The line "Sen de yanmalısın hasret-ül nara" (you too must burn in the fire of longing) returns at the end of every quatrain and gives the song its second name: Hasret-ül Nar, the fire of longing. Both words and melody belong to Âşık Bendemi of Merzifon. Absent from TRT's lists, the piece survives as a score in the archive section of an online folk-song corpus, under no. 2083. It was recorded and transcribed by two collectors, Demirtaş and Gençer. Anyone looking for a source performer in the catalogue entry will not find one, because the song was collected directly from its composer.

Catalogue Data

  • Archive no.: Repertükül Archive 2083 (not a TRT repertoire number)
  • Region: Amasya, Merzifon
  • Words and music: Âşık Bendemi
  • Source performer: not given separately; performed by the composer, recorded "from the composer"
  • Collected and transcribed by: Erkan Demirtaş, Berkay Gençer
  • Date of collection: not given; according to the note on the score it was collected under the CultureCIVIC Culture and Arts Support Programme, which began on 30 June 2021
  • Mode: Hüseyni scale; final and closing note La
  • Metre: 4/4
  • Subject: love
  • Source link: the song is not in the TRT repertoire, so for the notation and catalogue data see Repertükül Archive 2083

Lyrics

The three quatrains on the fire of longing are the personal work of Bendemi, a contemporary âşık recorded in his own voice after 2021, and they are protected by copyright. The first quatrain, which already carries the refrain, is given here; the other two were published with the collection's score.

Ahu perçemine kül ettin beni
Sen de yanmalısın hasret-ül nara
Sevdaya düş idim kül ettin beni
Sen de yanmalısın hasret-ül nara

Âhû means gazelle, an image of beauty that passed from divan poetry into folk verse. The lover says the forelock of his gazelle-eyed beloved has burned him to ashes, and asks her to fall into the same fire. The wish is less a curse than a demand for fairness: let the one who burns others burn too, so that the lover's state is understood. In the following quatrains the weight shifts from private grief to something wider; he is not the only one consumed by love, "many" and "the lofty" have gone the same way. The pen name comes in the last quatrain, where the image of the moth and the candle opens up.

Story

The words name no one; there is no place name in them and no date. Whom the fire of longing burns for, and what event gave rise to the song, the score does not say, and no other text touching on the question has come to light.

Musical Features

It is a melody content with six notes. Built on the Hüseyni scale, it settles on La and ends on the same note; the lower limit is the final itself and the highest note is Fa. The even 4/4 metre suits the easy repetition of the second and fourth lines, which return like a refrain. The score shows no rhythmic variation or free section.

Performers and Recordings

The performance underlying the notation is Bendemi's own; there is no evidence that it reached a commercial album or a radio broadcast. Another piece notated from the âşık's singing is the deyiş "Gel Doğan Güne Başlama". The picture in which these new Merzifon collections stand beside the province's older repertoire is gathered under the title The Melody of Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Online sources