Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ne idem çâre nedür ‘ârız-ı yâr ey sâkî
Saldı peyveste dil-i zârıma nâr ey sâkî
Görmedim mahrem-i esrâr-ı sabâdan bir eser
Ne ‘aceb gelmedi ol peyk-i nigâr ey sâkî

In English

1. O cupbearer, what remedy shall I find, what is the beloved's cheek, that it has cast fire without pause into my moaning heart, O cupbearer.

2. I have seen no trace of the morning breeze, confidant of secrets; strange that the beloved's messenger has not come, O cupbearer.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The morning breeze is named here "mahrem-i esrâr", confidant of secrets, and "peyk-i nigâr", the beloved's messenger. In divan poetry saba is the light wind blowing from the east at dawn; it carries the beloved's scent and news to the lover and takes the lover's greeting to her. It is therefore the one go-between who knows the secrets of the two. In the quatrain this go-between has not come, and the lover has not seen even a trace of it. In the ghazal with the refrain "kâğız" that opens the zâl section the letter did not come either, and the breeze passed the lover in shame; the cupbearer quatrain briefly speaks the same waiting again.

In the first couplet the source of the fire is the beloved's cheek. "Peyveste" means joined, without pause; the cheek casts fire without pause into the lover's moaning heart. The lover asks the cupbearer what remedy to find but makes no request; the quatrain never mentions wine. The rhyme words "yâr, nâr, nigâr" end in the letter re and carry the sound of the re section that will follow the zâl section of the divan. "Nigâr", beloved, in the last word is also the root of the poet's pen name.

Bibliography

Online sources