Kaşların Karasına (On Her Dark Brows)
Story
The song opens with the image of a rose set against a beloved’s dark brows: “On her dark brows, I placed a rose between them.” What follows is a scene of courtship through the beloved’s mother — “I gave little, I begged much” — a motif that echoes the traditional, family-mediated courtship customs common in Anatolian folk poetry. Its refrain, “haydi gülüm haydi haydi” (come now, my rose, come now), gives the song a lively, danceable character. In some sources it is also known as “Kaşlarının Karesi.”
About
It is a “kırık hava” (metered folk tune) from the Sungurlu district of Çorum. Its TRT Repertoire No. is 3152. The source singer is Rıfat Özsaraç; it was collected and set to notation by Ali Canlı, with a collection date of 20 September 1952 — the same day as “Fistan Giymiş Kırmalı.” For more on the Sungurlu district: /en/district/sungurlu/
Lyrics
A representative excerpt of the song’s traditional (anonymous) words:
On her dark brows,
I placed a rose between them.
(Line and refrain variants differ from source to source.)