Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ol gice kim ser-i zülfünle geçürdüm evkãt
Leyle-i kadr imiş ol virdi bana tâze berât
Müşk-efşânlık ider bâd-ı seher ey gül-ter
Gâlibâ ‘anber-i kâkülden alupdur nefehât
Koyma ey pâdişehim dâire-i hayretde
Kılmagil gönlümü bî-çâre ser-â-sîme vü mât
Miskînem hâcetim ol gãyete yanmışdır kim
Ne olur hâlim eger virmeye hüsnün sadakât
Muztarib olmaz idim bâdiye-i sevdâda
Virmeseydi eger ey mâh tecellin harekât
Ey demi nefs-i Mesîhâya viren kuvvet-i rûh
Cür‘a-i câm-ı lebinden dilerim tâze hayât
‘Aks-i ruhsârını gösterdi ‘ızâr-ı dildâr
Sana yüz açdı bugün Mîr Nigârî mir’ât

In English

1. That night when I passed the hours with the tip of your curl was the Night of Power; it gave me a fresh decree (berât).

2. O fresh rose, the dawn breeze is scattering musk; it seems it has taken its fragrance from the ambergris of your forelock.

3. O my king, do not leave me in the circle of wonder; do not make my heart helpless, bewildered and checkmated.

4. I am destitute, my need has burned so far that, if your beauty gives no alms, what will become of me?

5. O moon, had your manifestation not given (me) motion, I would not suffer in the desert of passion.

6. O you who give the strength of soul to the breath of the Messiah, I ask fresh life from a sip of the cup of your lips.

7. The beloved's cheek showed the reflection of her cheek; O Mîr Nigârî, today the mirror has unveiled its face to you.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The opening couplet ties two blessed nights to a night of love. The night passed with the tip of the beloved's curl turned out to be "Leyle-i kadr", the Night of Power; this is the night that the Quranic sura al-Qadr declares better than a thousand months. That night gave the lover a "tâze berât", a fresh decree. A berât is a decree or charter of privilege issued by the sultan, but the same word is also the name of the Night of Berât, on which the good news of release from sins is believed to be given. The Night of Power and the Night of Berât, two holy nights of the Islamic calendar, meet in one couplet; and both were lived this time in the darkness of a curl. The likeness between the blackness of the curl and the darkness of night is also why divan poetry calls the curl "şeb", night.

The fourth couplet returns to a reckoning made earlier in the divan: beauty is wealth, and its owner must give alms to the poor. The lover presents himself as "miskîn", destitute, and asks what will become of him if the alms of beauty are not given. "Tecellî" in the fifth couplet is a Sufi term meaning God's showing of his being, his making himself manifest; the poet ties his suffering in the desert of passion to the motion given by this manifestation.

The last couplet ends with a scene of a mirror. The beloved's cheek has shown the reflection of her cheek, and the poet says to himself "today the mirror has unveiled its face to you". In Sufism the heart is likened to a mirror in which divine beauty is reflected; when the mirror unveils its face, the lover sees the beloved's reflection within himself. The "-ât" rhyme closes on mir’ât, the mirror itself, after evkãt, berât, nefehât, mât, sadakât, harekât and hayât. The metre is "fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün".

Bibliography

Online sources