Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Eller cem‘ olur hâl-i perîşânımı görgeç
Dağlar dağılur tîşe-i efgãnımı görgeç
Güller saçılur la‘l-i lebinden gelerek tâ
Her şâm u seher çeşm-i dür-efşânımı görgeç
Bakdıkça bana gamzelerin kanıma kaynar
Çeşmin susuyor bağr-ı pür-alkanımı görgeç
Bîmâr gözün derdini tâlibleri gördüm
Terk etti benim âteş-i hicrânımı görgeç
Havf eyleyen ol âteş-i niyrân eleminden
Nîrâne sığındı dil-i sûzânımı görgeç
Hüsnâlık ile hûrşîd-i rahşânı kıl yâd
Olmaz mı hacel ‘ârız-ı cânânımı görgeç
Yer ehli bilürdi beni gök ehli Nigârî
Bildi kamu ‘arşı yakan efgãnımı görgeç

In English

1. People gather when they see my scattered state; mountains fall apart when they see the pickaxe of my lament.

2. Every morning and evening, when they see my pearl-scattering eye, roses come scattering from your ruby lips.

3. As they look at me your glances boil to enter my blood; your eye thirsts (for blood) when it sees my blood-filled breast.

4. I saw that those who had fallen to the pain of your sick eye gave that pain up when they saw my fire of separation.

5. The one who fears the torment of hellfire took refuge in hellfire when he saw my burning heart.

6. Recall the radiant sun in beauty (beside you); would it not be ashamed when it saw my beloved's cheek?

7. Nigârî, the people of the earth knew me; the people of heaven too all knew me when they saw my lament that burns the Throne.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Every couplet of the ghazal ends in "görgeç". The word means "on seeing" and carries the Azerbaijani suffix "-gaç/-geç"; as in many of the divan's poems, the language of the poet's native region has settled into the refrain of the ghazal. The refrain marks a moment of seeing in each couplet: people see the lover's scattered state, the mountains his lament, the beloved's eye his bloody breast, the one who fears hell his burning heart, the people of heaven his lament, and each acts accordingly.

The third couplet was quoted on its own in Hüsameddin's entry on Nigârî in his Amasya Tarihi and has been published on our site as a separate page, Couplet 5. On that page it was discussed that the word "susuyor" can be read both as thirsting and as falling silent. The whole poem can now be read in the divan Bilgin published: the couplet is the third of a seven-couplet ghazal; as guessed on that page, it is not the opening couplet, and its refrain is "görgeç".

The fifth couplet carries the sharpest hyperbole of the ghazal: one who fears hellfire takes refuge in hell on seeing the lover's burning heart. The fire inside the lover is more terrible than hell. The "tîşe-i efgân", pickaxe of lament, of the first couplet recalls Ferhad's mountain-digging pickaxe: the lover's cry has strength to scatter mountains. In the last couplet the lover's fame rises from earth to heaven; the people of the earth already know him, and his lament that burns the Throne makes him known to the people of heaven too. The rhyme words before "görgeç" are perîşân, efgân, dür-efşân, pür-alkan, hicrân, sûzân and cânân.

Bibliography

Online sources