Gel Doğan Güne Başlama: A Deyiş from Merzifon

Âşık Bendemi's deyiş of counsel whose refrain "Allah Muhammed Ali'siz" returns seven times: verses built of prohibitions and a 9/8 asymmetric tune, rare among Merzifon pieces.

Each of the seven quatrains closes with the same line: "Allah Muhammed Ali'siz", without God, Muhammad and Ali. In this deyiş Âşık Bendemi builds a series of prohibitions: do not begin the dawning day, do not drink a sip of water, do not step over the threshold; none of these is undertaken without the names the refrain recites. Bendemi wrote both words and melody, and the tune strides along in an asymmetric metre, 9/8. The deyiş is not in the TRT repertoire; it was collected in Merzifon from the âşık's own performance and entered the archive as no. 2090.

Catalogue Data

Archive no.: Repertükül Archive 2090 (not a TRT number)
Region: Amasya, Merzifon
Genre: deyiş
Words and music: Âşık Bendemi
Source performer: not written separately; performed by the composer
Collected and transcribed by: Erkan Demirtaş, Berkay Gençer
Date of collection: not on the score; under the CultureCIVIC Culture and Arts Support Programme (begun in June 2021)
Mode: Hüseyni scale; final and closing note La
Metre: 9/8
Source link: Repertükül Archive 2090, as there is no TRT record

Lyrics

Only the first link in this seven-quatrain chain of prohibitions appears here, since Âşık Bendemi's words are under copyright; the remaining six can be read on the score page.

Gel doğan güne başlama
Allah Muhammed Ali'siz
Hayrı şere hiç eşleme
Allah Muhammed Ali'siz

All the quatrains of the deyiş speak in the imperative and are woven from negative commands. "Hayrı şerre eşleme" means do not treat good and evil as equal. In the later stanzas the counsel comes down to daily life: do not set out on a road without the basmala, do not set one person above another, do not embark on a task without consent, do not read a dream as a good omen, do not burn in every fire; each of these is a thing not to be done without invoking those three names. In the last quatrain Bendemi says that without God, Muhammad and Ali no scent would come on the passing breeze, the face of the universe would not smile, and his own love would not exist. The refrain returning seven times brings the words close to the repetition of a dhikr.

Story

Under what circumstances Bendemi built this chain of prohibitions is not known. The collection note merely records the work; no explanation of its writing exists there or in any other published text.

Musical Features

It is one of two works in this collection to use 9/8; the other is Âşık Erdal Denk's "Merzifon Yollarında". The melody stays in the Hüseyni scale within five notes, from La to Mi, and ends on La. The combination of a narrow range and an asymmetric metre carries a long text of counsel on a tune that has a stride to it and is easy to repeat. The internal division of the metre is not marked on the score.

Performers and Recordings

The single performance behind the notation belongs to Âşık Bendemi. Two more works by him, "Ahu Perçemine Kül Ettin Beni" and "İnsanlık Çığrından Çıktı Çıkalı", are in the same archive. Nothing shows that it was ever heard on an album or a broadcast. The place the Merzifon deyiş songs hold in the province's repertoire is shown by The Melody of Yeşilırmak.