The wild rue growing in clumps in the graveyard of Tokat is the first image of this song. "Tokat'ın Mezerliği" bears the name of a neighbouring province, yet it was collected in the Amasya district of Gümüşhacıköy. Bektaş Yıldız sang it for the Ankara State Conservatory's collectors on 9 July 1943; in the team's list its title is spelt "Toḫadıñ Mezerliği", with the sounds of the Gümüşhacıköy dialect. Ateş Köyoğlu wrote the notation, and the song took its place in the TRT repertoire as no. 1872. In Haluk Yücel's list of Amasya folk songs it appears as "Ah Tokat'ın Mezerliği'de", together with the cry that opens its first line.

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: 1872 (TRT THM, kırık hava)
  • Region: Amasya, Gümüşhacıköy ("Merzifon/Gümüşhacıköy" in the repertoire)
  • Source performer and singer: Bektaş Yıldız
  • Collected by: Ankara State Conservatory
  • Date of collection: 9 July 1943, Gümüşhacıköy
  • Transcribed by: Ateş Köyoğlu
  • Mode: Uşşak; final and closing note La, the leading note Sol is used
  • Metre: 4/4
  • Words and music: anonymous
  • TRT link: TRT has no public page for this work. Repertoire number, catalogue data and the lyrics of the notation: Repertükül

Lyrics

(Ah) Tokat'ın mezerliği (de)
Top biter üzerliği
Dünya güzeline benzer
Yarimin güzelliği
Bağlantı:
Hoptina ninanay tonbul gelin
Hoptina ninanay şu kimin yari
Hoptina ninanay sen gel beri
(Vay) Tokat'a varacağım (da)
İfade vereceğim
Dünya güzelle dolsa (da)
Gız seni alacağım
(Bağlantı)
Armudun dibi guyu (da)
Uyu sevdiğim uyu
Adam sarhoş mu olur (da)
İçdiğin üzüm suyu
(Bağlantı)

Mezerlik is a graveyard; üzerlik is wild rue, a plant whose dried seeds are burnt as incense against the evil eye, and top biter says that it grows in clumps. The quatrain sets this bitter herb of the graveyard beside a beloved whose beauty is likened to the beauty of the world. No link of meaning joins the two halves; as often in the mani tradition, the first two lines prepare the sound with a place and an image, and the real statement comes in the last two.

The refrain "hoptina ninanay" carries tempo rather than meaning; tonbul gelin is a plump bride, beri means over here, to my side. In the second quatrain the young man says he will go to Tokat and give a statement, and swears that even if the world were full of beauties he would marry this girl. What kind of statement is meant cannot be drawn from the text; it may be a court matter, or simply a turn of phrase. The last quatrain turns to jest: there is a well at the foot of the pear tree, sleep, my love, sleep; if what you drank was grape juice, how could a man get drunk. The notation writes this question without a question mark.

Story

No collector's note or local account appears to have been published explaining the song's connection with Tokat or the matter of the statement in its lyrics. The team's disc list gives only the title, place, date and source performer.

Musical Features

Nail Demircioğlu's article comparing the Uşşak-type TRT folk songs of Amasya and Samsun offers the most detailed musical data for this song. Among Amasya's 48 TRT folk songs Demircioğlu identifies eight in Uşşak, and "Tokat'ın Mezerliği" is one of them. According to his table the song settles on La, is in 4/4, has the leading note Sol as its lowest note and Mi as its highest, and moves within a range of six notes. Demircioğlu finds that none of Amasya's Uşşak songs uses every note of the scale, contenting themselves with a range of a fourth, fifth or sixth above the final. The leading note Sol is heard in only two of the eight, "Amasyalı Zileli" and "Tokat'ın Mezerliği". The repertoire data agree: final and closing note La, a range of six notes.

The most frequent metre among the Uşşak songs is also 4/4; Demircioğlu finds five of the eight in this measure. The melody opens with the cries "ah" and "vay" at the head of the first and second quatrains, and the filler syllables "de" and "da" are added at the ends of lines.

Performers and Recordings

The performance in the notation is Bektaş Yıldız's. That day Yıldız also sang for the team "Fadimem", "Karadağ Üstüne Ismarladım", "Neykerim (Bozuk)", "Beni Bir Dost Yareledi" (a divan by a poet with the pen name Veli), the güzelleme "Gandilli" and a Kırklar Semahı. His name also appears among the source performers of no. 949, "Bana Cevreyleyip Geyip Dokunma". Beside the online copy of the notation there is also a recording that can be played; it does not say whether the recording is the source performer's or a later performance. A disc made after Bektaş Yıldız's is not known. The songs collected in Gümüşhacıköy and the other districts are surveyed together in the article The Melody of the Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Other sources

Online sources