The title written on the collection card gives two pieces of information: the opening words of the piece and where the words came from. Âşık Musa Aslan sang this deyiş, recorded as "Ale Gözlerine (Kurbanîden)", for the Ankara State Conservatory's collectors in Merzifon on 8 July 1943. The note in brackets shows that the words belong to a folk poet with the pen name Kurbânî; the card does not say which of the minstrels known by that name is meant. The deyiş is not registered under the Amasya region in the TRT repertoire, and its notation has not been published.

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: none; not registered under the Amasya region in the TRT repertoire
  • Region: Merzifon
  • Source person: Âşık Musa Aslan
  • Collected by: the Ankara State Conservatory collecting team (Yönetken, Sarısözen, Yetişen)
  • Date of collection: 8 July 1943
  • Location in the archive: Folklore Archive, disc 1129/A-1 (with a question mark); no. 3687 in Kaya's catalogue. According to the cataloguer, 1124/A-1 was written on the card in error.
  • Genre: deyiş
  • Mode, rhythm: no published information
  • Words: Kurbânî (according to the note "Kurbanîden" on the card); music anonymous
  • Source link: as the piece is not in TRT, see Kaya's 2014 catalogue for its details

Lyrics

In the catalogue the first line reads as follows:

Ale gözlerine gurban olduğum

The dialect features are transcribed as spoken: "ale" is "ela", hazel, and "gurban" is "kurban", sacrifice. The line addresses the beloved as "you for whose hazel eyes I would give my life". What follows in the deyiş is unknown. The full text and the notation of the melody appear in no publication; the recording should be sought among the 1943 discs now kept at Hacettepe University, under the number the cataloguer corrected it to, 1129/A-1.

Story

No publication describes how the deyiş was made. All that is known is that the note on the card attributes the words to Kurbânî. Until the full text comes to light it cannot be said which of the minstrels bearing this name wrote the poem, or even whether the pen name Kurbânî appears in the text.

Musical Features

No published analysis or notation of the melody exists; its mode, rhythm and range are unknown.

Performers and Recordings

What exists is Musa Aslan's single recording from 1943. The recordings taken from him that day follow one another: first "Alem Dertli Olmuş", after this deyiş "Kavrama Havası (Niğdeli Gelin)", and then "Selâm Verdik ve Cevabı", which was to enter the TRT repertoire as Selam Verdik Kadem Bastık. For Musa Aslan's life and his songs in the TRT repertoire, see the Âşık Musa Aslan page; for an overview of Amasya's songs, The Melody of Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Online sources