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LPT Symbol Face the Turkish Music
(and the words, too...)

LPT picks the 'good' stuff, so you won't have to guess...

Kayahan's page

Click Here!

Kayahan -- 'biographical' info
Kayahan's 'Yine Sise Bitecek'...
Kayahan's 'Yok Arkadas'...
Kayahan update...
Tarkan -- 'biographical' info
Tarkan's 'SimarIk'...

Pillow-talkin' at Marvin and Mabel's seaside Shrangri-La...

Do you like all kinds of Turkish music, Marvin?
I'd have to reply in the negative to that question, Mabel.
But I also don't like all American music.
Nor do I like all Panamanian, Icelandic, Pakistani, Danish, or
Egyptian music, either.
Golly, Marv. You give me goose-bumps...
Where'd you learn about such a wide variety of foreign fandangos?

Reader's Digest had a special CD promotion for Elvis's birthday this year, "Weird Songs from a Lotta Different Countries" -- just $24.99...
Iddin' tha' nice...
And as they explained in the promo booklet, you're not expected to like everything. For example, they say you need to be native-born-and-raised to have any hope of likin' the folk music of a country like Turkey.
D'ya think so?...
A friend of mine once described Turkish folk music as sounding like two cats havin' a fight in a wet canvas bag. Which I thought was kinda heavy.
But...
I am fond of everthin' from downunder in yer netherlands...

Huh?...
D'ya mean you like Australian music with a Dutch back-beat, Marv?

Umm... No, Mabel.
I was makin' a play on words...
and movin' on to a new subject
.
Oh, Marvin. You are such a lech...
Well, it is Saturday night, ya' know, Mabel..
how could i forget...

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After we got pooped answering
endless streams
of individual e-mail requests
about the meaning of Turkish song lyrics,
we 'retired from the game'.
But the requests have never stopped,
so we've been persuaded to prepare this new page --
which (Insallah) will help satisfy some of
the general interest in the subject.

Still...since song lyrics raise
the same formidable translation problems
that other poetry does,
we ask you to loosen
whatever tight fitting clothing you're wearing
before preceding further.
(And while you're up...
We'll have a Jack Daniels, if you please...)

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Now...
let us proudly present ---
our first LPT award for musical excellence to...

Kayahan

Kayahan, who writes all of his own earthy material, is Turkey's perennially favorite male pop-music icon -- with more than 8 best-selling albums during a career spanning 30 years. The one-name star (still top of the Turkish pop-music charts after all these years) saw his marriage plans toppled last August by the tragic and devastating earthquake in Northwest Turkey.

Just a couple of months before that, his album Beni Azad Et (Set Me Free) hit the streets -- and began its customary rise to No. 1. And, that same day, he announced that he and ipek Tüter would be married. He'd been living with the perky 23-year-old vocalist ipek, for 5 years -- and they were all set to tie the knot apparently, when nature stepped in and broke all hell loose...

But Kayahan (who is 30 years older than his soul-mate) insisted it was just a postponement -- until the effects of the quake wore off. He said,
"I can't put my feet under the marriage table while my countrymen are still suffering."
(Civil marriage ceremonies in Turkey are performed while the couple is
seated and separated from the magistrate -- by a marriage ceremony table.)

Is it just us -- or did the title of his new album provide yet another (non-quakey) clue to the reason for his temporary cold feet? Well, this would be his third marriage, you know.
And what better excuse than an earthquake, to postpone it --
just to give a fella a little more time to think things over…

Still, he did come through finally --
and the happy couple completed there quake-delayed wedding vows in October '99...


Click following for a
December 2000 Update !!


Kayahan's smash-hit album,
Gönül Sayfam (My Heart Topic)
named after his baby daughter...
Drinking Songs par excellence, from Kayahan
Song Title:
Yine Sise Bitecek
Once more a bottle will be emptied...
Sampler
(and comment)
Turkish Lyrics
English Translation
(literal where possible, figurative where not...)
ipek Tüter (who was still a free spirit at the time this recording was made) joins Kayahan for this 'theme song for anyone who's ever been on a boozy romantic holiday'...
--
From the album 'Beni Azad Et' (1999)

Sampler, approximately one minute twenty seconds
(150k)

  1. Sohbetimiz ask üstüne
    Sanimiz var bu alemde Oturmussak basseye

  2. Sarhosuz sanma Ayyassiz sanma
    Bakip aldanma Bizi bos sanma

  3. Ama, yine sise bitecek
    Yine sabah olacak
    Yine gece olacak
    Yine sise dolacak
    Aaah, yine gece olacak
    Aaah, yine sise dolacak

  4. Çakmak çakmak gözlerimiz
    Tövbe etsekde içeriz
    Elbet var bir sebebimiz

  5. Repeat 2. and 3.

  6. Aaah, gece olmus
    Gündüz olmus
    Para yokmus kime ne
    Gece olmus gündüz olmus
    Ask yokmus kime ne

  7. Bizim yolumuz uzun
    Biz bu yolun yolcusuyuz

  8. Kimseye yok ziyanImIz
    Bu da bizim hayatImIz
    Biz mecnunuz biz leylayIz

  9. Sarhosuz sanma
    Ayyasiz sanma
    BakIp aldanma
    Berdusuz sanma

  10. Meyhanedir mektebimiz
    Cam bardaktan kadehimiz
    KIrIlIr sonra kalbimiz

  11. Bizim yolumuz uzun
    Biz son vapurun yolcusuyuz
  1. We're having a pleasant conversation about love
    It's fitting
    If we sit in the seat of honor

  2. Don't think we are drunk
    Don't think we are drunkards
    Don't get the wrong impression
    Don't think we are empty-headed

  3. But, once more a bottle will be emptied
    Morning will come again
    (Later) night will return once more
    Again the bottle will be filled
    Ahhh, the night will come again
    Ahhh, the bottle will again be filled

  4. Our eyes are bloodshot
    Even when we vow to quit, we drink.
    Of course we have our reason...

  5. Repeat 2. and 3.

  6. Ahhh, the night has come
    and the daytime has come [time is passing]
    If we have no money, what does it matter...
    Night has come, daytime has come
    Even if there's no love, what does it matter...
    A more figurative translation of the above is offered by DS...
    Oh, don't talk to me about it turning night or that it turned day or that there's no money, who cares? Don't tell me that it turned night or day or that love doesn't exist, it doesn't matter!

  7. Our road is long
    we are travellers of this road

  8. We aren't harming anyone
    And this is our life
    We are crazily in love ("we are mecnun, we are leyla") [the star-crossed lovers of eastern literature were Majnun [Qays] and Leila [Layla, Leyli, Leili] -- who swooned 1000 years before Romeo and Juliet. In Turkish, they are 'mecnun' and 'leyla', shown in lower case because their names have become part of the Turkish vernacular. And when they appear together (as in this song), it denotes a love that verges on madness.]

  9. Don't think we're drunk
    Don't think we are drunkards
    Don't get the wrong impression
    Don't think we are vagabonds

  10. It's this bar, our school
    Our glass wine goblet
    Afterwards our heart(s) [may be] broken

  11. We have a long road
    We are travellers on the last boat

Song title:
Yok Arkadas
[Life's] nothing, my friend...
Sampler
(and comment)
Turkish Lyrics
English Translation
(literal where possible, figurative where not...)
A first-rate "let's get drunk and cry in our beer" song --
from the album 'Son SarkalarInIm' (1993)

Sampler, approximately one minute
(127k)

  1. Yok arkadas
    Kahpe dünya
    VefasI yok
    CefasI çok

  2. Yok arkadas
    Kahpe dünya
    VefasI yok
    CefasI çok
    Yok arkadas
    çaresi yok

  3. Benim derdim asar beni
    Sen bana kendini anlat
    VefasIzlar çok arkadas
    Bu dünya bos,
    Bos arkadas
    Mahkumuz elimiz mahkum
    Sevmisiz ya biz
    Sevmisiz bastan kaybetmisiz be arkadas
    Hep garibim, hep IssIzIm
    Hep bir derdim var
    Sarhosum okyanuslarda
    Okyanus kadar.

  4. Repeat first two verses with line variations...

  1. [Life's] nothing, my friend
    The world's a damned backstabbing place
    There's no such thing as faithfulness
    There's only a lot of suffering and pain

  2. [Life's] nothing, my friend
    It's a damned heartless world
    There's no loyalty
    Just pain and suffering
    [Life's] nothing, my friend
    and there's no remedy for it
    DS adds this language point -- which is unrelated to the song: "Yok" is often used to mean "No", too -- as well as the opposite of "var". (In many Turkic languages, "yoh" means "no", and that's what many rural Turks would say instead of "hayIr".)

  3. My troubles are overtaking me
    Explain to me, will you
    why there are so many unfaithful ones, my friend
    The world's an empty place,
    empty, my friend
    We're doomed
    We had love...sure
    We had love that was lost from the start, my friend
    I'm always alone, always lonely
    I've always got troubles
    I'm drunk -- as much as an ocean in the oceans
    Alternative for first three lines above from DS: My troubles are beyond what I can deal with. You, tell me about yourself. There are many faithless (or disloyal) ones .....

  4. Repeat first two verses with line variations...

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Search the Web here...


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Don't say we didn't warn ya'...
In its headline the following article asks,
"How many is this Kayahan?"
It then goes on to explain that the 23-year-old Ipek has left
the 54-year-old Kayahan and taken their three-month-old daughter, Gönül, with her.

Right click to 'View' or 'Zoom' image enlargement...


From our favorite 'Yellow Press' journal in Turkey...
Gözcü Gazetesi (Ankara -- December 21, 2000)

If you'd like a full translation of the short article above,
just drop us a line...

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But in the blinking of an eye...
Kayayan struck back against the media.
And, appearing on the Hülya Avsar Show
(the same goodlookin'  Hülya who'll sexily adorn
8 pages of the New York Times in early 2001)
,
he said it was all a pack of lies...
What about it folks? Is it a case of,
"Where there's smoke, there's fire" -- or not?

Right click to 'View' or 'Zoom' image enlargement...

If you'd like a full translation of the short article above,
just drop us a line...

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Thanks to the great Kayahan Açar,
his sometime song-writing partner Tamer ÇIray,
his musicians Erdal KIZILÇAY (guitar), Edward ARIS (accordion), and Hakan iTiK (buzuki),
his (most recent) lady and vocalist, the former ipek Tüter --
and to RAKS Müzik YAPIM Sanayi Tic. A.S.
for the 'words and music' samples appearing on this page.

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Search the Web here...


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