Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken

Subject: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: Kim C
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 04:14 PM

Are there any Turkish speakers out there? I have been dancing to a Turkish folk song called Uskudara Gideriken, and I can't find out what that means. I done consulted the Almighty Google, to no avail. Any ideas? Many thanks!

KFC

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: Sorcha
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 04:42 PM

I did find out that it's a "classical tale about Balkan emigrants moving east into Turkish mainland." Found the original Turkish text, but no translation. Should I post the Turkish text here? Maybe Liland could help......

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: Kim C
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 05:14 PM

My version is just instrumental so I'm mostly interested in the title... but it might be neat to know what the whole song is. :-)

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: GUEST,Fiver
Date: 08 Nov 01 - 03:59 PM

Why don't you post the lyrics, Sorcha--that might make it easy for any wayward Turks to clear things up. Eartha Kitt had the hit version of this song, and sang it(I think) in both English and Turkish. Seems to me that it was in the film "Funny Bones", and their is a soundtrack CD--

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: Sorcha
Date: 08 Nov 01 - 04:46 PM

I have no idea what is going to happen with the Turkish alphabet.......trying the pre thing.

  Üsküdar'a gideriken 
  
Üsküdar'a gideriken ald©¥da bir yaðmur (X2) 
  Katibimin setresi hüzün eteði çamur (X2) 
  Katip uykudan uyanm©¥þ gözleri mahmur (X2) 

  Katip benim ben katibin el ne kar©¥þ©¥r 
  Katibime kolal©¥da gömlek ne güzel yak©¥þ©¥r (X2) 

  Üsküdar'a gideriken bir mendil buldum (X2) 
  Mendilimin içinede lokum doldurdum (X2) 
   Katibimi arariken yan©¥mda buldum (X2) 
  
Katip benim ben katibin el ne kar©¥þ©¥r
   bime kolal©¥da gömlek ne güzel yak©¥þ©¥r (X2)

  

(pray a lot.....)

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: Sorcha
Date: 08 Nov 01 - 04:47 PM

I'll be! It worked!!

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: Snuffy
Date: 08 Nov 01 - 07:07 PM

It don't work on my browser, Sorch. There's copyright and Yen symbols and Icelandic Thorns and Eths. (and all the i's have got dots on top.

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: Kim C
Date: 09 Nov 01 - 03:25 PM

Well, it's a start, anyway... Thanks Sorcha.

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: lamarca
Date: 09 Nov 01 - 04:07 PM

My Turkish co-worker says it's a song from the Turkish aristocracy; something about a man whose elegant court garment is so long it trails in the mud...She'll do a rough translation for me shortly.

(Grammar police: please note appropriate use of "it's" and "whose")

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: Sorcha
Date: 09 Nov 01 - 04:11 PM

And, I went back to the page I copied it from and it' is just the same as pasted here....I just didn't notice the copyright symbols, etc.......(sheepish look)

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: lamarca
Date: 09 Nov 01 - 05:34 PM

This is a well-known Turkish love song from the days of the Ottoman Empire, according to my Turkish co-worker. Here's a rough translation:

As I was going to Uskudar, it started to rain (2X)
While I was going to Uskudar, my katip's setresi has mud on it (2X)
Katip has just awoken, and his eyes are sleepy. (2X)

Chorus:

Katip is mine and I am my katip's
It's nobody's business
His starched shirt becomes my katip

As I was going to Uskudar, I found a handkerchief (2X)
Into it, I put lokum (2X)
I looked awhile for my katip, but indeed he was next to me. (2X)

Repeat chorus

Katip: a member of the ministry in the Ottoman Empire; as such, he wears fine clothes and a starched shirt
Setresi: from Farsi, a long coat worn by government officials
Lokum: Turkish delight! (the candy, Spaw...)

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: Sorcha
Date: 09 Nov 01 - 06:20 PM

WOW!! Is Mudcat awesome, or what? Turkish lyrics, even!! Way, way cool!

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: GUEST,Fiver
Date: 10 Nov 01 - 02:48 PM

Don't suppose anyone has the chords--

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: Sorcha
Date: 10 Nov 01 - 03:22 PM

No chords per se, but I think I found a sound file somewhere......I'll go look.

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: Sorcha
Date: 10 Nov 01 - 03:26 PM

Yup. It's on this page, about half way down. Use your "Edit/Find" button for uskudara.

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: GUEST,Fiver
Date: 10 Nov 01 - 08:12 PM

Nice sounding MIDI--Almost sounds like a soundfile--easy to follow the changes too! Thanks, Sorcha! And I forgot to thank Lamarca for roping in one of those wayward Turks!

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: Sorcha
Date: 10 Nov 01 - 08:22 PM

It is a cool tune. Don't see how just doing chords would do it justice, though.

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: masato sakurai
Date: 11 Nov 01 - 02:57 AM

This song is more commonly known as "Katibim". Turkish lyrics (with diacritical marks) are HERE (Scroll down to the end of the page). And HERE. MIDI can be obtained much more easily with this title "Katibim"; HERE, HERE (Click on "FOLK"), and other sites. Audio recording by Safiye Ayla is HERE (the title is "Kbtibim" here, though). It's on Various Artists, Masters of Turkish Music, V. 2 (Rounder CD 1111). For info on Eartha Kitt and this song, see this page (in Turkish; I wish I could read it).
Printed version (with tune, chords, English words) of "Üsküdar" is in Charles Haywood, ed., Folk Songs of the World (John Day Company, 1966, p. 209):

1. [Em]As I walked [Am]one rainy [Em]morn'
The [Am]road to Üskü[Em]dar,
[Em]As I walked [Am]one rainy [Em]morn'
The [Am]road to Üskü[Em]dar,
[C]There I saw my [Em]dear beloved,
[Am]Coimg from a[B7]far.
[C]There I saw my [Em]dear beloved,
[Am]Coming [B7]from a[Em]far.

2. On the road I later found
A kerchief of finest cloth, (2 lines; x2)
Cleaning it with tend'rest care,
Surely 'twas his, I thought. (2 lines; x2)

3. Anxiously I looked for him,
When he appeared near me;
Promising to wander no more,
Mine he'll forever be.

(English version by Charles Haywood)

~Masato

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: masato sakurai
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 07:44 AM

Eartha Kitt didn't sing this song in English. She narrated in English between the stanzas. Listen to her song.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: masato sakurai
Date: 20 Nov 01 - 08:32 AM

The sheet music with chords is HERE. A slow loader.
~Masato

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: GUEST,Urgent: Friend needs sheet music for concert
Date: 04 Mar 02 - 10:09 AM

Anyone with a copy of this sheet music is BEGGED to contact me ASAP ... a friend is performing in Turkey in a few days and was asked to perform this song. Send info to Jeanne W Digging4roots.com (replace the " W " with the "@" for my eMail address.) Thank you so VERY much.

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: Sorcha
Date: 04 Mar 02 - 10:36 AM

e mail sent with URL that Masato posted.

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: Kim C
Date: 04 Mar 02 - 10:43 AM

Please accept my very belated thanks! This thread fell off the list, I didn't trace it, and I never saw Masato's translation till now. Thank you thank you thank you! :-)

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: masato sakurai
Date: 04 Mar 02 - 11:07 AM

Kim C, I almost have forgotten posting this song.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: GUEST,milisabelle
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 02:33 AM

This and many other songs in Turkish were recorded by, (IMHO) a great band called Anatolia led by G. Hines, He has a web site where I got two of his albums to dance to...while I look at my Turkish Angora cat

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: GUEST,GuiltyKing
Date: 20 Jan 11 - 10:20 AM

That song has been composed by vulgar to make fun at Scoth Soldiers who has remain in Istanbul come to join Kirim War in 1851.

Original Vulgar lyrics starts with " Soldier who has no slip but longer "Setere". "

Subject: RE: Help: Translation: Uskudara Gideriken
From: Jack Campin
Date: 31 Aug 16 - 05:04 PM

Do you have those original vulgar lyrics? I've never heard of that before, and there's no trace of that meaning in the present-day text.

I would suspect that the causation was the other way round - the lady/clerk version was popular enough to make the basis of a parody aimed at the Scots soldiers.

Here is a really good film about the variants this song has developed around the Balkans:

Valeria Paiva: Whose Is This Song? (2003)

BTW Haywood's geography is off if he has the lady walking to Uskudar. The Bosphorus is in the way.