Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ey şûh-ı sitem-pîşe nedir bunca ihânet
Yok sizde meger mihr-i vefâ eyleme âdet
Ben ‘âşık-ı sûzânı da bir su ile kandır
Ahbâbına eyler lebin ey şûh ziyâfet
Ter ter ne ki deryâ-yı firâvân eser itmez
Sînemdeki âyâ bu harâret ne harâret
Güftârına dil-dâde idim lîk şirîn-ter
Reftâr-ı kadin aldı karârım ne kıyâmet
İtdin beni peymâne-perest ey büt-i nev-res
Kıldın beni rüsvâ-yı melâmet ne kerâmet
Bî-gãyedir efsânemiz ey mâh dükenmez
Tâ kim ne kadar var bu ‘âlem bu hikâyet
Ey Mîr Nigârî yere koy aşk u yâ in
Terk eyle nedir ‘arşa irişmiş bu şikâyet

In English

1. O coquette given to cruelty, what is all this betrayal; it seems you have no custom of showing love and faithfulness.

2. O coquette, your lips give a feast to your friends; quench my thirst too, the burning lover, with a little water.

3. Even an abundant sea cannot make its moisture felt; what kind of heat, I wonder, is this heat in my breast?

4. I had given my heart to your speech, but the sweeter gait of your stature took my composure; what a doomsday.

5. O newly grown idol, you made me a worshipper of the cup; you disgraced me with blame; what a miracle!

6. O moon, our tale has no end, it does not run out; as long as this world exists, this story (goes on).

7. O Mîr Nigârî, ... (this part of the line is corrupt); leave it, what is this complaint that has reached the Throne? (The words "aşk u yâ in" at the end of the first line make no sense; it appears there is a corruption in the edition.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

The fifth couplet turns a Sufi word into a mocking exclamation: "ne kerâmet", what a miracle. Kerâmet is the extraordinary gift granted by God to saints; in hagiographies a saint walking on the sea or knowing something far away is told as a kerâmet. The miracle shown to Nigârî's lover is different: the beloved has made him a "peymâne-perest", a worshipper of the cup, and disgraced him with blame. Three couplets of the ghazal close with small exclamations ending in "ne": "ne harâret", what heat, "ne kıyâmet", what a doomsday, "ne kerâmet", what a miracle. The lover looks at what has befallen him with astonishment and a touch of mockery.

The sixth couplet sets the love story against the measure of time: this tale has no end and will last as long as the world exists. In divan poetry the stories of Leylâ and Majnun, Ferhad and Shirin are legends passed from tongue to tongue; the poet sees his own love as such an endless story too. In the third couplet the heat, the fire of love in the breast, is greater than even an abundant sea could put out.

The first line of the last couplet reads in the edition "Ey Mîr Nigârî yere koy aşk u yâ in", and its end makes no sense; it also looks incomplete in metre. It appears to be a typesetting or reading error; the text has been left here as it stands in the edition. The second line is clear: the poet says his complaint has reached as far as the Throne of God and counsels himself to leave off this complaint. The "-et" rhyme that opens with ihânet closes with şikâyet, the complaint the poet counsels himself to drop; between them stand âdet, ziyâfet, harâret, kıyâmet, kerâmet and hikâyet.

Bibliography

Online sources