Turkish Poetry: An Arousing Lullary
Title:
Turkish Poetry: An Arousing Lullary
Source:
Turkish American News, s. 4
Date:
1953-11-28
Location:
İstanbul Üniversitesi
Text:
TURKISH POETRY :
An Arousing Lullary
By our art Editor: Bülent ECEVİT
Russia has been a menace for Turkey for a long time. The expansionist Czarist policy had lost no time in trying to take advantage of the weakening of the Ottoman Empire. After a short interval of friendship during the hineteen-twenties, the menace reappeared under the cloak of Communism.
Yet long years of bitter experience with their Northern neighbour had left its mark upon the Turks,-they had become immune to all threats and cajoleries, and to every kind of disguised infiltration that might come from the North.
How deep is this awareness of the Russian menace in lullaby quoted below, which emerged in Anatolia during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877, and became popular among the young mothers who had their husbands fighting or killed in the battle-fronts.
Apart from its social significance, the lullaby also bears witness to poetic skill of the peasants of Anatolia, whose folk poetry has a long and rich tradition.
The lullaby opens with a masterly drawn picture that recalls the ghost scene of Hamlet:
Sleep my child the storm is mad
Back with us your father dead
Still his wound is bleedihg red
Let me wrap you up my child
Let me cry for you my child
Let him sleep and grow
Let him fight the foe
Sleep my child there will be times
When you wake and fearless rise
Father’s comrades wait for this
Sleep and soon you reach that day
Let him sleep and grow
Let him fight the foe
No good is there in morning
Hold to your father’s warning
Sleep you fast and grow you fast
Find the way your father passed
Let him sleep and grow
Let him fight the foe
An Arousing Lullary
By our art Editor: Bülent ECEVİT
Russia has been a menace for Turkey for a long time. The expansionist Czarist policy had lost no time in trying to take advantage of the weakening of the Ottoman Empire. After a short interval of friendship during the hineteen-twenties, the menace reappeared under the cloak of Communism.
Yet long years of bitter experience with their Northern neighbour had left its mark upon the Turks,-they had become immune to all threats and cajoleries, and to every kind of disguised infiltration that might come from the North.
How deep is this awareness of the Russian menace in lullaby quoted below, which emerged in Anatolia during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877, and became popular among the young mothers who had their husbands fighting or killed in the battle-fronts.
Apart from its social significance, the lullaby also bears witness to poetic skill of the peasants of Anatolia, whose folk poetry has a long and rich tradition.
The lullaby opens with a masterly drawn picture that recalls the ghost scene of Hamlet:
Sleep my child the storm is mad
Back with us your father dead
Still his wound is bleedihg red
Let me wrap you up my child
Let me cry for you my child
Let him sleep and grow
Let him fight the foe
Sleep my child there will be times
When you wake and fearless rise
Father’s comrades wait for this
Sleep and soon you reach that day
Let him sleep and grow
Let him fight the foe
No good is there in morning
Hold to your father’s warning
Sleep you fast and grow you fast
Find the way your father passed
Let him sleep and grow
Let him fight the foe
Files
Collection
Citation
“Turkish Poetry: An Arousing Lullary,” Bülent Ecevit Yazıları 1950-1961, accessed November 21, 2024, https://ecevityazilari.org/items/show/132.
