Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Tûtiyî-tab‘ meger nûş kılup âb-ı nebât
Şekker-efşânlık ider böyle bu şîrîn kelimât
Her zaman ‘arş ile oynar yere düşmez nazarın
Ne yüce rütbedir ey ‘âşık-ı ‘âlî-tabakãt
Yeter ey vâ‘iz-ı ahmak bize mi‘râc-ı vüsûl
Sizin olsun elem-i firkat ü zevk-i derecât
Nezr ü yâ hums vü yâ înki zekât her ne ise
Bî-nevâyam bana bahş eyle nigârım sadakât
Aç der-i hüsnünü ihsânını şâyân eyle
Bahş kıl ‘âşık-ı miskînine feyz-i hasenât
Koymadı sabr u sükûn aldı karârım ne ‘aceb
Bu ne cilve bu ne işve bu ne şîrîn harekât
Gevher-efşânlık ider Mîr Nigârî meger ol
Kân-ı deryâ-yı kerâmetden alupdur kelimât

In English

1. The parrot of my nature must have drunk sugar-water, that these sweet words scatter sugar so.

2. O lover of lofty rank, your gaze always plays with the Throne and never falls to the earth; what a high degree.

3. O foolish preacher, the ascension of union is enough for us; let the pain of separation and the delight of the degrees (of paradise) be yours.

4. Whether vow, or khums, or alms, whatever it may be; my beloved, I am destitute, bestow your charity on me.

5. Open the door of your beauty, make your bounty worthy; grant the bounty of good deeds to your destitute lover.

6. It left me no patience or calm, it took my composure; what a wonder, what grace is this, what coquetry, what sweet movements.

7. Mîr Nigârî must have taken his words from the mine of the sea of miracles, that he scatters pearls so.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The fourth couplet makes a list from the books of Islamic law: "nezr", a vow; "hums", the fifth; "zekât", alms; and finally "sadakât", charities. These are the kinds of giving part of one's wealth to others in Islamic law. The lover asks that, whichever of them it be, a share of the beloved's beauty should fall to him. The divan has paired beauty with wealth and the lover with the poor man before. The word "hums" deserves particular attention: according to the sura al-Anfâl a fifth of the spoils of war is set aside, and part of this share is given to the Prophet's kin. That a poet who was a seyyid by descent chose this word may not be chance, but the couplet does not make the connection openly.

The third couplet offers the preacher a division. For lovers the "mi‘râc-ı vüsûl", the ascension of union, is enough; to the preacher and his like let the pain of separation and "zevk-i derecât", the delight of the degrees of paradise, remain. The preacher's paradise is a place measured by degrees and rewards; what the lover seeks is reaching the beloved itself. The couplet sets these two religious conceptions side by side and takes the lover's side.

The first and last couplets tell the source of the poetry. In the first the poet's nature is a parrot; because it has drunk sugar-water its words scatter sugar. In the last the words have been taken from "kân-ı deryâ-yı kerâmet", the mine of the sea of miracles, and are scattered like pearls. In the "-ât" rhyme (nebât, kelimât, tabakãt, derecât, sadakât, hasenât, harekât) the hardest-working word is "kelimât", words: it rhymes in both the opening and the last couplet and sets the ghazal within a frame of speech.

Bibliography

Online sources