Tags
Arif Sağ, Aşık Mücrimi, Aşık Meluli, Aşık İbreti, Cafer Ağa, mahlas, Müslüm Gürses, Nesimi Çimen, Ulaş Özdemir
The performer and musicologist Ulaş Özdemir in his published collection of Mücrimi’s lyrics considers him alongside Aşık Melûli and Aşık İbreti as the great representative aşık-s of their time. This is Mücrimi’s most famous song, associated particularly with Aşık Nesimi Çimen and undoubtedly helped to the status of a classıc by superb recordings of the song by Arif Sağ on his 1983 recording İnsan Olmaya Geldim and later by Müslim Gürses on his 2001 recording Müslüm’ce Türküler. Sağ’s version is restrained, tempered with space that lets the song unfold profoundly – as is typical of that remarkable album. Gürses’s singing has a more searing quality and is beautifully delivered, like Sağ, just to bağlama accompaniment.
Mücrimi whose real name was Mehmet Özbozok was born in 1882 in Karaterzi village in the Doğanşehir locale of the Malatya region. Özdemir tells us that according to the explanation of Mücrimi’s children he was given the mahlas ‘Mücrimi’ by a descendent of İmam Mûsâ’l-Kâzım. As a child he burned his hand resulting in his fingers being bandaged in the shape of a ball and he was given the nickname ‘çolak‘ meaning crippled or one-armed. And this nickname was apparently the inspiration for the mahlas Mücrimi which has connotations of being guilty or a criminal. Mahlas taking is a fascinating subject and here we can see elements of bestowing authority of lineage, reference to the specifics of one’s life or appearance and ironic humour.
Aşık Nesimi Çimen spent some time with Mücrimi but, again according to what Özdemir reports, the song came to Çimen through his father-in-law Cafer Ağa of Sarız (Elbistan) who Mücrimi had great regard for. It was through Nesimi Çimen’s singing the song in various gatherings that it entered the repertoire of other artists; and later became part of the official TRT repertoire. In my PhD thesis I discussed another song Arif Sağ collected from the singing of Nesimi Çimen (and included on İnsan Olmaya Geldim) called ‘Yarim İçin Söylüyorum’, a song in türkü form although it has the suggestion of a mahlas in the line ‘Cafer der sevdalı kuldu’. At the time of writing my thesis I stated that I could not identify the poet ‘Cafer’, but now I would conclude that it appears highly probable that this Cafer is none other than Cafer Ağa.
The commonly performed versions omit the third verse (the ‘oh Lord’ verse) and alter the penultimate line of the last verse. That line certainly presents the biggest translation challenge. In the recorded versions this line is changed to ‘zalımlardan [or cahillerden] yedi taşı‘ and I have been guided by this variant in my translation. Even still it requires some interpretation since it would seem to be a reference to the Muslim ‘stoning of devil’ ritual personalised and inverted in a typically deft Alevi way. I translate ‘intizar’ as an ‘expectation’ or ‘waiting’ although it may also mean a ‘curse’ though I don’t think so in this context – though it is a shade of meaning unfortunately lost in translation.
Aşık Mücrimi: Şu diyâr-ı gurbet elde
Translation: Paul Koerbin
In exile in this strange land
No joy, my heart knows no joy
No one knows of my condition
No joy, my heart knows no joy
I caused my heart injury and pain
My heart descended into despair
Whether fortune or fate, it is black
No joy, my heart knows no joy
I have wept, make me laugh, oh Lord
I am broken down, raise me up, oh Lord
My condition is clear to you, oh Lord
No joy, my heart knows no joy
I went around dizzy and distracted
I can read and I can write
Day and night I am in anticipation
No joy, my heart knows no joy
Mücrimi says, my eye, my tear
My mind is not free from grief
Stones rain upon me from tyrants
No joy, my heart knows no joy
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Text from Ulaş Özdemir Şu diyârı- gurbet elde: Âşık Mücrimî’nin yaşamı ve şiirleri (Pan, 2007)
Şu diyâr-ı gurbet elde
Şen değil gönlüm şen değil
Kimse bilmez ahvâlimden
Şen değil gönlüm şen değil
Ben sinemi yaktım nâra
Gönül düşmüştür efkâra
Teccellî mi baht mı kara
Şen değil gönlüm şen değil
Ağlamışım güldür yâ Rabb
Düşkününüm kaldır yâ Rabb
Hâlim sana ayan yâ Rabb
Şen değil gönlüm şen değil
Ser-gerdân olmuş gezerim
Hem okuyup hem yazarım
Gece gündüz intizârım
Şen değil gönlüm şen değil
Mücrimî der dîdem yaşım
Gamdan ayrılmıyor başım
Adûlardan değer taşım
Şen değil gönlüm şen değil
Aşık İbreti is someone I would like to have met. His no nonsense plain speaking is so engaging – and, one thinks, quite courageous. His language is simple and his is message clear. İbreti’s real name was Hıdır Gürel and he was born in 1920 in the Sarız region of Kayseri. In 1967 we was caught up in attacks against Alevis in Elbistan. A working man, maker and seller of musical instruments and miner, he died in 1976. Musa Eroğlu, the great singer and bağlama player from Mut – often called the modern Karacaoğlan – is something of a champion of İbreti’s lyrics. He recorded the genuinely magnificent İlme değer verdim (Gördümde geldim) on his recording Yolver Dağlar and recently contributed İbreti’s Aşkın kabesi (İnsanlığa hizmet ibadetimdir) to the remarkable recording initiative by Kalan Music called Kızılbaş. Dertli Divani has also recorded the work of İbreti including Hakikat denildi erkânımıza on his 2000 masterwork Serçeşme. İbreti’s poems were published in 1996 in the book titled İlmer Değer Verdim by Adil Ali Atalay (Vaktidolu) whose publishing house, Can Yayınları, has contributed so much to the dissemination of Alevi culture.
PİR SULTAN ABDAL and me 