Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâʿilâtün feʿilâtün feʿilâtün feʿilün (fa'lün). Sehî does not name the metre; the pattern was worked out from the syllables of the lines, and "gibi" in the second line is read lengthened.

Cânum ol şûḫ-ı cihân üstine dir dir ditrer
Ten gibi rûḥ-ı revân üstine dir dir ditrer
Zülf-i miskîni ʿiẕârında perîşân olıcaḳ
Sâyeveş âb-ı revân üstine dir dir ditrer

In English

1. As the body trembles over the soul that flows away, so my soul trembles and quivers over that coquette, the beauty of the world. (The line can be understood in two ways: in the second reading the beloved herself is "the soul that flows away", and the lover's soul trembles over her as a body does.)

2. When the musk-scented curl is scattered over the cheek, it trembles and quivers like a shadow over running water.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Trembling of a Refrain

All the movement of the two couplets comes from the refrain (redif) "dir dir ditrer". "Dir dir" is the modern "tir tir", trembling, and "ditremek" is the old form of the verb to tremble. The refrain is repeated at the end of three of the four lines and each time sets something different trembling: first the lover's soul, then the body trembling over its soul, and finally the shadow that falls on the water. In Turkish "to tremble over someone" means both to shiver with fear or excitement and to love and guard someone dearly. The opening couplet (matla) works both senses together: the lover's soul trembles over the beloved, that is, it cherishes her and shivers before her.

In the second couplet the image becomes a scene the eye can see. When the dark, musk-scented curl is scattered over the bright cheek, it stirs like a shadow cast on the surface of a stream. In divan poetry the brightness of the cheek is likened to water and the darkness of the hair to shadow; here the comparison is completed by the shadow's unceasing trembling as the water flows. The word "revân" is used in two different phrases in the two couplets: in the first, "rûḥ-ı revân", the soul that flows away; in the second, "âb-ı revân", running water. The repetition of the same word in two senses binds the two couplets of the fragment together.

Source and Attribution

The couplets are given at the end of the entry "Mevlânâ Türâbî" in Sehî Bey's Heşt Bihişt, completed in 1538, with the words "Ve bu ebyât anuñdur" ("and these couplets are his"). According to Sehî, this Türâbî had been the teacher of Cem Sultan and was a scholar of dervish temperament who lived in Istanbul, was paid from the treasury (beytülmal) and preached on Fridays. This description matches the life of Şuayb Efendi of Amasya, whom Hüsameddin describes as preacher of the Fatih and Hagia Sophia mosques; Hüsameddin also writes that he recited his own couplets in his sermons. But since Sehî gives neither his name nor his homeland, the attribution of the couplets to Şuayb rests on combining these two records. The two couplets we have are the opening couplet of a ghazal (gazel) and one other couplet from it; the rest of the ghazal and its closing couplet with the pen name are unknown. The details of the identity question are on the page Turâbî Şuayb Efendi.

Bibliography

Online sources