A efendim!
Tecellim bu, acap halim gün alır mı?
Gaderim böyle yazıldi, gara baxtım (anam) oyanır mı?
Mevtime sebep olan kendirler (anam) yaġlanır mı?
Başım açık, yalınayak, benim gibi (anam) sallanır mı?
Bu ne haldır, Kasap Misak?
Bu haliñe can dayanır mı?
Goyun gibi asıldın sen,
Seni gören inanır mı?
Efendim aman aman…
A efendim!
Beyaz entari geydirdiler,
Gece vakti rüya gibi.
Evladıma hasretimden,
Çeşmim akar seyran gibi.
Daraġacım hazır oldu,
Beni bekler (anam) mehman gibi.
Golum bağlı, durdurdular,
Aman Allah, gurban gibi.
Bu ne haldır, Kasap Misak?
Bu haliñe can dayanır mı?
Goyun gibi asıldın sen,
Seni gören dayanır mı?Stelios Kazantzidis is most famous as a a singer of Greek music, but as the child of prosfyges, he was undoubtedly exposed to the Turkish and Anatolian music of their backgrounds. while i doubt he spoke turkish fluently, he was at least interested enough to learn the songs of his mother and father’s homeland, and this album is testament to that.
i chose this particular song not only because it is particularly beautiful, but because i think it would be of particular interest to my followers. the title, kasap misak, refers to Misak Serkisoğlu, an armenian butcher (kasap) who was killed during the 1909 adana massacre. i can’t find any english sources that mention his case specifically, but from what i can gather from the turkish sources, he and his son were involved in some sort of resistance (although in at least one translation it says that he killed his son). either way, he was hanged by the ottoman government for some reason.
this song falls into the genre of ağıt, which means lament, dirge or eulogy.
i am also interested in the phonology of early 20th century turkish, because it seems that often, when it is spoken by non-ethnic turks (specifically roza eskenazi, stella haskil and stelios kazantzidis) the letter ı is often (but not always) pronounced as a standard short i. i wonder if this is indicative of a vowel shift at some point in the 20th century, or if it is a result of the greek alphabet not having the appropriate letter to indicate this sound. in the case of roza eskenazy, however, this seems unlikely, as she would have been a native speaker of turkish, and not greek, so the sound itself should have been no problem for her.
