Mike's Oud Forums

turkish song translation

hartun - 9-27-2014 at 07:07 PM

can someone translate the following...i cant make sense of some of it, mainly the second line

Ya ben de o güzele yalvarayım mı
Gelmezse kareleri bağlayayım mı
Haydendi hopla da gel
Şalvarı topla da gel
Cebini yokla da gel

thank you

Lysander - 9-28-2014 at 11:47 PM

Note from my wife:

That is weird. Most folk songs are. I am using 'she' but the gender is not clear, since it is a "beauty" it must be a she.

Should I beg this beauty
Should I wrap myself in blacks if she does not come
Come on, jump over and come
Wrap up your shalvar and come
Check your pocket and come

hartun - 10-4-2014 at 03:36 PM

Thank you Lysander!

I heard this song on a cassette tape being sung by Kanuni Garbis in the US probably in the 1940s. You may have heard of Garbis from the album "Armenians on 8th Avenue". I inherited the tape from someone else and there were no labels as to the songs. It was ripped from a 78. But I could tell from the voice and style it was Garbis. Recently I heard a Turkish group play at a cafe in NYC. Adam Good played oud with them who we know from this forum. They sang the same song so afterward I asked the singer by humming it what the name of the song was. They told me Evlerinin Onu Handir and gave a name of a singer they heard it from, which I forgot but sounded Slavic. I searched for the lyrics and found them quite easily, then I found this video which I think is the singer they meant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hsrqk_qIgv0

Hope you like the song. I think it has a touching melody although Garbis and friends played it in a somewhat more haunting manner, a little slower. The other part of the lyrics i did not post as I was able to figure them out.

By the way the group was very good. They sang some very old Turkish songs many from Bulgaria. They were called Dolunay. I recommend anyone who is in New York to see them play.

Since the song is from Rumelia maybe Garbis got it from violinist Nick Doneff, who was Bulgarian

http://www.turkuler.com/sozler/turku_evlerinin_onu_handir_2.html