Fifteen young men gathered and conferring at a street corner, and Kenan shot among them: the whole event of the lament fits into the four lines of the second stanza. The quatrains around it come from another world; one describes a crowd boiling bulgur and the young people of Amasya being made to dance, the other a young man left on a dusty plain whose cure lies with a girl. What binds them all is the refrain that opens "Hey gidi Kenan'ım", "Alas, my Kenan". The subject of the work, which entered the TRT repertoire as no. 4143, is written in the catalogue entry as "ağıt", lament. In place of a name the source performer field reads "yöre ekibi", the local ensemble; the collector is Yaşar Topçam, the transcriber Altan Demirel and the performer Seyit Al. No collection date is given.

Catalogue Data

  • TRT repertoire no.: 4143, kırık hava; subject lament
  • Region: Amasya
  • Source performer: local ensemble (yöre ekibi)
  • Collected by: Yaşar Topçam
  • Collection date: not in the catalogue entry
  • Transcribed by: Altan Demirel
  • Performer: Seyit Al
  • Mode: Hüseynî scale; final and closing note La
  • Metre: 9/8
  • Words and music: anonymous
  • TRT link: TRT repertoire no. 4143. There is no official TRT page; for the catalogue data, lyrics and a recording marked "present-day rendition", see Repertükül.
  • Ministry of Culture and Tourism audio file: in the list of the Amasya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism as "Bulguru Kaynatırlar", listen

Lyrics

Bulguru kaynatırlar
Güzeli ağlatırlar
Şu Amasya gençleri
Sini sini oynatırlar
Bağlantı:
Hey gidi Kenan'ım
Açma yorganım
Üşür her yanım
Sarıl a canım doldur imanım
Köşe başında durdular
Müşavere kurdular
On beş yiğit içinde
Kenan'ımı vurdular
(Bağlantı)
Tozanlı düzde kaldı
Gözlerim izde kaldı
Oğlanı bir dert aldı
Dermanı kızda kaldı
(Bağlantı)

Müşavere means consultation, talking things over among themselves; "müşavere kurdular" tells that they gathered at the corner and reached a decision. The stanza at the heart of the lament therefore resembles an ambush: they stood at the corner, they conferred, and out of fifteen young men they shot my Kenan. Who fired, and why Kenan was the target, the words do not say.

The voice of the refrain seems to be a woman's: alas, my Kenan, do not open my quilt, I am cold all over, hold me, my dear. Quilt and cold may be voicing, in the language of the body, the emptiness left after death; this is a meaning drawn from the words. The notation leaves the phrase "doldur imanım" ("fill my faith") unexplained; what is meant may be a strength given by the embrace, or else the completing of one's faith on the deathbed. A definite meaning cannot be given.

The first and last quatrains are closer to the mani than to the lament. Boiling bulgur is crowded work in the village, bringing neighbours together; the "young people of Amasya" appear as the youths made to dance and entertained in that crowd. No source explains the doubled word "sini sini"; another text of the words has "sin sini" here. In the last quatrain someone has been left on a dusty plain and the eyes have stayed on his trail; a trouble has taken the young man, and his cure lies with the girl. "Tozanlı" may be a place name; in the Tokat area there is a stream and a plain of that name. Whether the line points there or simply to a dusty plain is not clear. That the quatrains come from different moods leaves the impression that the lament has long been sung together with other mani verses of the region.

Story

Who Kenan was, when and where he was shot, and who made the lament are written in no published source. By giving "local ensemble" in place of a source performer and leaving the collection date blank, the repertoire entry also removes the information that might help to trace the event. The fifteen young men and the street corner in the words look like details left from a real event; but no account confirming this has been recorded, and none is constructed here.

Musical Features

Although classed as a lament, the work is a kırık hava moving in 9/8; it has no unmetred section. The scale is Hüseynî. The tune settles on La, ends on La, and spreads over nine notes from the low Sol to the La an octave above. Nail Demircioğlu's Hüseynî and 9/8 agree with the notation, and Haluk Yücel's tables place the work among the kırık hava in 9/8. The joining of a lively metre with words that tell of a death also explains, in musical terms, how a lament stanza and festive quatrains can stand together in the same song; the rhythm of the tune is closer to the movement of a gathering place than to the mourning of the words.

Performers and Recordings

The repertoire entry names Seyit Al as performer; the same name is in the entry for "Kilo Kilo Elmalar". The recording on the notation page is marked "present-day rendition" and does not name the singer. The song list of the Amasya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism also has a recording called "Bulguru Kaynatırlar". "Yorganım" and "her yanım" in the refrain are each repeated twice in another written text of the song; this probably reflects a lengthening in performance. Documented recordings by other performers are absent from the sources at hand. The song is mentioned as "Bulgur Kaynatırlar" in the general article on Amasya's melodies, which can be reached here.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Official sources

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