘linle ciger-gâhımı kandır
Al cânımı dök kanımı kurbân eyle ey dost
Dâg-ı dil-i mecrûhuma şehdâb-ı lebinden
Bir katre-i cân-bahş ile dermân eyle ey dost
Bir kâse-i ser-şâr ile mest eylegil âhir
Öldür beni dîdâr ile handân eyle ey dost
Sâbit-kadem it şâm u seher bâğ-ı kûyunda
Şerh eyle dili bülbül-i hoş-hân eyle ey dost
Her şâm u seher vasf-ı dil-âvîz-i lebinle
Bu Mîr Nigârîyi dür-efşân eyle ey dost

In English

1. O Friend, grant the honey-water of your ruby lips; quench the thirst of the one who longs with a burning liver.

2. Unveil your face, put out the fire of the lover who longs to see it; O Friend, make him your guest with this greatest of blessings.

3. O Friend, quench my liver at the spring-head of your ruby lips; take my soul, shed my blood, make me a sacrifice.

4. O Friend, cure the brand of my wounded heart with one life-giving drop of the honey-water of your lips.

5. O Friend, make me drunk at last with a brimming bowl; kill me with your face, and make me smiling.

6. O Friend, make me steadfast morning and evening in the garden of your street; open my heart, make me a sweet-singing nightingale.

7. O Friend, make this Mîr Nigârî scatter pearls every morning and evening with the heart-ravishing praise of your lips.

Literary and Historical Commentary

All the images of the ghazal are tied to thirst and water. "Şehdâb", honey-water; "reyyân", quenched; "ser-çeşme", the spring-head; "katre", a drop. The lover's liver is burned, scorched with thirst, and even one drop from the beloved's lips gives life. The burning liver and thirst are among the oldest expressions of the pain of separation in divan poetry; in every couplet Nigârî asks for a cure for this pain from the same source: the beloved's lips.

The refrain "ey dost", O Friend, keeps the address open here, as in one of the divan's preceding ghazals, both to God and to the beloved at once. In the second couplet what is asked is the unveiling of the face, and this unveiling is called "ni‘met-i uzmâ", the greatest blessing; the lover is to be made a guest with that blessing. In Sufism seeing the beauty of God is counted the greatest of the blessings of paradise; the language of the couplet is close to this idea.

The fifth couplet joins death to joy: let the beloved make the lover drunk with a brimming bowl, kill him with her face, and make him "handân", smiling. "Şerh eyle dili", open the heart, in the sixth couplet recalls the prayer of the sura al-Inshirâh for the opening of the breast and turns up elsewhere in the divan as well; the opened heart turns into a sweet-singing nightingale. In the last couplet this nightingale's voice is poetry: the poet scatters pearls as he praises the beloved's lips. The rhyme starts with ihsân and ends with dür-efşân, the pearl-scattering poet; reyyân, mihmân, kurbân, dermân, handân and hoş-hân share the same "-ân".

Bibliography

Online sources