"Felek Şad Olacak Günün Görmedim" ("O Fate, I Never Saw the Day I Would Be Glad") is a song of reproach complaining against destiny; its melody ranges over ten notes, from low A to high C. It was collected from Âşık Musa Aslan, a minstrel who lived in Merzifon. The Ankara State Conservatory's collecting team recorded it on disc in Merzifon in the summer of 1943, and Muzaffer Sarısözen entered it in the TRT repertoire as number 1029. A recording in the source performer's own voice can also be heard on Repertükül. Musa Aslan's life and his other songs in the repertoire are described on the Âşık Musa Aslan page, and the folk songs of Amasya as a whole in The Melody of the Yeşilırmak.

Catalogue Record

  • TRT Turkish Folk Music repertoire no.: 1029 (kırık hava)
  • Region: Amasya, Merzifon
  • Source performer: Âşık Musa Aslan
  • Collected and transcribed by: Muzaffer Sarısözen
  • Date of collection: 14.10.1943 in the TRT repertoire record; recorded on disc by the Ankara State Conservatory on 9/10 July 1943, Merzifon (index card 3729, disc 1138/B-2)
  • Makam: Hüseyni; final and closing note A
  • Usul (metre): 7/8
  • Range: from A to C, 10 notes
  • Words and music: anonymous (no poet is named in the record)
  • TRT link: as TRT has no online repertoire page, Repertükül for the score's record and the source performer's recording, https://www.repertukul.com/FELEK-SAD-OLACAK-GUNUN-GORMEDIM-1029
  • Amasya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism audio recording: http://webtvpanel.kultur.gov.tr/WebTV_Contents/Publish/21092017143330/08ifelekisadiolacaki2.mp3

Lyrics

Felek şad olacak günün görmedim (canan görmedim)
Garip gönlüm bir efkara düşürdün
El uzadıp gonca gülün dermedim
Bülbül gibi intizara düşürdün (canan düşürdün)
Bir zülf-i siyahım elimden aldın (cananım aldın)
Günahım neydi hey zalım n'oldun
Ahırında beni gurbete saldın
Akıl ermez bir diyara düşürdün (canan düşürdün)
Akıl ermez şu feleğin işine (canan işine)
Doyulur mu cinbişine cuşuna
Ahirinde ağu kattı aşıma
Eyub'a dert verip yara düşürdün (canan düşürdün)

In English: O fate, I never saw a day on which I would be glad; you cast my poor heart into sorrow. I could not reach out my hand and pluck your rosebud; you condemned me to wait like the nightingale. You took my black-haired love from my hands; what was my sin, O cruel one, what became of you? In the end you sent me off into exile, you cast me into a land beyond understanding. The workings of this fate are beyond understanding; can one ever have enough of its revels and its rapture? In the end it put poison in my food; you gave Job his pain and cast him down among sores.

The glossary explains "şad" as happy, glad; "efkar" as thought, distress; "zülf-i siyah" as black-haired; "ahir" as end; "cimbiş" as merriment; and "cuş" as rapture. "Felek" here carries all its senses at once: destiny, fortune, the world and the heavens; "Eyub" is the prophet Job, known for his patience. "Ağu" means poison and "aş" food. In the last line the song charges Job's afflictions, too, to the account of fate, and sets the singer's own pain beside the trial of a prophet. The vocal refrains added to each line, such as "canan görmedim" and "canan düşürdün" ("my beloved"), turn the reproach addressed to fate into the tone of an address to a beloved.

Since Musa Aslan died in 1960, the lyrics would be under copyright protection if they were his. The repertoire record, however, lists the song not under a poet's name but with Musa Aslan as its source performer, and no pen name (mahlas) occurs in the text. The 1943 index cards also offer guidance here: in the catalogue, when the author of a piece is known it is noted in square brackets; "Türkiyemiz Şeref Buldu", sung by Musa Aslan, carries the note "[Aşık Musa'dan]" (by Âşık Musa), and "Dembedem" the note "[Muhemmed'den]". The card for "Felek Şad Olacak Günün Görmedim" has no such note. For this reason the lyrics are given here in full as an anonymous folk song of the region. Haluk Yücel's description of the work as "belonging to Âşık Musa Aslan" expresses the relationship of source performer; his study does not distinguish the minstrel's own verses from regional songs collected from his lips.

Its Story

Whether the reproach is tied to some event in Musa Aslan's life is unknown; the sources say nothing at all about how the song was composed.

Musical Features

From beginning to end the melody stays in the hüseyni scale and a 7/8 usul, changing neither makam nor metre. Haluk Yücel, analysing one by one in 2021 the nine songs for which Musa Aslan is the source performer, finds that seconds and thirds dominate this song's motifs and that there is no instrumental interlude or introduction at the start. The three stanzas are sung to the same melody.

The 7/8 usul is not common in the region: in Demircioğlu's count only four of the 48 songs use it. According to Yücel and the Repertükül record, the range covers ten notes, from low A to high C. Earlier, in his 2018 study of Amasya folk songs, Yücel had cited the song as "Felek şad olacak günün görmedim (Merzifon)".

Collections and Variants

The Ankara State Conservatory's collecting trip of 1943 came to Amasya after Tokat and Zile; the team spent 7 and 8 July in Merzifon, went to Gümüşhacıköy on 9 July and returned to Merzifon the same night. According to Celal Volkan Kaya's catalogue, the song was recorded on that last night, the night of 9 to 10 July, in Musa Aslan's performance, on side B of disc no. 1138. The other pieces on the same disc are also by Musa Aslan. Kaya's comparison table with the TRT repertoire matches score no. 1029 with this card and gives the score's date of collection as 14.10.1943. Sarısözen's score is thus dated a few months after the July recording.

Performers and Recordings

Musa Aslan's own voice can be heard in the audio file on the Repertükül page; the record lists Emel Taşçıoğlu as a performer beside him. In the recording titled "Felek Şad Olacak" that the Amasya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism has published among the region's songs, the singer is not identified. No commercial record or album release is documented.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Official sources

Other sources

Online sources