Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Yanmışım nâr-ı firâkın ile çok ey sâkî
Bana göster yüzüni söyleme yok ey sâkî
Seyr-i dîdârın ile çeşmimi sîr-âb eyle
Bakmaya gayra gözüm kim ola tok ey sâkî

In English

1. O cupbearer, I have burned much in the fire of your separation; show me your face, do not say "no", O cupbearer.

2. Quench my eye with the sight of your face, so that my eye may be sated and not look at another, O cupbearer.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The rhyme rests on three short Turkish words: çok, yok, tok (much, none, sated). In Nigârî's cupbearer rubais the rhyme is often built on Arabic words; here Turkish syllables stop at the ends of the lines with a hard "k" and give the quatrain the plainness of speech. "Söyleme yok", do not say no, is also like an everyday request: the lover asks the cupbearer not for a cup but to show her face, and fears refusal.

The second couplet is built between thirst and satiety. The eye is thirsty, and gazing at the cupbearer's face makes it "sîr-âb", quenched with water. A sated eye, "gözü tok", is a Turkish idiom: one whose eye is sated does not covet another's goods or other beauties. The poet carries the idiom into love; the eye that has looked its fill at the cupbearer's face will not look at another. The quatrain thus closes with a promise of faithfulness. Though it addresses the cupbearer, this quatrain never mentions wine; the face has taken the place of the cup, and gazing the place of drunkenness.

The "nâr-ı firâk", fire of separation, in the first line carries on the burning of the moth in the preceding quatrain; the two quatrains form a pair set after the ghazals in hâ.

Bibliography

Online sources