Çeşm-i Siyahım — Turkish Song

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Music & lyrics by Aşık Mahzuni Şerif, arrangement & vocals by Farya Faraji. Many thanks to my boy Arash for having helped out with some of the shots in this video—they’re from my October 2021 trip to Turkey, specifically in Cappdocia for this video.

Şerif Cırık, (1939-2002), was an aşık, the Turkish equivalent to a bard, people who master the bağlama, as well as olden repertoires of folk music and poetry which they contribute to by adding to it themselves. In this, Cırık’s style was a direct continuation of the traditional forms of Anatolian Turkish music and poetry, often rooted in the heartlands of Cappadocia and neighbouring regions, with strong influences and overlaps with Alevism.

The arrangement consists of a bağlama, a kopuz, a bendhir drum and a mey/duduk. The melody is in the makam (mode) of Bayat, the most commonly used mode, traditionally, in Middle-Eastern music, which is the same as the Western Aeolian mode, but with a microtonal second and sixth intervals. In addition to the makam aspect, I’ve added to the arrangement a harmonic chord progression from the Western system to exemplify the usual style of arrangement found in Turkey during the composer’s life, where Turkish music retained a strong loyalty to its roots while enriching it with harmonics and chords from the Western tradition, something completely lacking in the Eastern traditions, a marriage that works exceptionally well.

Lyrics:
İşte gidiyorum çeşm-i siyahım
İşte gidiyorum çeşm-i siyahım
Önümüze dağlar sıralansa da sıralansa da

Sermayem derdimdir servetim ahım
Karardıkça bahtım karalansa da

Hayli dolaşayım yüce dağlarda
Haydi dolaşayım yüce dağlarda
Dost beni bıraktı ah ile zarda ah ile zarda

Ötmek istiyorum viran bağlarda
Ayağıma cennet kıralansa da

Bağladım canımı Haydar zülfün teline
Bağladım canımı zülfün teline

Sen beni bıraktın elin diline elin diline
Güldün Mahzuni’nin berbat haline
Mervan’ın elinden parelense de

English translation:
Here I go, my black-eyed
Even though the mountains line up ahead of us
My fund is my nuisance, my fortune is my curse
Even though my luck is getting darker and darker

Let’s wander around the high mountains
The companion has left me in pain
I want to sing out in the ruined vineyards
Even if heaven is rented under my feet

I hung my life on a strand of your hair
You left me vulnerable to the gossips
You laughed at Mahzuni’s miserable state
Even if he gets into pieces in the hands of Marwan..