Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Müfte‘ilün Müfte‘ilün Fâ‘ilün

Gonçe emîrâne koyup başa tâc
Bağçe serâlardan alupdur harâc
Câme-i sûrâne giyüp tâze gül
Bâğa ‘arûsâne virüpdür revâc
Seyr-i surûrâne kılur andelîb
Gonçe ‘arûsâne kılur ibtihâc
‘Âşık u ma‘şûk çemen ü gonçe gül
Bülbül-i şûrîde kılup imtizâc
Ey büt ayağ al ki hırâmânına
Tâ ki nisâr eyleye gülzâr bâc
Hüsn-i hüveydâna gerekmez delîl
Şemse kıyâsâ ne gerek ihtiyâc
Tab‘-ı şirîn şi‘r-i şeker-bâr ile
Eyledi ‘arz-ı garaz ihtiyâc
Kıldı lebin vasfını manzûm-hûb
Mîr Nigârîyi belâgat-mizâc

In English

1. Like an emir the rosebud has put a crown on its head and taken tribute from the palaces of the garden.

2. The fresh rose has put on a wedding gown and brought favour to the garden like a bride.

3. The nightingale wanders about in joy; the rosebud rejoices like a bride.

4. Lover and beloved, meadow and budding rose, have mingled with the love-mad nightingale.

5. O idol, take up the cup, so that the rose garden may scatter tribute before your swaying walk.

6. Your manifest beauty needs no proof; looking at the sun, what (further) need is there?

7. The sweet nature has presented its aim and need in sugar-raining verse.

8. The praise of your lips has made Mîr Nigârî a composer of fine verse, of eloquent temperament.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The first four couplets of the ghazal are a spring scene, and the scene is built like a palace wedding. The rosebud has put a crown on its head like an emir and takes tribute from the palaces of the garden. The fresh rose has put on a "câme-i sûrâne", a wedding gown, and come to the garden like a bride. The nightingale wanders joyfully, the bud rejoices like a bride; lover and beloved, meadow and rose, have mingled with the nightingale. In divan poetry descriptions of spring usually appear at the opening of kasides, in "bahariye" sections; Nigârî places such a description inside a short ghazal.

In the fifth couplet the beloved enters the scene. When she takes up the cup and walks swaying, the whole rose garden will scatter tribute at her feet. Thus the bud that took tribute in the first couplets becomes, before the beloved, one who pays tribute; even spring is her subject. The sixth couplet states this supremacy in a sentence of logic: manifest beauty needs no proof; one who looks at the sun seeks no other evidence. The saying in Rumi's Masnavi, "The proof of the sun is the sun", is a well-known expression of this idea; the couplet comes close to it, but the poet names no source.

The last two couplets turn to poetry. The poet's sweet nature has presented his pain in sugar-raining verse, and praising the beloved's lips has made him "belâgat-mizâc", eloquent by temperament. As in many of the divan's ghazals, the source of poetry is again the beloved. The "-âc" rhyme opens with the bud's tâc and closes with the poet's mizâc; between them come harâc, revâc, ibtihâc, imtizâc, bâc and ihtiyâc, the last used twice.

Bibliography

Online sources