Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün

Sadâ eyler kûyun kelbi ki ben tek bî-nevâ görgeç
Kılurlar âşinâlar bir birine merhabâ görgeç
Seg-i kûyunla seyr eyler gönül şâm u seher zîrâ
Tarîk ehline âdetdir uyarlar reh-nümâ görgeç
Gönül âh eyledikce her taraf cevlân ider başım
Temevvüc eyler elbet bahr şiddetlü hevâ görgeç
Gubâr-ı makdemin yâd eyledikce çeşm olur nem-nâk
Bi‘aynih eyle kim gözler yaşarur tûtiyâ görgeç
Cefâ mu‘tâdı gönlüm ey gözüm bir hâle yetmiş kim
Sürûr eyler dem-â-dem leşker-i derd ü belâ görgeç
Biter yerden nebât-ı gam yağar gökden belâ her dem
Ki ben tek yeryüzünde her zaman bir mübtelâ görgeç
Nigârî dem-be-dem ağlar gözüm her dem yanar cânım
Dem-â-dem cûş ider kanım zemîn-i Kerbelâ görgeç

In English

1. The dog of your street gives voice when it sees a pauper like me; acquaintances greet one another when they see each other.

2. The heart roams morning and evening with the dog of your street; for it is the custom of the people of the path to follow a guide when they see one.

3. As the heart sighs my head turns every way; the sea surely heaves when it sees a violent wind.

4. As I recall the dust of your feet my eye grows moist; just as eyes water when they see the kohl-stone.

5. O my eye, my heart, used to cruelty, has come to such a state that it rejoices every moment when it sees the army of pain and calamity.

6. Seeing one like me, always afflicted on the face of the earth, the plant of grief sprouts from the ground every moment and calamity rains from the sky.

7. Nigârî, my eye weeps every moment, my soul burns; my blood boils every moment when it sees the soil of Karbala.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The ghazal begins with a light jest and ends with a heavy remembrance. In the first two couplets the dog in the beloved's street is the lover's acquaintance: it gives voice on seeing him, just as two acquaintances greet each other on meeting. In the second couplet the heart roams with this dog, and the reason is taken from Sufi language: the "tarîk ehli", the people of the path, follow a "reh-nümâ", a guide, when they see one. The manners of following a spiritual guide turn into following the dog of the street; the dog is the only guide who knows the beloved's door. The lover's friendship with the dogs of the beloved's street has been worked on earlier pages of the divan.

The middle couplets are built on observations of nature. The lover's sigh makes his head spin, as a violent wind makes the sea heave. Recalling the dust of the beloved's feet makes the eye water, since the "tûtiyâ", the kohl-stone applied to the eye, also makes eyes water; in divan poetry the dust of the beloved's feet is in any case applied to the eye like kohl. In the fifth and sixth couplets calamity becomes an army, grief a plant, and calamity a rain; the heart used to cruelty rejoices before this army.

The last couplet ties the ghazal to Karbala: on seeing the soil of Karbala the poet's blood boils. Husayn and the martyrs of Karbala are often recalled in the divan; for those who love the Prophet's family the soil of Karbala is the symbol of mourning and martyrdom. Whether Nigârî ever actually saw this soil is unknown; the couplet places the images of tears and the burning soul within that mourning. The refrain "görgeç" (on seeing), as in the ghazal a few pages earlier in the divan, is peculiar to Azerbaijani Turkish; the rhyme before it is built on a long "â" from bî-nevâ to Kerbelâ (bî-nevâ, merhabâ, reh-nümâ, hevâ, tûtiyâ, belâ, mübtelâ, Kerbelâ).

Bibliography

Online sources