Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün

Câna geldim neyleyem kim çâre yok olaydı kâc
Ey mu‘âlic ‘âlem içre derd-i ‘aşka bir ‘ilâc
Sıhhat ümîdin götür benden ki müşkildir bana
İstikãmetden ki düşmüş münharif olmuş mizâc
Meclis-i agyârdan geçdim ki bildim nekbetin
Sohbet-i hârâya zâhirdir ki tâb itmez zücâc
Ey fakîh-i medrese matlab hüveydâdır bana
Neylerem ‘illet gezüp kim ana yokdur ihticâc
Bir perî-peyker melek-ruhsâr sevdâsında cân
Teslim itdim yerde gökde buldu sermâyem revâc
Hıdmet itdim bir cünûn-ı ‘aşka buldum bir makâm
Sıdkıla kıldım itâ‘at gayrden aldım harâc
Ey Nigârî dâg-ı sevdâ içre evvel bend bend
Yandım alışdım dutuşdum âhir itdim imtizâc

In English

1. I am worn to the soul, what can I do, for there is no remedy; O physician, would that there were a cure in the world for the pain of love.

2. Take the hope of health away from me, for it is hard for me; the temperament has fallen from its balance and gone astray.

3. I gave up the gathering of strangers, for I knew its ill fortune; it is plain that glass cannot bear the company of stone.

4. O jurist of the madrasa, the aim is plain to me; what should I do seeking a ratio legis (illet), there is no need to bring proof for it.

5. I surrendered my soul to passion for a fairy-faced, angel-cheeked one; my capital found favour on earth and in heaven.

6. I served a madness of love and found a station; I obeyed in sincerity and took tribute from others.

7. O Nigârî, in the brand of passion I first burned joint by joint, caught fire, was set ablaze; in the end I mingled (with it) and became one.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The last couplet counts the stages of burning with three verbs: "yandım, alışdım, dutuşdum". The middle verb "alışmak" means here "to catch fire, to blaze up"; this sense is common in Azerbaijani Turkish and survives in Turkey's Turkish too in expressions such as "ocak alıştı", the hearth has caught. The three verbs say the same thing three times and enlarge the lover's burning step by step. The word that comes at the end, however, arrives somewhere else: "imtizâc", mingling, fusing, becoming one. What falls into fire first burns, then turns into the fire itself; in Sufism fenâ, the melting of the servant's being into the divine being, is described with such a comparison.

The word "kâc" in the first couplet looks like a word whose form has been changed for the rhyme. Persian "kâş" means would that; since the rhyme of the cim ghazals rests on the sound "-âc", it can be thought that the poet used this word in the form "kâc". The same word occurs in one of the naats of this section of the divan too, in "âh olaydım ben kâc", would that I were. This reading is not certain, but in both places it completes the sense.

The middle couplets of the ghazal continue the argument frequent in this part of the divan. The temperament is disordered and there is no hope of health; the gathering of strangers is a stone and the glass of the heart cannot bear it. In the fourth couplet the jurist of the madrasa is addressed: the aim of love is plain, no "illet", the ground of a ruling, is sought for it, and no "ihticâc", bringing of proof, is needed. Terms of law and logic are shown once again as a needless burden in the face of love. At the two ends of the rhyme stand the two words discussed above, kâc and imtizâc; ‘ilâc, mizâc, zücâc, ihticâc, revâc and harâc are the "-âc" words between them.

Bibliography

Online sources