"Like a partridge you hop from stone to stone": the line of the deyiş that reached the card likens the person addressed to a partridge hopping its way across rocky ground. The piece was sung for the collecting team on 5 July 1943 in the village of Zigala (Aydınca) by two voices together, Davut Aslan and Mehmet İnan. According to the index of performers, both came from the village of Girap in central Amasya. It has no place in the TRT repertoire, and neither its words nor its melody have been printed.

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: none; not registered under the Amasya region in the TRT repertoire
  • Place and date of collection: Zigala (Aydınca) village, central Amasya; 5 July 1943
  • Source persons: Davut Aslan, Mehmet İnan (both from the village of Girap)
  • Collected by: the Ankara State Conservatory team (Halil Bedii Yönetken, Muzaffer Sarısözen, technician Rıza Yetişen)
  • Published source: Celal Volkan Kaya, Ankara Devlet Konservatuvarı'nın Halk Müziği Alan Araştırmaları Kataloğu (İTÜ, 2014), no. 3604
  • Location in the archive: Folklore Archive, disc 1110/B-2
  • Genre: deyiş
  • Mode, rhythm: not stated on the card
  • Words and music: recorded as anonymous
  • Source link: no TRT link; the details are in Kaya's catalogue

Lyrics

Keklik ğibi daşdan daşa sekersin

To keep the village pronunciation, the collectors wrote "gibi" (like) as "ğibi" and "taş" (stone) as "daş". "Sekmek" is to move by hopping, touching the ground and lifting off again. In the line the partridge is a simile: the person addressed is someone who hops from stone to stone like a partridge. Whether this is a beloved or a travelling companion cannot be told from a single line. The full text of the deyiş cannot be reached today through any published source: Kaya's catalogue stops at the first line, and the card itself has remained among the copies at TRT. The disc is in the collection of the Folklore Archive, which was closed to researchers at the time Kaya was working.

Story

Who the poet behind the partridge simile was is unknown; nor has any account reached the sources of the setting in which the deyiş was sung in Girap or Zigala.

Musical Features

There is no written information about the melody. The piece sits among recordings the two performers sang together: side B of 1110 opens with "Sarcalan Köyünden Molla Mustafa ve Oğlu", this deyiş follows, and the side closes with "Söyleyim Dinleyim" and "Leylü Neha Arz Ederdim". Aslan and İnan sang all four together.

Performers and Recordings

The recording is one of eight pieces Aslan and İnan gave together that day, and no other performance of the deyiş is to be had. Two of the pair's recordings passed into the TRT repertoire: the Sarcalan piece that opens the same side as Değirmen Önünde Bir Böyük Tarla, and "Mersiye (Garip'ten)" as Kaf u Nun Hitabı İzhar Olmadan. The catalogue's "Keklik" recordings from other provinces open with other lines ("Keklik taşta ne gezer", "Kekliğim damda gezer" and the like); no link can be made between them and this deyiş. The general picture of the melodies collected in Zigala and in other villages of the province is drawn in The Melody of Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Online sources