Of the 48 kırık havas of Amasya in the TRT repertoire, this is the only melody whose final is Si; most of the others come to rest on La, a few on Sol or Do. "Mail Oldum Hub Cemale Bakmaya" was sung together by a group of five people before the Ankara State Conservatory team in Merzifon on 8 July 1943. In place of a source performer the notation says "Yöre Ekibi", "the local group"; the collection slip, by contrast, records all five names, each with a year of birth. The notation, from Ateş Köyoğlu's hand, received the number 1901 in the repertoire. The words are sung in two quatrains by a lover who has lost his heart to a beautiful face and cannot make his beloved understand his pain.

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: TRT THM 1901, kırık hava
  • Region: Amasya, Merzifon
  • Source performers: "Yöre Ekibi" in the notation; on the collection slip Ali Gül (1315), Sabri Güvenç (1319), Muharrem Coşkun (1329), Ali Cokili (1325), İbrahim Elman (1320). The conservatory catalogue reads the names as Ali Baki Gül, Sabri Güvenç, Muharrem Coşkun, Ali Çakıcı, İbrahim Elmas
  • Collected by: the Ankara State Conservatory
  • Collection date: 8 July 1943; title in the catalogue "Mail Oldum", disc 1125/B-1
  • Transcribed by: Ateş Köyoğlu
  • Mode: Muhalif in the repertoire data; Demircioğlu gives Hüzzam. Final and closing note Si
  • Metre: 4/4
  • Words and music: anonymous
  • TRT link: TRT repertoire no. 1901; as there is no official TRT page, the catalogue data, lyrics and two audio files are on Repertükül
  • Ministry of Culture and Tourism audio: listed by the Amasya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism as "Mail Oldum", listen

Lyrics

Mail oldum hub cemale bakmaya
Şu dertli sinemi doğrar giderim
Hasiret eyleyip mihnet çekmeden
Varıp dost eline uğrar giderim
Çok cahdettim yar halimden bilmedi
Niçin arzuhalim gabul olmadı
Gusurum çok elde vadem dolmadı
Ol sebepten gülmez ağlar gezerim

Understanding the words depends largely on the glossary on the notation: "mail" (mayil) is eager, enamoured, one whose heart has fallen; "hub" beautiful; "cemal" beauty of the face; "mihnet" hardship, torment; "cahdetmek" to strive; "arzuhal" petition; "vadesi dolmak" one's appointed hour coming. In present-day English the first quatrain might go like this: my heart fell to gazing on a lovely face; I go on, carving up this aching breast of mine. Before I suffer more torment I will go and pass through my beloved's land. The word "hasiret" in the third line is not explained in the glossary; it may be read as hasret, longing, but that reading is not certain.

In the second quatrain the lover says he strove hard to tell the beloved his troubles, but she did not understand his state, and he asks: why was my plea not granted. My faults are many, yet my hour has not yet come; so I go about weeping, never laughing. The word "arzuhal" sets up the image of a petition addressed to the beloved: the lover sees himself as the author of a request that was turned down. In these eleven-syllable lines the first quatrain closes on the refrain word "giderim", the second on "gezerim".

Story

The words speak of a nameless lover and a nameless beloved and touch on no place or event; no publication was found that tells how the song came to be made. That the song was sung by a group suggests that in Merzifon in 1943 it was felt to belong to a shared repertoire more than to a single performer.

Musical Features

Counting through the repertoire data, forty of Amasya's 48 kırık havas come to rest on La; this song makes both its final and its close on Si. Lowest and highest notes are both given as La, a range of eight notes. On the name of the scale the two sources do not agree: the repertoire data give Muhalif, Nail Demircioğlu's table gives Hüzzam. In Demircioğlu's table Hüzzam is used for no other Amasya song. Which of the two describes the melody more accurately cannot be settled from the catalogue data alone.

The metre is 4/4. In Haluk Yücel's 2018 list the title is written "Mail oldum hûb cemale bakmıya (Merzifon)".

Performers and Recordings

The repertoire data list Günay Şimşek among the performers after the source group. Two recordings of the song, one from the source recording and one present-day, have been added to its online entry, and the Ministry's Amasya directorate also lets it be heard under the title "Mail Oldum". Members of the 1943 group sang other pieces for the team too: on the same day Ali Baki Gül recorded the Bektashi divan "Hak cemalin kâbesi hayranıdır Bekdaşiler" and İbrahim Elmas a nightingale deyiş beginning "Bugün pir divanına vardım"; the name Muharrem Coşkun also appears, a day earlier, among the performers of the group that recorded instrumental tunes such as "Hanköy Havası", "Paçalı" and "Bağlar Havası" alongside Tahsin and Rasim Olgun and Turabi Tanrısever.

Collections and Variants

The source performers' names are read differently in the two sources. The collection slip carried into the catalogue data has Ali Gül, Sabri Güvenç, Muharrem Coşkun, Ali Cokili and İbrahim Elman; Celal Volkan Kaya's catalogue of the conservatory archive gives the same people as Ali Baki Gül, Sabri Güvenç, Muharrem Coşkun, Ali Çakıcı and İbrahim Elmas. The birth years on the slip are in the Rumi calendar (1315-1329), meaning the members of the group were born roughly between 1899 and 1914. In the catalogue the first line reads "Mail oldum hup cemale baḫmaya", and the place of recording is written plainly on the slip as Merzifon. Apart from this group recording no other collection is known. To set the song beside the other melodies of Merzifon's Bektashi and minstrel traditions, The Melody of the Yeşilırmak can be opened.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Official sources

Other sources

Online sources