This two-stanza song opens with a lament addressed to the mountains and closes with an offer of a pledge. The first stanza has the singer climb the mountains he once roamed with his beloved, listen, and realise that he is not the only one in distress. In the second he tells the beloved "eylen", stop, wait, and asks her to give her word, so that the two of them may build a nest on one branch and not flit from branch to branch. The words stand on an online song site under the heading Amasya, attributed to no one; nothing about the melody has been added.

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: none; not registered to Amasya in the TRT repertoire
  • Region: Amasya
  • Source performer, collector, date of collection: unknown
  • Mode (makam), metre: not given
  • Words and music: anonymous
  • Links: no TRT link; the words are on Türkü Yurdu

Lyrics

Çıktım şu dağlara da seyran ederken
Yarinen gezdiğim dağlar ürüşan
Gulak verdim her tarafı dinledim
Bir ben değil cümle alem perişan

Eylen güzel eylen gavil keselim
Gavil mutebardır dönmemesine
İkimizde bir dala yuva kuralım
Şu daldan bu dala gonmamasına

In English: These mountains I went up to gaze upon are the mountains I roamed with my beloved; I gave ear and listened on every side, and I am not alone in my distress, the whole world is distressed. Beauty, stop, wait, let us give our word; a word given holds on condition that it is not broken; let the two of us build a nest on one branch, on condition that we do not alight from this branch to that. "Yarinen" means yâr ile, with the beloved; "gulak" is kulak, ear; "gavil" is kavil, a word given, a pledge; "söz kesmek" describes an agreement to marry, and "mutebar" means respected, valid. The published text offers no gloss for "ürüşan", which closes the second line; its rhyme with "perişan" in the fourth line suggests that it too is an adjective describing a state, but its meaning is not certain.

Story

With whom the mountains were roamed, and whether the pledge was kept, no written tale records; nor has any source turned up that links the song to an event or a particular person.

Musical Features

The musical structure is unknown, since notation, makam and metre all remain unpublished. In the words, the rhyme of the first stanza is built between "ürüşan" and "perişan", that of the second between "dönmemesine" and "gonmamasına"; the lines vary between eleven and twelve syllables. The image of the bird that does not flit from branch to branch binds the second stanza's last two lines together.

Performers and Recordings

No singer is on record for the song, nor any disc or radio recording; no piece opening with these words appears in the catalogue of the 1943 Amasya collection either. The Melody of Yeşilırmak brings together further songs and long songs from the region.

Bibliography

Online sources