İğdenin Dalları Yerdedir Yerde (The Oleaster's Branches Bend to the Ground)
Story
The song draws an image from the oleaster (Russian olive) tree blossoming in spring, its branches drooping toward the ground under their own weight: just as the branches bow down, so the lover’s heart bows before the beloved. In Anatolia the oleaster, with its scent and fruit, is associated with love, and so it appears often beside the beloved in folk poetry. The verses carry a language of longing and love woven through with images of nature.
With its lively melody it is among the songs sung with pleasure at weddings and at village gatherings.
About
According to the sources the song was collected from Kuyumcusaray, a village of the Alaca district of Çorum. Yücel Paşmakçı is given as the collector, and its TRT repertoire number is 2775. It is a “kırık hava” (metered folk tune). It appears in collections and publications on Çorum folk songs (for example Levent Sezgin’s Çorum Halk Türküleri ve Oyun Havaları). For more on the Alaca district: /en/district/alaca
Lyrics
A representative excerpt of the song’s traditional (anonymous) words, given in English summary:
The oleaster’s branches bend down to the ground;
this longing, this sorrow has grown unbearable.
Does the lover who loves you wander free?
Come, sit beside me, and let me leave with a sigh.
(Verse and refrain variants differ from source to source.)